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10 Questions to Ask Your QAD Implementation Partner
Posted on: August 15, 2024 | By: Meaghan Andrews | QAD Financials, QAD Manufacturing, QAD Business Process, QAD Distribution
Logan Consulting has been a QAD alliances partner for over 30 years, but is not a reseller. A distinction must be made between the two when choosing a partner. A reseller in many instances is tied to the software publisher, not only in a partnership, but also in a quota driven model. An alliance partner has no such quota and it has allowed us to align more strategically with the customer, as opposed to aligning with the software publisher and more specifically, a PE backed one. Below you will find 10 questions to ask your potential partner for any QAD implementation or upgrade project. The following questions are important to consider because these painful issues may pop up later, even after an agreement is signed and work has begun, causing potential churn for the end user of QAD and just as importantly, a bad experience.
1. Is your staff on-shore, off-shore, or a hybrid? If a hybrid, how much on vs off?
Off-shoring certainly has its cost benefits, but it also has its drawbacks. It generally has a time zone delay associated with any response and quality of work can sometimes lack.
2. How many people will I be working with?
This is especially important to ask if off-shore is in the conversation. What we have seen is that although you may have a primary point of contact in the United States, lots of work is being thrown overseas in the background. This creates issues with continuity and quality. If someone is seeing your project for the first time, how can they adequately understand your business processes?
3. What is the average tenure of a consultant working on my project?
Another thing we have seen is that service centers are being built as the project is on-going with junior people following a script. In most cases there are several consultants working in tandem on a project, but how much churn is caused by junior teams following scripts?
4. How many change orders on average do you see in a project like this?
Any good sales representative will deflect and dance around this topic as it is always a source of pain in any ERP project. But how many is too many? Really drill into this number and have them quantify or speak to a reference that can. The person that signs off is generally responsible for this and in many cases can lead to a painful experience if not properly vetted.
5. How long does it take to implement a change order?
Okay, we have identified an oversight in the original scoping, but how long will it take to remediate? In many cases with what we are seeing is that it is taking consultants weeks if not months to quote a change order, let alone implement it. What does that do to the overall timeline?
6. What is your design process and what is “fit to business”?
At Logan, one of the things we hang our hat on is our design process. We thoroughly go through this process to make sure that the system is built 100% the way you want it to function. Every business is different and the system is built for you, not the other way around. Is using a template based on a generic business really the right approach for you?
7. When we get to Conference Room Pilot testing (CRP), what is your involvement in each one? In addition, we will be using our company’s data, right?
This may seem like an obvious answer, but unfortunately, that is not the case with all service providers. In an effort to save time and cost some consulting firms are using generic test data that is really only setting this system up to the test environment!
8. How many projects like this have you done that finished on time?
Let’s pretend that your team is fully dedicated to this project and you have met all of the requirements that the implementation team has asked, how realistic is the timeline? We would suggest asking for references on this topic.
9. Using QCE as an example, how much of the project implementation will fall on my team?
This is an important point to examine. Many sales representatives will gloss over this topic. We urge you to really look through the SOW that you are signing. Does the quoted amount of time in the SOW cover end-to-end work including all VAN migrations, translations, customer onboarding, etc.? This line of questioning should be used throughout what is quoted in the SOW.
10. Training and change management
A project that does not account for this is either trying to conceal costs or does not understand your objectives as a business. Don’t allow your partner to charge 100’s of thousands of dollars, only to send you videos. We believe this to be a critical part of any implementation or upgrade. It is something that we believe requires pointed questions before signing an SOW.
If any of the above resonates with you, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss. Regardless of if you are only considering a project or are in the middle of one that possibly isn’t going well, we can help. We have several customers that have come to us late in the project that we have helped get things back on track and give you honest feedback as to how to do it. Just remember that in the QAD space, you have options and we are happy to earn your trust one day at a time.
Next Steps
If you are interested in learning more about other questions to ask your QAD implementation partner, contact us here to find out how we can help you grow your business. You can also email us at info@loganconsulting.com or call (312) 345-8817.
