Working Together – The SmartSimple Process Part Three – Getting Started

Welcome to part three in our Working Together – The SmartSimple Process series. Today we’re going to cover the steps and activities involved with the implementation of your own SmartSimple system.

Congratulations!

You’ve weighed the options and have made the decision to make SmartSimple your new grants, research or claims management system. Now it’s time to get started.

The SmartSimple project team structure

Meet your Implementation Team

Now that you’ve chosen SmartSimple, your Account Manager will introduce you to your Implementation Team. This team consists of a Project Manager and a select group of business and technical resources who will manage your project from implementation to launch.

Along with our team, we’ll need some people from your organization to be our guides to your existing process. The key roles that are required to participate from both sides are:

• Executive Sponsors – Responsible for being the project sponsors and escalation points for the project.
• Core Project Team/Project Manager – Responsible for running the project and approving deliverables.
• Technical Resource Team – Responsible for specific technical functional areas of the project.

Requirements Review and creating your Statement of Work (SOW)

Before we can start building your SmartSimple system, we need to get an idea of how things are currently managed at your organization, so our first step is to conduct a thorough requirements review.

This usually involves a few days where we come to your office to meet with key members of your team. We’ll sit down and talk to you in depth about how you work, who does what, pain points with your current system and what you find works well. We also take time to review any process documentation currently in use. All this helps us with the next step, the SOW.

Project teams meet weekly, bi-weekly or monthly as required.

Your SOW defines the project, and is based on the information provided at the on-site visit. The SOW outlines the details of the project, including fees, effort and timelines. This becomes the guide to your implementation.

Let’s go!

Depending on the scope and size of the project, your team may meet weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. During these meetings, updates on the work being done is reviewed, testing tasks on the growing system are assigned and issues discussed. Regular user testing at each stage of implementation is vital to make sure any concerns are addressed before you go live.

Stay tuned for the next article in our Working Together series, the training process. In the meantime, be sure to check out the events section of our website for upcoming webinars.