Produce decision evidence, not a long supplier list. This proposed first-month plan prepares the organisation to buy—or to decide that buying is premature.
| Period | Work | Required output |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–5 | Appoint sponsor and programme owner; record trigger, dates and alternatives | Decision charter and stakeholder map |
| Days 6–10 | Walk through one real process with owners and contributors | Current-state process and measurable baseline |
| Days 11–15 | Agree release-one scope, decision rights and applicability questions | Scope charter and unresolved-decision log |
| Days 16–20 | Inventory source data and test a difficult sample | Data-readiness findings and remediation backlog |
| Days 21–25 | Draft requirements, mandatory gates and demo cases | Evaluation workbook and scenario pack |
| Days 26–30 | Build a task-based resource plan and initial TCO; challenge the route | Sponsor decision to repair, configure, buy, build or pause |
By day 30, you should be able to say:
We know the first workflow, its owners, the records it needs, the decisions we have not resolved, the evidence suppliers must provide and the internal capacity we must fund.
That is a stronger procurement starting point than knowing which demonstration was most impressive.