Buyers of business solutions all over the world have one thing in common: They want an ideal solution to be delivered, implemented and supported quickly, with superb quality… and also on the cheap. Good, fast and cheap! Unfortunately, common wisdom around implementation project management shows us time and time again that a maximum of two of these three noble goals can be realized on the same project. People in the biz call this the devil’s triangle, or the iron triangle – the triple constraint of project management, where it’s a fact of life that the quality of work is restricted by a project’s budget, imposed deadlines and the desired range of its features – aka its scope.

If you are the type of customer who wants everything at once, some serious choices are in order. Prepare to understand the impact of these choices for your implementation process, your organization and your budget!

It may be helpful to dive a bit deeper into consideration of each of these three aspects before you determine your preferred variables. After all, you want to be able to understand the contribution of each of these aspects to your long-term success.

Fast

You can deploy modern, cloud-based ERP software in a matter of minutes. Today’s solutions can practically configure themselves and even convert the data. But that’s just the technology! The human side is a different story, with a significantly different timeline. Implementing the processes, introducing new ones and inspiring (or sometimes convincing) employees takes much more time. Not to mention the impact of a disruptive business model, where you might find yourself rethinking all your current processes. It doesn’t take long to implement ERP poorly. But implementing a solution thoroughly, and with excellence, simply requires time.

The desire to implement fast is often a result of procrastinating difficult decisions. This is of course preventable, but the onus is on you to diligently prioritize important and challenging choices for your print business.

Cheap

Nobody wants to pay more for a successful project than strictly necessary. But does that justify a constant search for the cheapest solution? Some of the most common issues we see are selecting a solution with limited prospects for continuity, insufficient time for project preparation, making savings on the budgets for organizational change, selecting the wrong key-users and poor communication. But as with everything in life, quality comes at some expense. “You get what you pay for” — ideally.

Good

Top quality should of course the basis of every project’s success. Is there really another option? So this should really be the leading theme in all the discussions you will have and decisions you will make. It’s a great help when you’re able to prioritize this project in your organization. Simply agreeing that no other projects will be started during the implementation is a common-sense first step.

Two out of Three…?

Probably the best advice that we can give you is to focus on just one of these three elements. And that is the Good! After all, the implementation of your new solution forms the basis for your future business success. And that is crucial for attracting and retaining both customers and employees. So don’t be tempted to rush or to make it cheap just for the sake of time or money budgets.

Hang on.

This has long bothered us at PrintVis. Is the “pick two, you can’t have all three” axiom a simple sad fact of life? We think not. Especially when cloud-hosted print management software has completely disrupted the old inescapable paradigm of 6-figure, multi-year-long implementations.

Here’s a really refreshing take on this notion that the iron triangle is a fact of life, like death and taxes:

“A few problems emerge pretty quickly when you take a look at these statements. The first is around the definition of “good,” the concept of quality. The triangle assumes that “fast” and “cheap” is an option, when in truth, delivering a project where the result is low quality is almost never an actual option. Whether releasing a product to market, completing a project for a client or delivering on an internal company project, quality is just about a universally expected requirement.” — Business.com

Quality comes first with PrintVis. Price and speed of delivery are of little importance if your system can’t do what you need it to do. And of course the degree of complexity in fine tuning your PrintVis and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solution will vary, depending on what you produce and how you produce it. But for over 20 years we’ve been refining our system to be as standard as possible, so that customizations are far less necessary and upgrades are easy. This leads to savings.

As we said last week, with your primary cost driver being the number of users you need, PrintVis gives you extraordinary flexibility on your financial investment. Our business model lets you maintain your investment level in accordance with your current use of the product. Simply put, you don’t pay for more than you need.

Fast, Cheap and Good?

  • Designed to be as fast as possible by leveraging our nearly 25 years experience addressing the common pain points of print companies for a standard solution
  • Amazingly affordable world class print MIS/ERP with a smart, modern cloud-based subscription model (along with a free trial to get you started at your own pace).
  • Most important of all: We strive to offer the most precise, innovative and unique IT system for graphics companies worldwide. We are constantly developing and improving PrintVis, and we never stray from our high standards.

 

“We recently had a PrintVis client speak about their delight with their solution after implementing it nearly 9 years ago. If that isn’t a testament to the success and longevity of this product – I don’t know what is! Congratulations on this big milestone and here’s to many more!” – Gavin Tye, Partner at KPMG, United Kingdom

We’ll dive into this subject more next week, with an article on Lean Manufacturing. Subscribe here to get it first.