by Cloud for Good Blog | May 19, 2015 | Blog
This is a cross post from the Cloud for Good blog. This is the moment you have been planning and thinking about for the past 12/24/36 months. Your organization has finally made a decision and pulled the trigger. You choose a platform, signed with an awesome implementation partner who can translate your needs into technology, and you are extremely excited to get started. Wait… are you really ready to start the implementation? From our experience at Cloud for Good this is not always the case. Many organizations want to start the implementation immediately after they chose their implementation partner. Everyone wants to get up and running on the new system as soon as possible. To make sure that you and your organization are ready, you should review and answer the questions below. 1. Do you have an executive sponsor? The executive sponsor lends his or her influence to the project by becoming its champion. Having that person’s full support and participation—from the planning stage until the go-live date and beyond—is absolutely critical. Executive Sponsor Name: _______________________________ 2. Who will be the project manager? The project manager (PM) will own the implementation process and will guide the project to successful completion. S/he should be a person who understands the relevant business process and can effectively communicate with both the implementation partner and the rest of the organization. The PM needs to have an authority, whether explicit or through influence to marshal resources. We’ve all run into situations where the project manager is committed and talented, but cannot influence the rest of the organization. This person should have at least 30% of their...
by Cloud for Good Blog | May 12, 2015 | Blog
This is a cross post from the Cloud for Good blog. Looking back over the last several months since I joined the Cloud For Good team, I’ve noticed that some of the biggest angst for my clients comes at the end of a project. Wrapping up an implementation brings all sorts of mixed feelings: pride and excitement, but also a fair share of trepidation. This seems even more common with Quickstarts, forty-hour projects designed to get you into Salesforce as quickly as possible. After all, we’ve gotten you up and running in just a few short weeks, and suddenly you’re the proud owner of your very own Salesforce org. It can be thrilling – and overwhelming. It’s no surprise the that separation anxiety can rear its head when you least expect it, right at the tail end when you realize that your “one last question” is more like several hundred last questions. To make matters worse, your end users may feel the same way. Despite our best efforts, it’s impossible to fit in a truly exhaustive training for everyone, and even in the best circumstances, many people are intimidated by changes to systems and processes. So how do you conquer your anxiety and jump-start user adoption? Here are a few of my suggestions: My first words of advice are always to calm down and take a deep breath. You’ve got this; you really do. Make a couple lists to capture the things you want to do next and the questions you have about the system. That’s it. Your first step is just to write down all those thoughts and...
by Cloud for Good Blog | Mar 10, 2015 | Blog
This is a cross post from the Cloud for Good blog. When implementing new technology in your organization or expanding your existing system, a little bit of planning can go a long way in ensuring the success of your project. Planning the project well and having subject matter experts and/or experienced project managers can help the project move smoothly. Every project will have bumps in the road, but below are some tips that will help smooth out the bumps. Caution #1: Run your discovery sessions well. Now is the time to sit down with the main “sponsors” of the project (whether it’s the executive committee or a small team of people within a department) and your client team to make sure you fully understand what your teams needs. Allow your team to do a “brain dump” of their ideas, pain points, and needs. Don’t focus yet on the technological solution; just allow them to talk about their processes or desires, or even allow them to vent for a few minutes about what simply doesn’t work for them. Allow the conversation to be organic and go in its own direction, but don’t miss an opportunity to ask follow up questions. You may hear a tiny little factoid during a conversation that is crucial to the implementation. Also make sure you have documented those “exceptions” that always pop up every now and then. Sometimes the exceptions aren’t worth planning around, but sometimes they are. After the “brain dump” is finished, the questions are answered and you have a clear idea of what your project will look like, take some time to...
