Chapter 8 – System Launch / Go-Live
Finally, you are all set and done. The house is ready everything is working and you are ready to move in! Kudos! With the excitement of moving in there are chances wherein you might miss on some small last minute validations like checking if the switches are working correctly or not. Imaging that you switch on the button to turn on the A/c and by mistake it switched on the light and vice-a-versa. Although the concern may not be that big however it impacts your first impression. Let us understand here as to what all one needs to do to ensure perfection in the first go itself.
The above situation seems to be realistic and the same can also happen during any system implementation also. To ensure that the customer is delighted and there is highest level of customer satisfaction it is recommended that the below set of actions are validated quickly before we send the communication to the employees’ WRT the system launch.
1. Validation of the configuration WRT the templates shared – it is highly recommended that the functional consultant does one level of check at his end WRT the mapping shared in the configuration sheets. There are multiple aspects which need to be validated WRT the configurations which have been mentioned in the attached excel sheet. It is recommended that the user refers to the attached template and reviews the same thoroughly WRT the production set up also.
2. Validation of module wise dependencies as mentioned in Chapter 1
3. Features enabled on UAT vs. the ones enabled on production. This check should be done based on the feature list mentioned in Chapter 1.
4. Keeping a track of nuances that may follow post the launch WRT the project plan. You need to refer to Chapter 1 – Nuances in single phase and multiple phase implementation
5. List of Do’s and Don’ts mentioned in Chapter 3.
6. Review of all the UAT observations that would have been reported during the UAT phase in the observation tracker mentioned in Chapter 5.
7. Communication with all stakeholder WRT launch – the implementation of Alt will impact all the employees within the customer location. Some employees will be excited about the new technology and others will be apprehensive about the same. With communications one should make sure that all the employees are appropriately and enthusiastically aligned with the vision and the steps taken to improve their experience. It will assist in winning their cooperation and support. Sample communications have been attached for your reference.
8. Determining the support SLA and the expectation – It is important to ensure that there is adequate support staff available to assist the employees with the use of the system during the initial 10-15 days of the system Go Live. A tentative structure could be as shown below – Along with the functional consultant and implementation engineer, we should also have people who would manage the day to day queries from the helpdesk team along with people who would able to resolve most of the queries at their end.
9. Completion of cut-over tasks – there are several activities like migration of data, updating the leave balances, updating the employee master. It is therefore recommended that all the cut over tasks are thoroughly reviewed and signed off before the launch date
10. Preparation of user manual and cheat sheets – Cheat sheets and user manuals are invaluable to the new system users and can be a life saver during the initial days of go live. These are small pocket size
instructions of key system functionalities. Each of these lists should be verified for accuracy and completeness prior to the final go live.
11. Sending welcome email to all employees
12. Pulling the switch – Finally the date has arrived and your system is ready to be used. Take a deep breath, logon your system and begin your work day. Despite of best effort and work some challenges will arise
but you should be able to work through them and move forward with the help from support team.
13. Celebrating – Be sure that you take the time to acknowledge all you have learnt and done. Take time to celebrate your success of the successful Alt implementation.