SITATM: When system integrators take all the money

I’ve seen some really bad cases of system integrators taking all the money (SITATM). Unfortunately buyers tend to focus on vendors, features and technologies, rather than examining their chosen system integrators who are happily charging ridiculous amounts for projects that far from always create any value.

You may now have heard of SITATM before, but it is one of the well-kept secrets of vendors, in particular the commercial ones. SITATM is declared when there is no money left for software licenses.

I talked to an unhappy customer earlier this week, who had experienced a bad case of SITATM. After a minor initial project the system integrator multiplied their original estimate price with 7, even though the requirements had not changed. The customer could now either change SI, which would be costly, or go with the new proposal, which would also be costly.

My point is not that you should go crazy on software licenses (in particular not CMS systems), but your challenge as a customer, is to carefully strike the right balance between your vendors and system integrators. Ideally you should trust your system integrator, but that is not always a financially sound decision.

Here are some symptoms indicating that you might be suffering from SITATM:

• Projects are constantly delayed and there is no money left for software solutions that would speed up the delivery of your projects. Instead your system integrator is off building custom modules for your requirements.
• Invoices from the system integrators are approved by a manager that is not involved in the on-going projects and has little understanding of what is going on.
• When something breaks, you quickly build consensus that something is wrong with the vendor, feature or technology and you pay the system integrator to fix it.
• You’ve worked with the same system integrator for a very long time on many different projects involving many different vendors and technologies.

Here’s how you avoid SITATM:

• Don’t ask the system integrator to spend 6 months or more on a requirements specification. By the time you are done, your requirements will have changed anyway!
• Talk to other customers about the really critical stuff about your system integrators, e.g. prices, contracts, employees. Use the information to find out where you can get more for your money.
• Improve your own skills, in particular on the critical systems, so that you have staff that can challenge both the vendors and the system integrators

Have you suffered from SITATM? Do you have a cure against SITATM?