The implementation of new business systems is a costly and time consuming operation that requires careful management if business as usual is not to be adversely affected.

Unfortunately it is the case that despite meticulous planning many IT projects fail to deliver the expected business benefits. In most cases these ?failure points? are entirely avoidable.

Developed over many successful implementations, SBA is confident that its approach engineers out the recognised areas of failure.

Quality In Design

Successful projects depend on gaining a clear understanding of the rationale and timescale for change. Quality time spent at the initiation of a project decreases the potential for misunderstanding later, when it is both costly and time consuming to effect.

Following a scoping exercise SBA will produce a solution design document to demonstrate our understanding of the requirement and to validate the appropriateness of the solution offered.

Where required SBA can assist clients in the preparation of a clear business plan to justify the investment and serve as a benchmark against which the project outcome can be assessed.

Structure & Ownership

A project with a clear structure and acknowledged ownership does not guarantee success alone, but it goes a long way!

Projects, by definition, are temporary and not all organisations can accommodate the roles and responsibilities from within their existing organisational structure. SBA works jointly with our clients to produce an efficient project structure and to identify areas of essential client ownership.

Collaborative Implementation

It is generally accepted that solutions designed and built in a collaborative manner deliver the expected benefits more quickly and at a significantly lower cost.

With an agreed and clear design, SBA’s role is to manage the build process using their product and industry knowledge to help clients configure and populate their systems in the most optimal and efficient way.

This phase is invariably the most demanding in terms of time required from a client?s operational team and with this in mind SBA has developed techniques and tools, including pre configured solution components, to keep the effort required to a minimum.

SBA recommends that, wherever possible, modifications to a standard system are avoided. We work creatively and innovatively with clients to find suitable workarounds.

Legacy System Support

Moving to a new business system solution can be a demanding and distracting time for clients, who throughout the period must ensure that their existing systems support the business as usual.

If required, SBA has the experience and resources in its Business Solutions Helpdesk to reduce the impact by providing critical business support during the project implementation.

This not only allows the organisation to function as normal but affords key project members the time to focus on the new system thereby minimising the go live lead time.

Targeted Training & Early Knowledge Transfer

SBA encourages the training process to begin at the commencement of the project, believing that this facilitates early buy in and underwrites the quality of solution design.

The training methods deployed by SBA are formal at the outset and informal during the various project phases, the latter are invariably carried out during the implementation process and using client relevant scenarios.

The benefit of this training and early transfer of knowledge can not only be felt during the implementation phases but as importantly during the post go live phase, when consultants can become an expensive support resource!