Following its review of REFER's current situation and future goals, the Accenture team realized that in order to make rapid progress, it was important to determine and prioritize key milestones. Based on these milestones, they could then identify groups of deliverables that would take REFER through a logical progression of focused projects—to its desired state.
Two high-level tasks were immediately identified, both of which were critical to the realization of REFER's business goals:
- Improved systems infrastructure, information management and workflow processes (established in three phases).
- Development of an appropriate, effective organizational structure (including job/position categorization, compensation and employee appraisals).
As for the first task, there was a clear need for an updated enterprise resource planning system, and upgraded hardware to support it, in order to manage REFER's ongoing operations. REFER's leadership decided to implement SAP R/3, as had been the original goal of its former parent company. This implementation formed the first phase of Accenture's work with REFER.
The implementation began in September 1997 under an accelerated timetable. By January 1998, the major modules of the SAP R/3 Financials system—Financial Accounting, Controlling, Materials Management, Asset Management and Treasury—had been implemented and the conversions were complete.
Based on the success of this initial phase, REFER decided to move rapidly forward with the second phase of the information systems project: the implementation of the Project System and Investment Management modules.
This phase of the project began in July 1998 and was completed by the end of December 1998. A huge undertaking, it required both Accenture and REFER resources to install, test and ultimately implement the technology solution. This effort would result in the realization of two key benefits: Project managers and key leaders could more effectively manage their resources and investments in real time, and the new data collected would assist them in developing baseline measures and controls as they planned future projects.
Concurrent with this second phase of the systems implementation, a third, related effort was underway. Three members of the Accenture team were each assigned to one of three groups of subject matter experts from REFER. These three sets of collaborators were then given the task of analyzing and redesigning key processes in each of three areas:
- Budget control and allocation.
- Materials management and procurement.
- Infrastructure development and project management.
Despite the challenges facing the newly created company—or perhaps because of them—the implementation of SAP and the redefined processes have been quite successful. According to Dr. Manuel Frasquilho, "REFER was attempting to reach some very aggressive goals, very quickly. We feel that we have not only achieved these goals, but we have now placed ourselves in a position to maximize our resources and lay a path for future accomplishments."