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Multis
Group
5.3 The Project Team
Ongoing maintenance of the internal IT systems is
the responsibility of a team of three individuals
in the organisation who report into the finance function.
Virtually the entire staff was involved in some way
in the development and implementation of the new business
system in Multis. There was an overall project manager
who oversaw the implementation of the entire system
(and relevant team members) in both Ireland and Holland:
Key members
of the internal project team included
- Eric
Reed, Financial Director – Eric (Albert Mannion’s
predecessor) was responsible for the development
and implementation of the eBusiness Strategy. Eric
and his team oversaw the entire project from a business
viewpoint.
- Paul
Whelan, Project Manager – Paul was responsible
for project managing the development and implementation
of the business system.
- Eugene
Devaney, Operations and Quality Manager – Eugene
had overall responsibility for implementing the
business system.
- Tom
Hogan, Sales and Marketing Manager – Tom’s
responsibility lay in the implementation of the
customer extranet, building links to the relevant
digital marketplaces and development of the Multis
website.
The external
team included consultants from both BSM and Pinnacle:
- Fiona
McCann, Pinnacle Online – Fiona was a project
manager within Pinnacle and worked closely with
Paul Wheelan on the implementation of the business
system. She very quickly understood the idiosyncrasies
of the Multis business model and was therefore able
to add value very quickly. • Sean Jackson,
BSM – Sean led the team in BSM in helping Multis
to identify process and requirements and, from there,
identify suitable vendors with whom Multis could
work to build the required system.
5.4
Timeline
Driven by the time constraints of the Euro changeover, commercial considerations
and the eBusiness Accelerator Fund, the business system was implemented
very quickly – in fact, it was one of the quickest installations
ever done by Pinnacle Online.
The decision to change the current business system was made in January
2001. Between January and July 2001 an intensive period of planning and
preparation was undertaken. Development and implementation of the new
system started in July and the system was fully operational by 2nd November,
2001. Additionally, the planning and specification process that Multis
had gone through with BSM meant that the team knew what they wanted at
the beginning of the implementation and Pinnacle knew exactly what was
expected of them.
5.5 Setbacks and difficulties
The early appointment of a project manager was key to the successful implementation
of the Multis system and this was highlighted in the time it took to design
and implement the system – a little over 4 months. The main difficulty
faced by Multis was that of getting the communications infrastructure
in place to support the business system across the two sites.
Vendor selection for the VPN was fairly straightforward as there weren’t
that many vendors to choose from. A date for installation of the VPN was
supplied but there were difficulties in implementing the infrastructure
to support the VPN (Local loop & cabling issues). The VPN was promised
by October 2001 but wasn’t delivered until Jan 2002 (even though
the business system went live in November).
A workaround was put in place to cover the period November to January
2002. Holland dialled in directly to the business system using an ISDN
line. This was fine as a workaround and users in Holland received an acceptable
performance from the system. This workaround was possible largely because
of the thin client capabilities inherent in Sage Enterprise. This solution
was only acceptable in the short term as it only supported a limited number
of users, had no guaranteed bandwidth was susceptible to security breaches.
The VPN was operational by the end of January 2002
5.6 Budget
The eBusiness strategy implemented by Multis represented a significant
investment for the company. The actual spend came in under budget mainly
due to a saving in capital costs. Multis will be able to use the systems
in place as leverage for future growth. For Multis, the system represents
an ongoing investment that the company is continually upgrading and investing
in to meet the ongoing requirements of its customers and OEMs.
5.7 System Rollout
During the development of the system, Multis closely involved its biggest
customers and OEM partners. The team had planned to run the old system
in parallel for a period of four weeks. When the new system went live
on 2nd November, 2001, it was such a success that the decision was made
to turn off the old system after just 7 days. With no extra value being
added by its presence there was no good reason to keep it running.
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