Case Study Decision to select a Project

Superior Systems is an IT consulting firm specializing in network integration, focusing on the

technical universe of servers, network operating systems, and internetworking. Their motto
is "Superior Systems for Superior Results." The three sales executives and ten consultants at
Superior Systems hold a joint meeting weekly to discuss upcoming projects and
opportunities. At a recent meeting, John Ryan, a "relationship manager" at Superior,
mentioned that one of his follow-up sales calls this week was at Capitol State Chemical, the
largest employer in town: "I saw a notice in the local business journal a couple of weeks ago
mentioning that they were consolidating all their workers into one new building. I guessed
that they might need some consulting help to plan the IT part of the move, so I called one of
my contacts over there and she got me in to see Ron Gimble, the director of network
architecture. I had a 'getting to know you' meeting with him last week, and now he's invited
us back."
Nick, the managing consultant, asked: "Who from the technical side should go with you?
Sandy?"
Sandy, the network designer on the technical team, said: "Yeah, I want to go! They've got
some cool stuff there!"
John told the team: "I want Sandy for the technical piece, but I also need someone who can
dig in with the client and understand the politics and culture over there. This would be our
first big services deal with these guys and we need to excel. Who has the best interviewing
skills?"
Nick volunteered to go, saying: "I want to understand for myself what they think we can do
to help them.
Team, what do we know about this client? What hardware and software do they use? Do they
use other IT consulting services now? What's their business, who are their customers?" They
spent another ten minutes reviewing the background for this opportunity. Nick persuaded
John and Sandy that it would be a good idea for them to do a bit of homework on this
prospect, advising them to check out the CapState website and to do some research on the
stock price and the chemical industry. Then the team moved on to the rest of the meeting.
On the day John, Sandy, and Nick were scheduled to meet the client, Nick requested a
fifteen-minute preparation meeting, saying: "John, this is your show, so just review with us,
what's my role in this meeting and what's Sandy's role?"
"I just hope you can probe the client a little bit," John replied. "Help me see if there's really a
project here. I haven't been able to find out whether they're interviewing other consultants
or whether we have a good shot at this deal. I want Sandy there just in case it gets
technical."
"Sandy," said Nick, "please take notes of the meeting. I'm going to try to keep the
conversation focused on the expectations rather than technical issues, so if you could scribe
our conversation .... "
Ron Gimble's assistant walked John, Nick, and Sandy into Ron's office, saying: "Ron, these
are the IT consultants."
Ron was standing over a large meeting table, looking at a sheaf of blueprints: "John, nice to
see you again, thanks for stopping by." Ron gestured toward the drawings: "This is it, the
CapState Tower. Did you know that CapState leases 18 percent of the office space in this

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Case Study 1: Decision of selecting a project

city? Or that we have 14,000 employees in twelve locations just within the city limits and
another 5,000 scattered around the suburbs? We got sick of paying rent and decided to build
our own building. We just signed the financing package last week."
"You seem very proud," said John.
"Proud but nervous. Nineteen thousand employees means about 15,000 desktop PCs. Our
R&D team uses a UNIX server and about fifty special graphic workstations for chemical
design. We've got e-mail, groupware, Internet connectivity, a website, and a PC training lab
for our customers, all in different buildings.
We hired IBM to move the data center, but the network, servers, desktops ... there's no way
we can support our ongoing business activity and do this move ourselves. We need some
outside assistance."
Nick noted that Ron expressed the problem as not having enough resources to keep the
business running and do this project simultaneously. Nick feels that it's important to
understand what motivates a client to seek outside help; he will use the information to
choose consultants for this engagement. Plus it is an indicator of the client's view of the
state of the internal IT organization.
John did the introductions and chatted briefly about Superior Systems. He described Nick's
role as managing consultant and requested permission for Nick to ask a few questions.
"Ron:' said Nick. "thanks for the opportunity to chat about this move. It seems like a
challenge for your organization. I've done these before and they're not easy. When do you
expect the building to be ready for your folks to move in?"
"We've already broken ground," replied Ron. "They're predicting sixteen months. It seems
like a long way away, but. ... "
"I understand your concern," Nick said. "In a large, technology-driven enterprise like yours,
there are innumerable details that must be considered to guarantee the success of a
complex project like this. Sandy is our network technology genius, and she'll work with your
team to prepare a comprehensive technical move plan. But right now I'm very interested in
understanding your business. I've never worked with a chemical design firm before."
As Ron had displayed pride in the new building, he now displayed pride in his organization .
By giving Ron the opportunity to explain their product development cycle,
Nick showed that he was interested in the business context, not just the technical aspects.
He also mentored John and Sandy, teaching them that it's critical to understand the client's
business and to give the client an opportunity to display feelings about his or her
organization. Good or bad, Nick knew, the client's attitude is instructive for the consultant
about to take on an engagement.
Nick reviewed with Ron some of the details of the CapState organization, asking questions:
"What do you think an IT consulting firm like ours can do to help you?"
"Which parts of this move project will your team handle?"
"Are you looking for technical assistance. project management, or both?"
"Will your team design the network infrastructure in the new building, or will the
consultants you select assist?"
"What other departments or managers will the consultant be working with?"
"Are there other IT projects that are ongoing at the same time as the move?"
"What concerns you about this move; what do you fear can go wrong?"

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Nick gathered lots of important details in a short time. Even though Ron was interviewing
them as technical consultants, all of Nick's questions were focused on the client's
expectations, constraints, feelings, and business.
Nick felt confident that, when the time came, the consulting team and CapState's technical
crew could get together and work out the technical details. He wanted to be sure that he
had a measure of the client and the project, that the client's expectations were reasonable,
that the project was a good fit for Superior, and that he could deliver
successfully.
He counted as good signs that Ron had the blueprints there for their review, that he had set
aside uninterrupted time to meet with them, and that he answered Nick's questions in a
straightforward and open manner.
After Nick had asked questions, John asked Ron, "How will your selection process work?"
"We've been chatting with a couple of other consulting firms," said Ron.
"We've sent out a short request for proposal to the firms we think are contenders. You should
receive it today or tomorrow. We'll have a short lead time on the RFP, because we want to
engage someone on this soon."
Finally, Nick asked Ron, "Would it be all right if Sandy got in touch with some of your network
engineers, just so we could understand your environment a bit better, to write a bid that fits
your needs?" Ron was obliging and gave Sandy his lead technician's number.
When they arrived back at the office, Nick spent a few minutes with Sandy and John to
review the meeting. "So, what do you think? Is this a good fit for us?" Nick asked.
"Are you kidding?" asked John. "This could be huge!"
"Does any of it concern you?" asked Nick. "What about you, Sandy?"
"Well, yeah," she replied, "there are a few things. Fifteen thousand desktops is a lot! I guess
we can get some college kids to help us with the inventory and disconnect, but it's going to
need a lot of project management. Also those UNIX boxes and special workstations might be
a challenge."
"Come on!" exclaimed John. "We can do this! This could be a great customer!"
"Yes, it could," Nick agreed, "but only if we do this one right. I just want to make sure that we
think this through up front before we spend a lot of time proposing and planning for a project
that we can't deliver."
"Okay," said John. "As soon as I get the RFP I'll schedule a planning session, and we can put
a proposal together."
Nick asked Sandy to transcribe the notes from the meeting. Using Sandy's notes, he sat
down with John and wrote a follow-up letter to Ron, thanking him for the time, reiterating in
summary what the project was, and informing him that Superior Solutions would deliver to
him by the following Friday a proposal to assist CapState with their move.
John rushed into Nick's office the next morning with the CapState RFP in hand (see
Appendix A.) "Here it is! It looks like they've done a great job of outlining their needs. Let's
pull the team together for a meeting and see how we need to respond. "

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"It's not quite that easy," Nick laughed. "The consultants are all out billing, thankfully! And
hopefully the sales team is out with their customers as well. I'll have to figure out who we
want in the room, and then schedule a meeting."
John interrupted: "I don't think you get it! This is a huge deal for us! There are three other
firms in there that I know of, and they're all making this a high priority project! Let's get Liz
to page everyone and have them take a break from their current assignments to come in
here and .... "
"Okay, okay, John, just calm down for a second. I understand the importance of this, and I
want this deal as much as you do. I can't just pull folks away from commitments we've
already made to propose on a deal we haven't even scoped yet. Give me a little while to
review the RFP, put together my initial list of questions and ideas, and I'll ask Liz to reach out
to everyone and see when they can get in here. We'll get this done, I promise you."
Nick distributed a copy of the RFP and his initial notes to everyone that evening via e-mail
and scheduled a lunch meeting to start developing a response.
At the meeting, he began by saying, "I asked each of you to attend because I want everyone
to agree on an approach to this project. CapState can be a great client, and this move has
huge visibility in town. We can really shine if we win it and deliver well, but there's a huge
risk if we take it on and can't execute. We've done some small server-room moves before,
but nothing of this magnitude, and I want consensus from everyone in this room that we can
do this before we even propose."
John spoke up immediately: "Nick, this list of concerns you published is really making me
uncomfortable. You dig down into every little detail and make it seem like this project is just
impossible. This is a move project, that's all. We're picking a bunch of stuff up and moving it
across the street. We're not even moving the stuff; they've hired a moving company to do
that. All we're doing is counting it, unplugging it, reconnecting it on the other side, and
testing it. I don't understand why this has to be so complicated."
Sandy chimed in immediately: "Let's not trivialize this. There are a lot of unanswered
questions here. They say their stuff is 'scattered through multiple departments and
locations,' but they don't even list them. Are there five locations or fifty? Are they central or
all over the place? They want to ensure no disruption. How do we ensure that? Do they
mean they want us to build a whole parallel network, or just try our best to get everything
running after the move?"
Adam, the firm's application specialist, spoke up next: "They say they have a complete asset
management database. I've heard that one before! If it's so complete how come in the next
line they say they have 'about' sixty servers,' about' twenty-five jukeboxes, and 'about'
fifteen scanners?"
Nick broke in: "Okay, let's do this in a structured way. John, I understand you want this deal,
and so do we all. The client will appreciate that we've thought this through and that we're
focusing on the successful delivery. That's our key selling point. Team, let's start at the top
and put together our list of concerns."
Nick facilitated the team work session, leading them through the RFP and recording the
questions and ideas that were generated. Some examples of the questions generated
included:
What does CapState mean by "scattered locations"? Would they provide a list?
How did they define "no disruption"?

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 What data does the asset management system capture? How current is it?
How do they expect to move R&D without any interruption? Was this an example of
unrealistic expectations?
What special problems did the production department pose?
CapState lists certain skills as being required, such as video conferencing, IP design, and
voice communications. What are their expectations of services we'll provide in those areas?
They state they want bidders to provide "hot spares." Does this imply that we're taking
responsibility for hardware maintenance in the move?
Will CapState assemble a steering committee for escalation of project issues?
What are the specific roles and responsibilities of the selected vendor and of CapState's IT
teams?
After working through the RFPin detail, Nick asked for a show of hands of those who thought
the firm should bid on this project. Although a clear majority voted to bid, a couple of the
consultants disagreed.
"I just think this is too amorphous to bid on now. Without answering some of these
questions, I see a lot of risk here," said Tim, the desktop specialist.
"I agree," said Sara, the strongest project manager on the team. "Who here has ever dealt
with UNIX molecular-modeling software before? Who has ever moved sixty servers? Who's
relocated 15,000 desktops? With this many open questions, this thing makes me really
nervous."
"How about if we bid this as an assessment and discovery project?" Nick suggested. "We
could sell them on the idea that they'll need to do an assessment with whomever they
select, and that they'll get a worthwhile deliverable out of it even if they decide to pick
someone else for the move."
"I don't like it," said John. "The other firms are all going to bid a fixed price. Ron will see that
and assume we don't have confidence in our ability to do this."
"I'll help you sell it to Ron," Nick replied. "I believe I can convince him that this approach
shows that we're interested in delivering a quality engagement, not just selling the job."
Nick led the team to agreement that an assessment approach was the right thing and
composed a rough draft that evening. He circulated it for comment and modification, and
John and Nick presented the finished proposal to Ron Gimble at CapState the next day. Nick
explained their concept of performing an assessment project in order to better understand
the circumstances and requirements of the move. Ron was noncommittal, but accepted the
proposal graciously and told them to expect a call within the week.

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Appendix A

Sample Request for Proposal: CapState

Relocation Project
RFP, Capitol State Chemical Corporation
Distributed Systems

Chemical
Relocation

Company
Project,

This document is a Request for Proposal for services required to plan, manage, and
implement a distributed systems relocation project for Capitol State Chemical Corporation.
This document will define in detail the objectives of this project and the levels of service we
expect from the chosen service provider on this project.
Capitol State Chemical Corporation, the world's largest supplier of pharmaceutical
chemicals, is consolidating its multiple offices into our new World Headquarters building. We
are seeking a Technical Project Team to assist us with the move of our distributed computing
environment, made up of servers, storage devices, desktop PC's, workstations, laptops, and
network-connected printers and peripherals. This team will be composed of a Technical
Project Manager and specific Subject-Matter Experts as required.
This Request for Proposal will document the business and technical requirements for our
selection of a Technical Project Team to assist us with this move.
It is organized as follows:
Project Background
Services We Seek to Acquire
Selection Criteria and Process
Bidders' Guidelines
Schedule

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Project Background
Capitol State Chemical designs and manufactures customized chemical compounds for the
pharmaceutical industry. Our technologically advanced Research & Development
department uses sophisticated molecular-imaging workstations to design effective and
efficient chemical products for our clients. We rely on information technology to design,
record, document, store, and protect our intellectual property. Currently our computing
resources are scattered through multiple departments and locations. Consolidation of our
computing assets is a primary goal of this move. Also key is ensuring that no disruption to
availability of our computing resources is caused by this move.
Capitol State typically closes for the week from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day every year
as a benefit for our associates. We will use that period this year to move . Our expectation is
for all systems to be moved, installed, tested, and in production on Tuesday, January 2. when
our associates return from their holiday break.
Capitol State has 19,000 employees who will be affected by this move. We have a complete
asset-management database, which is current and includes user ID, serial number, installed
software, and inventory information for every computing device. We have about sixty Novell
servers, in a mix of 4.1 and 5.0 version levels. We have about six hundred networked
printers. about twenty-five networked CD jukeboxes, and about fifteen networked scanners.
We are standardized on IBM servers, desktops, and laptops.
We have two areas that have specialized needs: the R&D Department and the Production
Department. Research and Development is composed of about fifty chemists who use
graphic workstations and UNIX servers. Due to previous client commitments, there is no
provision for downtime for moving the R&D servers, so a special plan must be created to
move these servers and have them in production without interruption.
The Production area is a factory floor, requiring special planning for cabling, and perhaps
special furniture or millwork for the PC's to protect them from the harsh environment.
Services We Seek to Acquire
We are seeking to hire a Technical Project Team, made up of a Technical Project Leader and
Subject-Matter Experts with certain skills, including:
Network infrastructure design skills,
Novell NetWare expertise,
IBM server and desktop hardware expertise,
Project management skills, and
Technical knowledge of the following:
Video conferencing
Imaging,
Network address (lP) design,
Data/voice communications, and
Desktop applications.
We will also consider using a team of workers who would perform the actual disconnection
and preparation of all desktop devices and the reconnection after the move, as our moving
company will not perform this task.
Project Management. CapState will assign a full-time project manager to this project, with
accountability for all CapState activities required to fulfill this project. This manager will be
the single interface for project directions, status reporting, scheduling, and problem

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resolution. Our expectation is that bidders will also provide a project manager with the same
central interface responsibilities related to bidder activities on this project. The selected
contractor will work with CapState's project manager to prepare detailed project plans and
bills of materials, to provide ongoing weekly status reporting to management, to direct and
control the activities of contractor resources, and to resolve any open issues that arise
during the provision of these services.
Follow-Up Support. Bidders should describe in detail their warranty policy for services and
materials. We require that a documented problem resolution and escalation process be in
place and agreed to before any bids are awarded on this project. Bidders should describe
any ongoing onsite or telephone support they will provide for our users during and after
relocation. We expect bidders to be prepared to provide "hot spare" systems for deployment
in case of station problems and to provide spare parts in case of discovery of faulty parts or
systems during this process to ensure that the project schedule is not impacted.
Selection Criteria and Process
We have held a series of pre-RFP interviews, at which we reviewed the qualifications of a
group of potential bidders. This RFP is the next step in our selection process. We will review
all proposals submitted in response to this bid fairly and completely-and will then select the
three bids we believe are most responsive to our needs. We will allow those three vendors to
present their recommendations to the Selection Committee, after which we will make a
selection and begin negotiations. Capitol State Chemical is committed to fair bidding
practices.
Bidders' Guidelines
All bidders for this engagement must follow these guidelines:
1. Present detailed corporate literature describing your organization, its areas of expertise,
its structure and longevity, and financial information that describes the stability of your
organization.
2. Present the resumes of the management and technical personnel that you propose to
assign to this project.
3. Include three (3) detailed local references for projects your organization has undertaken
that are similar in scope, technical expertise, and duration to this project.
4. Present a draft project plan that defines the tasks you believe are required to manage and
implement this project. Include all estimated durations on a task-by-task basis.
5. Specify your estimate of the total cost to CapState of the services required to perform the
relocation project outlined above. Our expectation is for a fixed bid to provide the entire
range of services described. If you cannot provide a fixed bid, describe in detail your
proposed pricing policies for this project.
6. Any and all costs to CapState for the bidder to perform these services must be included in
the bid. This includes any permits, insurance, project management costs, travel or other
expenses, or any other miscellaneous charges related to the bidder's services on this
project.
7 . Describe the process for handling any changes to the scope of the project after it is
undertaken. Include the process for providing overtime, weekend, or other special work if
required.

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8. Describe your process for problem resolution if any issues arise during your services on
this project.
Schedule
Our Selection Committee schedule for this process is as follows:
What Date
Pre-RFP meetings July 1-17
RFP mailed to bidders July 21
RFP response due Aug 5
Proposal review Aug 6-12
Bidder presentations Aug 15-17
Final selection Aug 25
Negotiations begin Aug 26
All bidders are advised that they must respond in detail to each element of this RFPin order
to be considered for the award of this bid. Late bids will not be considered.
Any questions regarding this Request for Proposal should be submitted by FAX to:
Ron Gimble, Fax: 999-999-0000.
All responses to this RFP must be made in soft-cover format, six complete copies, and
submitted by close of business on August 5, to:
Ron Gimble
Director of Network Infrastructure
Capitol State Chemical
111 CapState Road
Commerce City, STATE00001

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Case Study 1: Decision of selecting a project