Where are the challenges in global systems implementation?

Last November Andrew Denton, chief operating officer of CHP Consulting launched International Auto Finance Network’s inspirational talks series with an amusing look at the challenges he has faced in his work at CHP Consulting, helping to manage some of the asset and auto finance world’s largest and most complex system implementations.

CHP have the deserved reputation amongst technology folk of 100% successful delivery of every project they start – so it is interesting to note where Denton believes the real challenges lie in large scale implementation programmes.

“I’m not going to talk about the detail of deployment” Denton says before quickly reeling off a long list of systems requirements including everything from the need to be able to manage multiple languages to multiple regulatory environments. Denton dismisses these as coding issues – and “coding is easy” he reassures.

For Denton, the real challenge in global systems implementation lies in managing people and their cultural differences.

Watch the speech below

Did Denton’s speech match the challenge we set him to deliver the speech of his life? His audience certainly thought so.

“Spot on” was the verdict from a senior executive from one of the world’s largest manufacturer captives, who was sitting on my table.

CHP Consulting, have just completed their own perhaps more formal analysis of the critical factors behind getting large scale implementations right first time in a series available to download from their site. Clearly this is a topic they understand very well indeed.