Acturis Platform Implementation
The Plot 60 Way
In order to implement a new Acturis software-as-a-service platform, you need excellent project management, outstanding subject matter expertise, executive support, and a great plan. There are a few more things you need however.
As with any major software implementation, you are changing the entire operation of the company, and if it’s not done correctly you can create costly disruptions to your business as well as have major budget overruns and a longer-than-planned implementation. Studies have shown that around 50% of all major IT projects are not implemented on time or within budget.
Our experience of successfully completing many Acturis implementations shows that paying close attention to each of the seven critical areas outlined below will lead to a much smoother, lower risk and more successful implementation. Smoothing out the project means lower direct and indirect costs too.
Effective project management
Conversions to major new systems often get off track because companies fail to plan the project realistically or they don’t execute or manage the project by a plan. An Acturis software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform implementation is not just an IT project. Companies need to maintain overall control, maintaining joint responsibility with the business functions and all suppliers, including Acturis, in the project planning process and in maintenance of the project plan status.
All key business functions and stakeholders should have representation on the project team including, where appropriate, call centre, web, compliance, legal, customer servicing, management, marketing and finance. Team members should share responsibilities for conversion, training and successful completion of the project tasks.
As the end client, your job is to develop the detailed plan with input from both Acturis, any other suppliers, and the business, backed up with detailed tasks, interdependencies and estimates.
Clients need to plan for contingencies, and try to keep disruptions to the business and the end customers to a minimum.
Go-lives should be scheduled wherever possible for the quietest business periods, taking account however that this is likely to coincide with the time most staff will want to take their holidays.
An Acturis platform implementation project should have an executive manager clearly assigned who will act and fully perform the role of project sponsor. The project should be reviewed periodically by a steering committee to track its progress and ensure that senior management across the business remain up-to-speed and committed to success.
Once a plan is established it is vital the project continues to be managed by the plan and the plan changed where necessary. This sounds elementary, but in our experience many companies stumble with this aspect, particularly when issues start to emerge.
Early in the project we would recommend publishing a project status report, as a minimum bi-weekly and within within the final 30 days of go-live, hold daily meetings to ensure all the actual implementation runs smoothly.
Adoption of improved processes, procedures and best-practice
Many companies fail to address the business process and procedure changes that could make the most of their new Acturis platform. This means they are less able to gain the desired efficiencies from implementing an up-to-date and streamlined system.
What existing procedures and systems can you strip away to add efficiency? What new processes and procedures are required or desirable? What best practices should be considered and implemented? These are just as important as a successful implementation of the new platform.
Avoiding modification
Acturis is a highly configurable platform, allowing it to be implemented in many different types of businesses but one of the most prevalent mistakes that companies make in implementing a new Acturis platform is trying to configure it to replicate every last feature of their existing systems.
Worse still, modifications can significantly increase cost, lengthen the implementation timeframe and increase risk.
We’ve seen companies insist on lengthy and costly modifications, only to realise in the first year of operation that there were better ways of using the new Acturis platform than trying to replicate the old.
Configuration is detailed work that often takes several weeks of consideration and careful execution. It’s important to understand the consequences of how a configuration option is set and perform thorough testing.
Successful data migration
Depending upon your existing systems your customer and business data could be residing in many databases, each containing tens, if not hundreds of database tables, so you need to allow enough time to decide upon and rehearse your Acturis data migration strategy.
The overarching concerns we would encourage you to consider to ensure a successful data migration include:
- Deciding what data should be converted
- Work out what history should be migrated
- Consider how non-matching data should be “mapped” into the Acturis platform and where data is missing, what “defaulting” strategy will be implemented in each case
- During the conversion, ensure the quality of the conversion is assessed in terms of the accuracy of the data converted
- Consider the cut-over plan to the new Acturis platform and how this will be managed this so that the data is current at the go-live and without impacting the business or your customers
Sufficient instances of the Acturis platform
You will need multiple instances (or copies) of the Acturis platform. This is an area we find clients typically underestimate and try to “make do” in order to keep costs and management overheads to a minimum.
As well as the “live” or production version we would recommend you give consideration to separate instances for configuration, possibly a system integration environment, instances to support the various stages of testing and a separate training environment.
Attention to training
Probably the most under-planned area is in training.
The approach we would typically recommend is to “train the trainer.” From there, it’s your responsibility to develop training materials and approaches for the various parts of your business and any new policies and operating procedures that are required. An additional benefit of this approach is that typically these trainers become system “super users”, expert in all aspects of the Acturis platform and so can perform an extremely valuable role post-implementation.
It generally takes 6-12 months after implementation for companies to start feeling really comfortable with any major new system. Training is the single most important thing you can do to shorten the learning curve.
We would also generally recommend a post implementation audit 30 to 60 days after the go-live to identify the individuals and departments for which additional training might be is necessary.
Thorough testing
Everything must be thoroughly tested — configuration, modifications, integrations, data migration. Testing means having the time and the involvement of the users, and then comparing test results to expected outcomes.
We would recommend running all the business processes, both “front-office” and “back-office” from beginning to end. Using scripted test data for every type of function. Also, testing the interfaces to other systems and receiving and processing website transactions to the Acturis platform.
If you have developed your training materials and evolved your business processes and procedures this is an excellent chance to see how effective they are and how they need to be fine-tuned.
