Project selection tool / strategies for IT companies

Abstract

The IT industry has passed through its initial period of rapid accelerated growth and has reached a point in any industry life cycle where the companies that have been part of the initial momentum, halt for a while to analyze how they can realign their strategies to enter a new wave of rapid growth. Some companies have realized this early on and have realigned their processes to suit the current nature of business environment while there quite a number of large IT players who require a lot of changes in their processes, culture, environment, etc to lead through the next generation. The first step towards realigning the business strategies need to start with the sales process which is the foremost in ensuring that the companies get business for their survival and growth. In any thriving organization, the number of potential projects far outweighs the resources available and therefore, selections of those projects that have the greatest value to an organization is extremely important to ensure that the company sustains the operations and grows in the selected strategic direction. This project involves a re-look at the current sales strategy followed by most IT companies and the ways and means to change their sales strategy to meet the demands of the new era. An excel based tool is being developed to assist the sales team in evaluating deals early on during the presales stage and enable top management in taking strategic decisions even before they bid for a Customer. A survey of the pre-sales and sales process followed in the tier-1 IT companies was done based on which a generic process framework has been documented. Also, literature survey has been done to explore ways and means of evaluating projects early on during the sales cycle. Some interesting findings have been obtained from books and case studies on other industries which are more matured in their life cycle and where scientific tools are being used for the project evaluation purpose early on during the presales stage. Based on the above, the output of the project will comprise of strategies for Sales/Bid review teams in IT companies along with a tool to facilitate the bid review process.