COTS Integration

To help you select a COTS product, we begin by:

• Analyzing and documenting the business requirements and gaining a full understanding of the problems to be solved
• Determining "must have" features and ranking all other desired features in terms of importance
• Determining security, performance, and scalability requirements
• Documenting the requirements for integration with other systems

Since COTS products often won't satisfy 100% of the customer's requirements right out of the box, we:

• Determine the customer's willingness to change their business practices and procedures to fit the product
• Determine the policy on having the vendor make custom modifications to the product
• Document all key schedule milestones if there is a required implementation deadline
• Lay out the decision process for selecting the winner

After completing the preliminary activities, we:

• Survey the marketplace to identify candidate products
• Evaluate vendors' products against the requirements
• Evaluate how well each product meets requirements:
  • can satisfy right out of the box
  • can satisfy by using the product's configuration options
  • requires custom programming to satisfy
  • requires core product modification to satisfy
  • cannot satisfy
• Evaluate each product's total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes:
  • License costs plus costs for configuration and customization
  • Integration with other systems
  • New or upgraded hardware
  • Conversion of data from the legacy systems that the COTS product replaces
  • Training both the users and the support staff
  • Ongoing support

Typically, the selection process is done in at least two stages, maybe more:

• In the first stage, the products that can't adequately satisfy the minimum requirements are quickly eliminated
• In subsequent stages, the list of products is narrowed until a clear winner emerges
• If more than one product is satisfactory, it might be necessary to have the vendors perform a small proof of concept implementation to demonstrate their capabilities in the customer's environment

When the winning product has been chosen, one of the first activities is to meet with the vendor and the customer to finalize the implementation plan and schedule. Following that:

• We provide assistance in setting up the needed environments. At a minimum, this includes development, testing, and production. Other environments for training and quality assurance might also be needed.
• If new hardware must be procured, we assist in finalizing those requirements and configuring the hardware as needed.
• If the vendor is required to make any modifications or extensions to the product, we create test plans and lead or participate in the acceptance testing.
• If product configuration is required, we work closely with the vendor until it's complete.
• We build and implement the interfaces to other systems that are required and convert data from legacy systems to the new COTS product.
• We develop customer acceptance test (CAT) plans and provide support throughout the CAT process until the new system is certified as acceptable.
• We also assist with planning the rollout of the new system to the user community and work closely with the customer to execute the rollout plan.