Prescription Before Diagnosis is Malpractice!
Posted by Wendy Gorrie on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 @ 01:23 PM
Prescription Before Diagnosis is Malpractice in Medicine & ERP Implementations. Recently, and for the past several months, I have been seeing numerous doctors to resolve some medical issues.
I am currently about to see my fourth doctor and expect that my journey to diagnosis will come to an end. During this process it has occurred to me that what Ed Kless, senior director, partner development and strategy at Sage has been telling us for years is as true, "Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice."
The humorous part of all this to me is that it is very difficult to stay logical and go through the process; it is very tempting to have the Doctor just fix me. I would have been very willing to simply have accepted whatever possible preliminary diagnosis which had been offered, and allow myself to be treated for the potential problem without questioning it extensively. I have had to learn to be patient and allow the process to continue in order to be properly diagnosed.
My point, and I do have one as Ellen DeGeneres would say, is that the same theory holds true in our world of ERP implementation. Many times companies come to us seeking the cure to their ailments, it sometimes takes us a good deal of time to convince them to take the time to peel the layers of the onion to get to the real problem rather than rushing in with software to cure the disease.
To illustrate, a client once had corruption in their data continually, we performed data repair after data repair as it got the point where it was a daily occurrence, of course we and the client were desperate to get to the bottom of things and tensions were running high, the software was in question, and alternative solutions were being contemplated. One afternoon, while babysitting the system, we were looking out the window and noticed what had always been there, the company was located next to a very busy trolley bus transfer station, and wouldn't you know that when activity was high at the bus station, there were problems with the data. Hydro was called, repairs to the power were made to prevent the fluctuations in the power to the building and voila, problem solved.
This is a one example, there are many others, of where Plus has proven that we can improve, that is, "diagnose" issues within organizations with and without software as the cure simply by taking the time to review the processes and properly diagnose and prescribe treatment for the organizational illness.
It is rewarding to all, and there is no other way.