Technology implementation support
Getting your system working!
About this service
Subject to the availability of your own staff to fulfil the role, it is often necessary to obtain additional project assistance in the implementation of a new system, say a new enterprise platform, a point of sale system or even a cloud solution. Partly, this involves ongoing project management advice. The other major requirement is for day-to-day involvement in micro-level planning and carrying out the detailed steps required to prepare, set-up, test and go-live on the new system.
Potential suppliers will usually quote for implementation and ongoing project management. However, the supplier’s project manager will largely be concerned to ensure that their own team is properly organised and employed, and less so to ensure that your resources are managed and directed efficiently and effectively. We can redress that balance and make sure that overall control is maintained throughout the project implementation period.
What this service provides
- Our team of technology experts will engage with your business acting on your behalf to help you implement the system and manage the change. In this way we reduce overruns and problems caused by not having enough resources or well optimised implementation resources.
We can also act in a project review and mentoring role, to provide:
- independent project governance on the implementation
- help and advice and cross-train your own staff on managing the change
- monitor progress to keep senior management and other stakeholders fully informed on a regular basis
- direction to resources to ensure that all tasks on the critical path are addressed; and
- a chairing or steering role in regular Project Steering Group meetings with staff from both the technology systems supplier and your teams to ensure that action is taken in good time to avoid possible problems.
What we do
Our level of involvement varies according to the current level of activity and the importance of it to the success of the overall project. For example, we would expect to have:
- a significant involvement in agreeing the project plan, the risk assessment and completeness of the project documentation.
- regular contact with the project team in monitoring the progress of the plan, in particular adherence to key deliverables and milestones, by attending regular project managers meetings, the steering group meetings.
- specific attention to the project testing and acceptance criteria and importantly, agreeing the proposed course of action where problems arise.
- participate in assessing the impact of any problems or threats to the critical path and actions taken to mitigate risks identified in the risk register.
How this service benefits your business
- Implementation is speeded up, your “invisible” costs of training people up and managing resources are vastly reduced
- Risks are better managed
- Internal resources are used effectively so they do not adversely affect day-to-day operations of the business
- You have a team on your side helping you through the change not just the suppliers team which prioritise its own needs first.