I’ve touched on this in the past but it is such an important step in the software evaluation/selection process that I wanted to get into more detail. The steps below are designed around a Talent Acquisition System and would be modified accordingly based on whether it is a core HR system, Talent Management System, etc.
HRchitect provides highly specialized pre-implementation consulting services that will enable your organization to “hit the ground running” upon the initiation of the implementation of your selected HR or Talent Management System and will help to ensure meeting your desired system live date. Please note that the decisions made, data gathered and documentation created during the pre-implementation effort would be pertinent to whichever vendor solution that you finally select. Often times these services are delivered during the vendor contract negotiations period.
HRchitect’s pre-implementation service offering addresses the following key areas:
- Project scope and deployment strategy
- High-level timeline definition
- Review of the vendor deployment methodology and project documentation
- Project team organization
- Critical success factors definition
- Risk mitigation strategy
- Critical requirements analysis and initial system foundation configuration definition specific to:
- Core foundation data structures (i.e., organizations, departments, locations, job codes, etc.)
- High-level hiring process and on-boarding flows
- Candidate career portal structure, process flows and scope (i.e., number of required portals and languages)
- Integration touch points and high-level scope requirements
- Development of a configuration workbook to document key configuration decisions
- Development of initial Change Management/System Adoption and Training Plans
- Facilitate the gathering of system content (correspondence, letters, forms, job templates, source lists, etc.)
The service offering is expected to be conducted over a six week period with only one onsite kickoff session with the critical project leads. The remainder of the project will be conducted virtually. The timing of the service delivery can occur during contract negotiations or prior to the actual kickoff of the implementation.
In addition, the purpose of this deliverable is to leverage the availability of an already existing project team (i.e., as used during the system evaluation and selection process). It’s designed to enable the team so as to not lose any momentum during contract negotiations and while the project team waits for the vendor team to be assigned to the project. During this period of time, the project team can begin the planning, analysis and collection activities that are critical to a successful deployment. As such, the project team will be able to “hit the ground running” when the implementation actually begins since they would have completed a significant amount of pre-work. This will shorten the actual project definition and analysis and design phases of the implementation enabling the vendor to successfully deliver a configured solution more quickly.
From a client perspective, the pre-implementation planning service delivery brings the following critical value points:
- Maintain project momentum
- Utilize what is traditionally project downtime
- Have more time to address difficult decision points without impacting the implementation project timeline
- Gain knowledge concerning the system functionality
- Be more prepared for the implementation
- Speed up the implementation enabling the system Go Live date to occur earlier
The value to the vendor is:
- The client shows up to the project kickoff prepared and educated
- Less time is required on analysis and design and data gathering
- There is less opportunity for making incorrect configuration decisions that negatively impact the project timeline
- The project timeline is shorter
The following identifies the tasks and deliverables associated with the pre-implementation planning service delivery:
Initial preparation
- Project Initiation Call
- Review of pre-implementation checklist
- Draft Agenda for Onsite Session
- Initial review of project documentation in preparation for onsite sessions
Onsite Planning Session
- Define implementation scope and create scope document
- Define deployment strategy and create project milestone document
- Review vendor methodology and project documentation
- Create high-level timeline
- Define project team organization and create project team organization document
- Conduct one day product overview/training session
- Conduct functional requirements analysis
- Conduct foundation configuration analysis
- Create configuration workbook for key functional and process requirements
- Conduct technical kickoff meeting (integration, conversion, web tasks) and create scope and high level requirements documentation
Conduct Change Management/Communication/Risk Mitigation workshop
- Define critical success factors
- Conduct risk analysis
- Develop risk mitigation document
- Develop communication matrix template
Conduct Training Strategy workshop
- Develop training deployment matrix template
Conduct up to 6 (for domestic-only projects) or 12 (for global projects) virtual working sessions to continue review of the following key areas and update the configuration workbook:
- Foundation configuration discussions (core data structures)
- Foundation configuration discussions (hiring processes)
- Career portal configuration discussions
- Content gathering (correspondences, templates, other)
- On-boarding configuration discussions (process and content)
- Technical preparation (integration touch points, web development tasks, conversion requirements)
Visit www.HRchitect.com for more information.
Matt Lafata, HRchitect
