Why Am I Paying for All These Extra Activities? I Thought We Just Needed Someone to Configure the System!

If you are on the customer side and are new to the journey of IT projects and have limited experience procuring them from external providers, this article is for you.

I often have the privilege of hearing prospects ask what do we include in our project cost. Many companies understand that they’re paying someone to configure the product, but they may not realize the additional elements required for a successful project. I didn’t know these details myself when I first joined the industry!

This article aims to shed light on what system integrators like us—and yes, our competitors—actually do and charge for in a project.

It’s written by someone who’s not a project manager and uses simple language with real-life analogies—no fancy jargon here!

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The Usual Belief: “We Just Need Someone to Configure the System”

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Analysis & Design

Yes, you do need a consultant to configure your system—say, a CRM—but let’s consider a typical scenario: You engage an IT consulting company, and the consultant shows up at your office ready to configure the system. But what exactly are they configuring?

?You might say, “Whatever you showed me in the demo.” Well, what you saw in the demo only scratches the surface! For example, we probably didn’t cover things like security—who should access what data and when? Or reports—if you want a sales pipeline, do you want it tracked by pipeline value, number of deals, or dollar amount? All of them? What about sales stages or automations, like sending a birthday greeting to customers?

?There’s so much to uncover, which is why we need to understand your scenario. It’s not enough to just take notes and start configuring things right away—much like hiring a builder and chatting for two hours before they start construction. Not realistic, right?

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Project Management & Governance

Then there’s governance and project management. Maybe you think you don’t need this?

Back to the house analogy—do you really think two builders alone are enough to finish the job? Who’s tracking costs? Who’s assigning tasks? Who’s your point of contact? Sure, there are small projects where one person can handle everything, but typically, you need someone to orchestrate the team. Otherwise, why would we have managers? Without someone in charge, things can get chaotic fast!

A Project Manager (PM) handles these tasks and much more, like identifying and managing risks before they become real issues. Alongside the PM, a broader team monitors your project to make sure things are on track. Are we delivering what you expected?

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Documentation

Consider this: Imagine a beautiful symphony that exists only in the composer’s head. Without sheet music, it’s almost impossible for other musicians to play it! The same goes for your solution. Without documenting requirements and the final setup, maintaining or upgrading the system in the future becomes extremely difficult. How can we fix one thing without accidentally breaking another?

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User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

You might wonder, "Why should I test the system? Don’t you trust what you’ve configured?"

Glad you asked! Customers are best suited to see if the system truly meets their real-world needs. Early involvement in UAT helps you validate that the solution supports your daily workflows, eases the transition, and builds confidence. For example, if a requirement states, “As a sales user, I want to create a sales opportunity so that I can easily manage my pipeline. Success criteria is to collect the name and topic and have that in my pipeline after saving,” only the end-user can confirm this feature supports their pipeline management process seamlessly.

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Deployment

“Then it’s just turning it on, right?”

Not quite. Deployment is far more than simply flipping a switch and saying, “Great, let’s go live.” This phase includes structured handover activities, preparation for post-live monitoring, and planning to extend the system’s value over time. Before going live, we also prepare release notes to capture any updates, and a production readiness sign-off ensures everything is stable and approved. This phase is about setting you up for long-term success, not just launch-day glory.

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If I had to sum it up: all these extra steps beyond building and configuring your system are essential to make sure it works smoothly and supports your business effectively—think of it as explained by an old meme, where a project without proper planning looks great at first but doesn’t hold up when it’s actually put to the test!

With all of that in mind, this is what I thought a project journey looked like:

And this is what it should look like if you want to do it properly:

Disclaimer: yes, there are different project methodologies, such as full Agile, etc. This is one of them (and a really good example).