PIP IT Roadmaps are designed to document the IT requirements for your Portfolio Company to maintain competitive  superiority during the Private Equity investor’s projected  life-cycle.  As such, they contain an actionable plan that prioritizes the initiatives that will have the greatest positive impact on the organization in the shortest amount of time, addressing both short-term opportunities to improve functionality as well as the long-term strategy.

All PIP IT Roadmap engagements include separate but integrated operational and technology plans, fully aligned with the Portfolio Company’s business objectives and critical priorities. Roadmaps are based on PIP’s market-proven building block process, designed to minimize your Portfolio Company’s IT investment risk while avoiding operational disruptions/shortfalls.

The Operations Plan

The operations plan lays out the steps for workflow and overall efficiency improvements. This goes hand in hand with the technology plan that articulates overall short and longer-term requirements, as well as the practical “road map” steps to achieve the desired results. Ultimately these efficiency gains translate into customer service, revenue and cost improvements.

The Technology Plan

The technology plan details the Portfolio Company’s technology needs and anticipated timelines in clear business terms. Supporting detail includes cost/investment requirements, benefits, implementation guidelines, detailed activities, roles, responsibilities, pro/con analysis, and other options considered.

Typically, Portfolio Companies ask us to perform a systems evaluation to replace existing applications when they believe their application portfolio, typically comprised of various packages and spreadsheets developed over time, may no longer support their new or evolving business processes.

Existing Application Re-Implementation Analysis

PIP believes the implementation of new business applications should be the last resort because these projects are high risk and can cause a major disruption to the business. Initially, we develop a “gap analysis” to identify ideal going forward requirements. We then reexamine the application in question to determine the viability of reimplementation versus starting over, and whether the organization is prepared to commit to the necessary changes required to implement new portfolio company software. If the organization is not ready, or it does not make sense to implement new applications, PIP will find ways to better leverage what is currently in place.

System Identification

If there is mutual agreement that a new business application is warranted because additional functionality is needed to support the business, we begin the selection process based on mutually agreed new, clearly defined business requirements for specific aspects of a client’s business or the entire enterprise. Our activities include defining/documenting those business requirements, developing initial implementation budgets for use with prospective vendors, pre-screening vendors, and ultimately narrowing the list of viable vendors.

Vendor Selection

Once the evaluation process is complete, we deliver a detailed implementation plan that can be used as the foundation for managing a successful system installation. We take pains to ensure the plan is written in clear, easy to understand business terms for all levels of management. Finalist vendors are tested in simulated “real life” situations, and each is rated based on pre-determined criteria. The client can then select the winning vendor and their respective application, or since PIP is “vendor agnostic,” we can objectively assist with the contract negotiation process, as well as insure our client selects the best vendor/package for their particular business model.

System Implementation

After the vendor is selected and contracts finalized, we offer three system implementation options.

1. The client company works directly with the selected vendor, PIP remains available as an “on call” resource to the client should problems arise.
2. The PIP team works side by side with the client company, the vendor or some combination of both.
3. PIP becomes the installation team leader, and develops and maintains all project management milestones.

To ensure the Portfolio Company’s technology and workflow operate hand-in-hand to provide optimal efficiency and effectiveness throughout the enterprise, we offer a full range of workflow/process redesign services. Frequently we find that technology, or the lack thereof, in itself not the sole problem or solution for enterprise inefficiency; rather it is integration of the two that is lacking. In some cases, pure workflow alone provides solution optimization.Performance Improvement Partners offers a full range of workflow / process redesign services which includes:

1. Documenting the current state and working with the Portfolio Company to define new processes that are best aligned to the requirements of their business and the functionality required from the supporting application portfolio.
2. Providing the appropriate policies, procedures and checklists for Department management and staff.
3. Creating the appropriate training environment so the organization is best prepared to leverage optimized workflow aligned to application functionality.