Ariba Med-X Case

University of Connecticut

Case Study: Ariba Implementation at MED-X

Managing Earned Value

Team 2

Professor Jennifer Eigo

October 6, 2017

Executive Summary

The Ariba implementation is currently experiencing difficulties. The critical path of the project passes through two domains, software customization and technical infrastructure. Current performance in the software customization domain has been superior, CPI in this domain is 1.19 while SPI is 1.13, this segment appears significantly ahead of schedule and below budget. The strength of performance in this segment is such that the project overall is estimated to come in $85,000 below budget. Progress on the technical infrastructure segment is underperforming.

Technical infrastructure is behind budget by approximately $75,000 with an estimated variance at completion of approximately $85,000 over budget. Technical infrastructure is also behind schedule, there is a current schedule variance of $50,000. As technical infrastructure is along the project’s critical path the delay in this domain threatens progress overall.

There is 8 days of slippage in the technical infrastructure domain, due to technical infrastructures place along the critical path we believe that this means there is an overall slippage of 8 days for the project.

We suggest that we allocate some of the anticipated surplus in our budget to adding an additional resource to assist in the technical infrastructure segment of the project. By adding an additional resource, we hope to overcome our previous scheduling issues and achieve our anticipated goals.

Statement of Problem

The implementation of the Ariba E-Procurement Solution at MED-X is perceived to be behind schedule. Techniques currently used by the project manager, Christopher Martin, are unable to identify the difficulties with the project. Christopher Martin needs to determine what segment of his project is underperforming and therefore responsible for the delay, using this insight he must adjust his management of the project to correct for the shortfall.

Background

There are three companies involved in this project, MED-X Inc, Implementation Technologies and Ariba Inc. MED-X Inc is a global pharmaceutical company with 54 plants and more than 40000 employees worldwide. The objective of the project for which MED-X has engaged Implementation Technologies Inc is to transform its procurement organization into a decentralized purchasing model with a self-service philosophy. This transformation is intended to reduce spending, streamline process, and expedite user adoption.