At Vueterra, we understand the needs of businesses and the importance of data for improving operational efficiency. Our systems and ERP implementation services are designed to deliver tailored systems that support the work you do.
Our comprehensive approach to systems implementation ensures all bases are covered. We take care of everything from planning and implementation to change management and post-project support. With complex analysis of existing data systems, we recommend and implement new systems effectively, ensuring your staff are trained and supported through the process.
Systems and ERP implementation, particularly ERP migrations, are known to be projects associated with scope creep and cost overruns – at Vueterra our ethos is to deliver system implementations in a holistic way where we take ownership of not only the implementation aspect, but also the change management and post-project support aspects.
We also take great care in conducting a thorough scoping process by leveraging our extensive functional knowledge from decades in the field and ensuring the requirements of the end users (the “Vue” from the ground) is taken into account.
01. Scope
As much as every consulting firm has a well-defined project scoping and planning process, inevitably issues still arise during the Implementation phase resulting in project delays.
At Vueterra we accept and recognize this as a common risk and whilst we still adhere to traditional project scoping methodologies (scope statement, goals, deliverables, costs and deadlines), we go that step further by placing a greater emphasis on the discovery process and spend the required amount of time gaining a thorough understanding of systems, data and processes prior to drawing up a project scope and recommendations.
What does this look like? We generally split the scoping phase into 3 distinct steps;
1. Mobilisation
- Determine relevant stakeholders
- Hold kick-off meetings
- Determine data sources and formats
- Organize system access
- Request initial data from the client
2. Discovery
- Determine relevant stakeholders
- Resolve any system access issues
- Conduct requirements gathering workshops
- Conduct interviews with Subject Matter Experts
- Provide feedback on initial data sets and request additional data if required
- Undertake comprehensive analysis of all tables and data
3. Recommendation
- Resolve any system access issues
- Draft Project Scope + Project Plan
- Draw up list of deliverables, priorities and timelines
- Outline implementation plan & project roles
- Hold Project Planning meeting to deliver Scope
02. IMPLEMENT
As part of the Implementation phase, Vueterra embraces well-understood Project Management methodologies whilst also leveraging class-leading tools such as Productive and Jira to manage remote teams and track forecast to completion.
We place a great emphasis on utilising these tools for all things task management and capacity planning, however invariably we still encounter areas of uncertainty where e-mail communication or meetings are required to resolve issues. Naturally, our nominated Project Manager will be tasked with overseeing all of the project deliverables and ensuring timelines are being met.
An additional and underrated part of our toolkit is our project RACI document which assists in clarifying who to go to whenever an issue arises, we find this an effective tool for reducing unnecessary e-mails and noise when running a project – it very much helps keep teams focused on their deliverables. RACI stands for the relevant person who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.
Below is an example of a RACI chart and how roles interface with each other, it is common for some roles to be both Responsible and Accountable, or Consulted and Informed – there is no hard or fast rule here and it is completely up to the project as a whole to define these roles.
03. Manage
Managing change goes hand-in-hand with extensive project management, preparing and informing stakeholders about upcoming changes makes for a smoother transition process and provides front line teams with greater confidence around what their day to day activities will look like post-implementation.
At Vueterra we provide extensive change management services to accompany project delivery, we are passionate about bringing your team on the journey and helping them gain a better understanding and clarity of how they will be impacted by changes and how they can contribute.
As part of this service, we conduct and coordinate a range of activities to assist with overall business readiness, these include;
- Development of a Business Readiness Action Plan by function/department along with key milestones
- Identification of Early Alignment & Business Readiness activities to inform the plan
- Development of "Day in the Life of" guides for each line level role post-implementation
- Development of other supporting documents such as Procedures, Work Instructions & Fact Sheets
- Drafting of standard Comms Packs & Comms Toolkits
- Training sessions tailored to each function/department
- Weekly Reporting to track the completion of business readiness activities
04. SUPPORT
Once you’ve implemented your brand new system, how do you manage feedback and issues raised by your front line team? How can you effectively coordinate and triage requests to determine what needs to be prioritized for rectification, development and deployment?
Post-project support is another often overlooked area when it comes to system implementations, the majority of the time the support is outsourced to an external contractor who was not involved with the original project implementation. This presents several problems;
- Time to process requests takes longer due to the investigation time required
- The triage process is not aligned with overall strategic business objectives or improvement plan
- Important fixes highlighted by end users require extensive business cases and take months to develop/deploy
- Deployment of changes requires several rounds of UAT before being deemed acceptable, due to a lack of subject matter knowledge around the system
- Lack of oversight process to detect recurring issues and assess entire solution architecture in terms of fitness for purpose
What can Vueterra offer? Vueterra is proud to offer a fully-manned and in-house Jira Service Desk as part of our post-project support offering.
What does this mean for you? You can expect the following benefits;
- Dedicated service desk team for your project
- Extensive service ticket triage and prioritization process in consultation with Vueterra management and yourself as the client
- Attention to detail when handling requests
- Fast ticket resolution times
- Weekly calls with Vueterra management to discuss outstanding tickets and any recurring themes which require longer term change management
05. IMPROVE
Continuous Improvement is part of our core DNA at Vueterra and we live and breathe this through one of our core service offerings – the Supply Chain Health Check. This service addresses both the qualitative aspect (people and processes) as well as the quantitative aspect (systems and data) to provide you with a rounded picture of how your supply chain is performing.
As part of any project implementation, we can include a complimentary Supply Chain Health check 6 months post-implementation to assess how your operation has handled the change and whether there are any immediate improvement initiatives that can be stood up to assist in resolving lingering issues.