With ERP, Ask First, Implement Later
Northeastern's CIO uses an electronic survey to find out which IT projects his users really want.
With the Murphy Tool, Weir surveys the top 40 senior leaders at NU on how they would value their individual IT project needs and what would be the critical success factors and associated risks with each project. Criteria such as competitive advantage or financial benefits are weighted differently, using a point system that assesses each project's value.
With this new data, driven solely by Weir's constituents, he can see where he has strong business support for projects and where he doesn't. "It allows you to say, Something scored low, and that's because we're not ready to do this," he says. The tool also lets everyone speak the same language on a project because all of the key stakeholders are fluent in what qualifies a project to be approved at the outset. "By having that articulation, we all know the critical success factors that are unique to the project and Northeastern," Weir says.
