Client Agreement
Digitial transformation projects change and redefine the most important aspects of how a company deals with customers, employees and partners. This type of change requires input and buy in from the leadership team's direct involvement in decisions, issue resolution and change management. Agreement to these principles will naturally keep the project on schedule, budget and reduce project stress, while preparing the company for acceptance of the changes made by the new ERP system.
Executive Business Sponsor
CEO/Owner/President devotes 2 hours per week to the project. This will be used for 45-minute one-on-one personal meetings with program manager, 15 preparation and/or follow up on issues, and co-chairing the 60-minute weekly steering committee meetings with the program manager.
Executive Committee Co-Sponsors
Executive Committee Team members give 3 hours per week to receive weekly updates from project team, attend demonstrations, resolve issues, and set strategic direction on application requirements, and to present project team's progress on agreed upon project objectives. For example, the CFO will personally present weekly on the progress, decisions made, open issues and risks for the Finance workstreams progress on configurations of the Chart of Accounts, Bank set ups, and P&L report set ups.
Project Team Members
Client will provide "up-and-coming company leaders" to the project who have been with the company for at least one year to contribute 40 hours per week during Requirements Phase, 20 hours per week during Design Phase, 10 hours per week during Build Phase, 40 hours per week during Testing, 40 hours per week during Deployment phase. There is one Client Team lead and one back up person for each workstream. Client will provide one project management leader who can work with Team Bennett Consulting program manager to be trained to manage upcoming projects on the digital confirmation journey after Team Bennett Consulting completes the deployment of the project.
Stay in the Box
All efforts will be directed towards understanding how the application is built and bending the company process to utilize the application. Exceptions are only made for revenue generating requirements that are not met by core system functionality. The exceptions will follow the project's change management process because they will impact budget, schedule and resource skill sets.
Buy Not Build
Microsoft's strategy is to work with partners to supply key functionality rather than build it and incorporate it into the Dynamics 365 project. Examples are banking integrations, taxation and automated testing. These purchases should be negotiated and purchased no later than Week 4 of the project.
1st Release is a Foundation Release
The first phase of the ERP is for Sales and Finance. Sales includes lead=>prospect=>account=>sale for the lead=>quote=> order business process. Finance includes deploying the GL, AP, AR, Fixed Assets, Cash & Bank and Tax modules to deliver the Order to Cash and Record to Report business processes. Other modules can be included but its best to keep the first phase manageable and get the return on investment from the Sales process improvements and the Finance back office completed in the Foundation release.
Client Supplied Skill Sets
The following skills are extremely important for a digital transformation project and future growth of any company. Team Bennett Consulting will assist and train Client team to be successful in these areas and shares accountability with client for the successful delivery of these areas.
Reporting - reporting requirements never stop in a forward-thinking company. It is best for the Client to hire their own business intelligence experts. If reporting requirements for the digital transformation project are complex, a separate contract with a Data Analytics firm is recommended to partner with Client's Reporting team.
Communications/Organization Change Management - Digitial transformation projects usually require organization realignments, changes in the client's operating model and the use of technology to reduce manual work. This is best handled by internal change management experts who know how to utilize change champions, craft specific messages and communication techniques.
Training/UAT Testing - Client project team members will do the majority of the training and User Acceptance Testing of the system during the later phases of the project.
Environment management/System Administration - System Administration responsibilities will be required at least biannually after the foundation release is deployed and should be supplied by the client team. After completion of online training at www.learn.microsoft.com/ and in conjunction with a Team Bennett Consultant, the System Administration team will be self-sufficient and knowledgeable on the client's deployment.