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Best practices, compiled by consultant Jacoby Garcia.
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- To make a business case, measure the business problems against your current system, so management can make a decision on whether to pursue an alternative.
- Understand the needs driving a system purchase. Identify vendors that can help you solve the identified problems while achieving the overall goals of the company.
- Show the value of moving to a new finance system. Can it be done outside your four walls? How much does it cost? What are the costs of poor or late reporting?
- The main criterion is industry compliance; Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is also critical.
- Build consensus across and down in the organization, and maintain clear lines of positive communication about the decision-making process.
- If you don't manage against metrics, start. Make sure corporate goals are clear, measurable, and disseminated downward throughout the organization.
- Choose system vendors and integrators experienced with most if not all the point solution applications you'll be replacing.
- Look at software, e.g., client server or browser based? Java or .NET? MS SQL or ORCL? From a hardware perspective, can your servers handle the new load?
- Reputation matters. This vendor will be your partner, and this may be one of your largest cash outlays for the next several years.
- Go into detail with your top three software vendor candidates, along with system integrator candidates, early in the selection process to determine their capabilities.
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IT Management 
