Large Migrations

Information Services Procurement for Large-Scale Migrations

Evolution is a constant! The prevailing conditions under which most enterprises currently operate have a tendency to evolve constantly. IT should empower a business with the information services it needs to go out and seek new challenges. One of the current dilemmas of IT appears to be that in most cases it smothers an organisation's ability to change rather than supporting it. While it is quite reasonable to say that advanced information systems should lead to revolutionary improvements in the flexibility and effectiveness of organisations, organisations still find themselves anchored to their pre-existing information systems.

At the same time, the maintenance costs, as well as the maintenance backlogs, of these monolithic systems are ever increasing. Change upon change, and patch upon patch, have been applied. It is also not untypical for such systems to be long past their initially planned span of life.

Meanwhile, the pressure to make profound changes to these systems is mounting. The approaching year 2000 and the introduction of the Euro are examples of urgent needs for migration fundamental changes of pre-existing information systems. Such needs may indeed threaten the very existence of an organisation. The introduction of call-centres, Web-commerce and other forms of E-commerce are typical examples of developments that do not form a direct threat to the organisation as such.

These challenges have led organisations to initiate a miriad of migration projects. Projects that all aim to better prepare information systems for the times to come. As the number of migration projects increases, the call for proper procurement procedures increases as well. The planning of migration projects requires guidance for both customers and suppliers to perform flexible and informed procurement.

The goal of this book is to clarify and improve the relationship between customers and suppliers during all phases of a large-scale migration. The advice and guidelines given in the following chapters help customers to clearly express their business needs and requirements. They also help suppliers to present precise solutions not overloaded with technical details. The principle audience which this book intends to reach consists of managers and marketing personnel of organisations that are in need of migratory services.