BPM Series: Choosing the right implementation partner

Had a frustrating time last week at the office dealing with our vendor engaged in the delivery of BPM project. This vendor is a small group of "passionate" technology specialists. Unfortunately every week they come to us with some reason or other seeking extension of project delivery timelines.

The implementation partner we chose is a niche workflow focussed IT services company with limited resource pool. The talent and knowledgebase based on which we awarded the assignment is concentrated with only few individuals who are now focussed on business acquisition and not on delivery unlike in the past. Their second line of executives working below the founders is not yet ready and resource pool of technical engineers and analysts is probably not increasing at the speed it should be. Attracting talented resources in a growing economy such as India is a challenge. Given a choice, an IT software engineer or an aspiring business analyst would prefer to work with global IT giants rather than this small firm.

The company consists of talented technocrats but doesn't have sound project management capabilities. Neither they are equipped with methodology and tools necessary to deliver complex assignments such as BPM. They can solve a complex technical issue but are not able to deliver the project as a whole.

I still remember dealing with one of the founders of this company during the sales cycle few month ago. He had proudly proclaimed that what separated his company from the others is the passion of his people for workflow technology. Unfortunately passion alone doesn't assure success.

In the hindsight, I think we should have asked the BPM vendor, which is a large global IT giant to project manage the implementation initiative. A learning and key takeaway from the project for us for our future roll-outs.