The Critical Factors for Information Technology an ERP Investment Success

Random Selection of Articles by Dr James Robertson

A comprehensive explanation of how to set-up Microsoft Outlook to organize your emails in a manner that makes it easy to handle the full diversity and complexity of emails that executives and managers typically receive

SNw 031 The CEO MUST be the custodian of ERP

SNw 021 ERP Taxonomy Essentials

CIO 009 I.T. CAN add Value

TxM 063 Section 7.7 Design and development stages

TxM 071 Section 8: Case studies and white papers

Prd 002 Why engage with the ERP Doctor – Dr James Robertson PrEng?

SNw 034 7 Steps to FIX your ERP

SNw 047 Strategically Enriching your BIS: Part 2 -- Principles of Data Engineering

A discussion of the fundamental principles of data engineering which are vital to unlocking the full potential of your business information systems investment

Prd 017 Liberate your ERP! (based on comments by one of my client’s)

Random Selection of Articles by Dr James Robertson

CIO 007 I.T. - The Harshest Judge of Governance

SNw 043 Strategically Enriching your BIS: Part 1 -- Introduction

Introduction to the principles of precision configuration and strategically enriching your business information systems

SNw 037 Unlocking the TRUE potential of ERP -- 100 x the norm

TxM 077 Section 9.1 Why your IT project may be riskier than you think - Harvard Business Review -- headlines

Prd 041 Strategic Snapshot Toolset

The StratSnap toolset has been developed over 24 years and owes its conceptual origin to Professor Malcolm MacDonald's Exmar software

It is a very effective Critical Issues based Strategic Analysis tool that has a diversity of uses as discussed on the Strategy page

The spreadsheets are now over ten years old and need a significant refresh and may require tweaking with the latest versions of Excel

For that reason I am giving them away free on a NO warranty basis for you to try out and use as you see fit

I offer comprehensive facilitation using this tool with insight and technique refined over the 24 year period

TxM 025 Section 2.8 Comparison between a full-house ERP SEPT re-implementation and a Data Warehouse SEPT implementation

TxM 011 Section 1.9 Why Taxonomy coding is important

Web 01 Simple steps to increase the strategic value from your ERP investment

Video discussing simple techniques that can be applied to drastically improve the strategic decision support information yield from your existing Business Information Systems

Std 011 Procurement: 03 Business Information System Requirements Definition

The Business Requirements Specification is a strategically focused document, that is it lifts out the essence of the business and how it thrives in a structured and weighted manner so that there is NO uncertainty on the part of the bidders as to the exact nature of the business

The strategic essence must lift out the fundamentals of the busines and particularly what is unusual, the elements that deliver competitive advantage and which are therefore the most vulnerable to inappropriate action

This is NOT the place for generic industry definitions or for long lists of standard software functionality -- development of the requirements specification requires a mature and highly experienced consultant with a solid understanding of strategic essence AND a solid understanding of systems and how systems integrate with the business to deliver high value outcomes

TxM 070 Section 7.14 Conventions and standards

Dr James A Robertson PrEng

Business Systems NOT delivering?

Call the Business Systems Specialist

Dr. James Robinson

Dr James A Robertson -- has been involved in the effective application of Business Information Systems, including but NOT limited to ERP, since 1987 and in the profitable and effective use of computers in Business since 1981.

Drawing on a diversity of experience, including formal military training in Quick Attack techniques at the Regimental Commander level, Dr Robertson has developed highly effective methods of investigating any sub-optimal Business Information Systems situation -- be it an established system or a stalled project or any other source of Executive frustration -- quickly and concisely diagnosing the root cause of the problem and prescribing concise practical actions that Business Executives can effectively act on see the Pulse Measurement page and also the Sample Reports page for redacted real reports.

He has also developed highly effective methods of strategically enriching systems to unlock the full potential of existing investments, see the Precision Configuration page and couples this to architecting small pieces of clever software that harness the full potential of your investment, see the Software page.

If you are having problems with your systems, your project or your IT Department, call The Business Systems Specialist
James@James-A-Robertson-and-Associates.com

Business System Failure is RIFE -- we offer insight into why this happens AND WHAT is required to prevent it.

Failure is at epidemic levels with massive damage done to client companies -- if you are NOT aware of the extent of the problem please visit the About Failure page for a catalog of major failures running to billions of Pounds and Dollars.

All evidence indicates that the established players do NOT know how to deliver stable, reliable high value solutions that WORK.

There HAS to be a better way!

This website provides information relating to that way with a large collection of white papers, presentations, standards documents, etc that you can use to start bringing the situation under control

We also offer high level advisory services with regard to the application of the principles advocated on this website

We offer an ENGINEERING APPROACH to addressing these issues

By Engineering I mean the formal, structured, highly disciplined, highly systematic, highly practical approach that consistently delivers results in ALL areas of human endeavor where formally trained and certified engineers are the ONLY practitioners permitted to operate -- think large buildings, factories, motor vehicles, aircraft -- highly complex systems that work at a level that we take it for granted that they WILL work and where failure is all but unthinkable and, when it happens, attracts immediate public attention and rigorous investigation directed at ensuring that such failures are prevented in the future -- in fact, everything that the management consulting industry that implements complex software systems is NOT

This approach is discussed further on the Engineering Approach page.

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Random Selection of Articles by Dr James Robertson

SNw 008 Is I.T. "Rocket Science"? -- REALLY?

SNw 014 The Challenge of Paradigms

Std 001 Simulation Laboratory Standards

Comprehensively configure and break the configuration until it cannot be broken any more and then comprehensively prepare the system and the business for operational deployment so that an exceptionally high value outcome is achieved with comprehensively mitigated risk

Cnf 063 Information Technology -- The Harshest Judge of Governance

Information Technology projects fail frequently and one of the key aspects of failure is a failure of governance with particular emphasis on executive custody, this presentation discusses the importance of executive custody and associated governance in achieving high value business information system project outcomes and also discusses a number of other related factors including strategic alignment

TxM 077 Section 9.1 Why your IT project may be riskier than you think - Harvard Business Review -- headlines

Cnf 092 Doing things differently and better -- ASCO Case Study 2

Case Study of the strategic benefits derived by African Sales Company from a successful ERP implementation that made use of Precision Configuration techniques to create a highly structured brand orientated Product Class master coupled to several pieces of custom developed software tailored to give the client capabilities that none of their competitors had, this supported significant competitively based strategic growth as well as operational efficiencies

TxM 032 Section 3.5 The Factors Causing Integrated Business Information System (IBIS) Investment Failure

KnE 001 The CEO Side of the I.T. Divide

Prd 027 What the ERP Doctor can do for Executives with Ailing ERP systems

Std 012 Procurement: 04 Procurement Timeline and Diary

The procurement timeline is a relatively simple Gantt Chart -- I lay it out in Excel, it is quick and serves the purpose, see the sample attached

The goal of the timeline is to set out the overall timing of the procurement process in sufficient detail that all parties are fully aware of the sequence of events that is planned so that they can schedule accordingly

Book -- The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success

In 2003 I undertook an in-depth analysis of all the information and experience that I had gathered with regard to the factors giving rise to Business Information System failure including ERP and general IT and classified this information into a number of categories including "The Factors Causing Failure" and "The Critical Factors for Success" based on this I developed a two day Course "The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success" which is still offered today.

Based on this I wrote the book of the same name, which is available in electronic form here for download: