What is the Oasis Analysis and why is it important?
Ultimately business is a series of transactions cycles, some that feed and integrate into another cycle, and as the case may be, some that disconnect.
We think the most important things about those transaction cycles are what they can tell you about your business, and just as important, how they feel to your customers. We centered our approach for the Oasis Analysis around that concept.
The Oasis Analysis is an intensive, structured engagement, typically over 2 days, where we collaboratively establish, document, and create a narrative around these cycles.
We then put them to the test against our almost 30 years of implementing ERP across numerous platforms in numerous industries. We challenge assumptions, we identify the pain. We look for efficiencies. Celebrate existing cycles that work. We look for ways to make people’s lives easier, and make clients happier.
From this discovery, Oasis is able to custom design a deliverable that identifies the gap between current state and future state, and if needed, a plan of action to bridge that gap.
From there, the client then has many options, all of which include including moving forward with visibility and confidence.
Where have you seen the Oasis Analysis benefit clients the most?
The most compelling results happen when our clients are completely open to the collective view and critique of the team, which typically consists of the Oasis team and a group of client stakeholders.
The Oasis Analysis is a form of discovery, and often the best discovery happens in an environment where the client is enabled to challenge their own practices and notions. Only then do we bring our almost 30 years of implementation experience to the discussion.
How does the Oasis Analysis save clients money?
We think appropriate discovery should be done prior to executing a project of the size and scope of an ERP implementation. We prefer to do it up front, in a controlled engagement, with firmly defined expectations and deliverables.
This allows the client much clearer visibility to the gap in functionality, and what it will take to bridge that gap with a new implementation.
In projects where there isn’t discovery and planning done up front, the likelihood of mid-project changes of scope, more than doubles. This almost always results in changes to time frame, resources, and dollars. Before spending six figures on a new ERP implementation, spend four figures on a new ERP evaluation.
What have you seen other partners do during a process analysis that doesn’t work?
We’ve been at this a long time, over 30 years, and have seen just about every type of small/mid-market implementation over that time period. We have listened to our customers over time (and this includes all of their experiences with implementations) and today they are telling us they want clear visibility… transparency.
They want as accurate a picture as possible.
They want a plan.
They want a realistic time frame.
They want to mitigate risk.
They want a conservative estimate of how much we think it will cost.
We have seen other partners conduct discovery as they go.
Oasis feels strongly this must happen up front. It also gives us a feeling for the kind of partners we’ll be to each other. We realize we aren’t the best fit for everyone. The deliverables resulting from an analysis can be used with any partner.