Hey, everybody, Matt Thompson here with the Estes Group and going to run you through just the Cliff Notes version of what peak methodology is, how we approach it and why it’s good for projects.
So what is our approach to Peak Methodology?
It’s made up of really a best practice model that consists of three different things, number one being our methodology itself which is a five-stage methodology made up of prepare, educate, architect, validate and stabilize. It’s a hybrid methodology that brings in some traditional waterfall, breaks into some agile methodologies where we sprint things out and then we go back into that traditional waterfall for the validate and stabilize.
We also incorporate that in with a lot of fact finding and understanding that rolls into your statement of work, and we couple all of that experience that comes at you from not only years of experiences of our own folks and our own team and Estes Group itself, but also thousands and thousands of projects that are backed by Epicore and our certification that we have with them.
So how do we break that down?
Prepare, we want to establish that project scope. We want to really get the understanding of our schedule and resources on both internal and external, and all of that comes out and culminates through the project plan development. We use an online project planning tool so that you have full visibility to that any time, real time, all the time.
All of that comes out through our best practice reviews. So what we do is we engage with you guys, we come out, we take a really good look at the business, we go through some in-depth workshops and we come out of that understanding what the scope of the project needs to be, what are the key processes, the Achilles’ heels that we are going to see for your business, for your project, because every single one is different, so we attack it in that way.
Then we go into education. Key thing here, core module education. We’re level setting vocabulary. Consultants tend to speak Klingon and clients tend to have their very own language that they’d developed over the years, so we need to level set that so that we can have good, beneficial, architectural conversations coming up.
So here’s where we then break in and we do the architecture prototyping of your project, and this is where we take that spin and we go into agile. So we break that down towards nice and neat monthly springs. So every month you go through the exact same processes as you did the month prior, so you know you’re going to be launching a spring. You’re going to be working through data migration for the activities within that sprint, and you’re going to be finalizing processes by the end of the month for that sprint, and anything else that shakes out of that is coming out into a development track on the side, might need customization, custom reports, dashboards, those kinds of things, right?
So the idea here is though is it creates consistency, repeatability and a really clear understanding of exactly how you’re going to take all of those bites out of that whale of an ERP project. We document all of those results through workflow in the EUPs, so if you use Exall and EKM, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about there for those tools. Otherwise, we have some other tools available through different Excel templates called biostream scripts and those kinds of things and those kinds of things and then EUP templates to make sure you’re documenting every last procedure. Click here, save here, do what you need to do there and then go. Key is you’re go live ready at the end of this stage.
So then we break that down and we go into validate. We want to make sure that you’re doing a full dress rehearsal here. That includes a cutover process. That’s different than a lot of other folks in how they approach it out there, so make sure you understand how you’re going to prove that you are ready for go live and proving it is the most important step, because if you don’t and you try to just go live, never seen one of those be successful, right? So make sure you go through… you do the dress rehearsal, you know what’s going to happen and then odds are for go live day, you’re going to be really prepared for what might happen.
So when you do all that it just goes right into stabilizing. So it should be a very natural cutover and transition at that stage of the game. You have final training that needs to be caught up. You go live. You stabilize the system where we’re monitoring, we’re helping, any of the little things that pop up here and there, we’re helping troubleshoot and triage, but very typically at this stage of the game it gets to be pretty light.
So Estes Group is tailing off drastically at this stage of the game. You guys are ramping up, and you’re starting to see that ROI because money is not going out the door; you’re using the system now for good information on what you’re doing.
So with that, start a conversation with us. Love to hear from you. Love to hear what your thoughts are on the methodology and what you just saw here today. There is a longer version of this out there so if you want to hear in more detail and more of what my thoughts are on the project methodology, by all means take a look at that video, go on to our YouTube channel and you’ll be able to find that.
You’ll also find it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and start conversations with us. You can hit us up on any of those three at any point in time. I pretty well monitor them real time and as well hit us on our website. Ask an expert comes directly into my inbox. I’ll be glad to talk you with you about any of your questions you may have and then as well [email protected] is monitored by several of us here, and any one of us will be happy to get back to you as quick as we can. Thank you guys very much. Looking forward to the next one.
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The 3 Things EstesGroup Consultants want for Christmas:
Tis the season and along with everyone else out there your Epicor Consultant has a wishlist for Christmas as well. We hope everyone enjoys their holidays with friends and family and has a safe and Happy New Year. Thank you all for a fantastic 2014.
1. A good carry-on
Find me one that I can’t demolish in a year’s travel and can organize a week’s worth in a carry on.
2. Bigger Battery
Flights and airport time take up a lot of time and don’t have a lot of access to power outlets. How are they supposed to watch that movie?
3. Testimonials:
Who doesn’t like it when someone speaks highly about you? This is the biggest satisfaction point to any good consultant and they thrive on receiving high praise. This is their number one goal and the best thing is that means they have to do a bang up job for you to get there. Help them help you!
Now you know what your consultants want for Christmas. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a world of difference when you travel weekly. /epicor-consulting/epicor-ecommerce
This is how the EstesGroup approaches Epicor 10 Project Management in a nut shell. Watch this brief video to understand the things we do differently within our approach to your projects. Read more here: /epicor-consulting/our-approach/peak-methodology
The 1980s were a golden age for independent music in America. Shunned by popular radio, American indie bands filled their Econoline vans with amplifiers and drum kits and set out for the open road. At a rate of a show a night, they reached their audience from beyond the confines of the traditional recording industry. And in the absence of major label coddling, they founded independent record labels and created independent distribution networks, all outside of the mainstream. In doing so, they reconceptualized the Do-It-Yourself (D-I-Y) ethos as applicable to areas well beyond basement breweries and backyard patio projects.
This D-I-Y ethos is not unfamiliar to most ERP consultants. The popular conception of consultant life resembles the back sleeve of a men’s magazine: a life of executive suites and first class flights, champagne after takeoff or a plush robe and a goblet of brandy before bed. The reality of the average consultant’s life resembles that of many indie bands: tightly packed flying closets with dive-bomb economy landings onto the short tracks of major airports, so vast and confusing as to comprise cities within cities, compact car rentals and hotels splitting the five star rating system in two, with a glass of OJ from concentrate and a reconstituted egg patty for breakfast. We make it work on a shoe string to keep the costs of implementation down for our clients, while providing the best personal service necessary for project success. Even still, the costs of travel figure significantly into the overall costs of an average implementation, comprising as much as 30% or more of project budgets.
This D-I-Y mentality finds a place similarly in the hearts of many small and medium-sized companies implementing ERP. When discussing consultation options with a prospective client, it is not uncommon to hear phrases like “we prefer to go-it-alone and pull in help only when it’s absolutely required.” Because of the costs of consultation, many small and medium-sized businesses view consultation as an either-or proposition: either implement independently and keep costs in check, or introduce consultation and blow the budget. Not surprisingly, many such companies choose to implement independently, but by choosing to do so, they risk falling into one many ERP implementation pitfalls, the kind that seasoned consultants could help a project team to avoid.
To mitigate this risk, some companies employ hybrid approaches, and technological innovations increasingly allow for such alternative implementation models. Some examples might include the following: * Many consultation efforts do not require full-day allocations and onsite visitations. Quite often, a two-hour prototyping session, facilitated by a web conferencing application, can move a project team forward. * A consultant with a VPN connection and a remote desktop can review a client’s GL structure and make recommendations. * Remote user training allows for modular and incremental learning, apportioned into manageable two-hour blocks that helps to avoid the educational fire hose-effect associated with full-day training sessions.*
Remote sessions help keep teams from stalling into idle between consultant visits, which reduces the pressure to pack all project progress into a monthly onsite session. Fundamentally, consultation is of benefit to clients when it furthers their project’s best interests—when it helps project teams gain the necessary traction to implement a system to meet the needs of the business. And such traction need not require an hourly quota. When working with your consulting partners, explore the options for remote work. Many projects will likely require some form of onsite engagement, but remote consultation may better fit your budget and your company’s culture, especially if you intend to D-I-Y.
If your business operates with silos in place it’s time to tear them down for good!
Many companies boast they have found the ERP software that is fully integrated and will serve the entire organization. When the principals make the decision to implement they are making a long term commitment. Once the company administrators and directors have performed their due diligence, a “new” integrated solution for the organization is born. The new addition will include a comprehensive ERP Solution together with state of the art technology. Does your business plan include an integrated solution? And if so why would you want to expend thousands of dollars to install and implement this new system without a firm commitment by all the employees in your company?
A Project implementation team cannot operate in a Silo
With each part only focusing on his or her area of the project, your company should be concentrating on breaking down silos in business. A well-managed organization with good leadership, will address how to handle and produce a quality implementation with its employees, and will take the time to motivate the employees to function as a team. I have been in several organization where the end users as well as the functional leads will only look at his or her area or department and refuse to take a look at the whole picture. Investopedia’s definition of ‘Silo Mentality’ as a business organizational structure is: “An attitude found in some organizations that occurs when several departments or groups do not want to share information or knowledge with other individuals in the same company. A silo mentality reduces efficiency and can be a contributing factor to a failing corporate culture”.
This kind of business organizational structure can also be one of the reasons an implementation project will fail. What’s more is some of the departmental employees operating in silos are not willing to spend time on the “Project” because they only have enough hours in the day to work on his or her “normal” work this will present a problem and slow progress. If a work plan was properly laid out at the beginning of the project there should be minimal grumbling by those that need to put in extra effort to achieve the overall organizational goal. Proper planning and expectations need to be set from the beginning, or employee cooperation and morale will erode quickly. The detailed work plan should be monitored and meetings held on a weekly or by weekly bases.
Finally the Project Manager will set the tone and take the lead, if he or she lacks the leadership ability and the skills require to spearhead the project, the project will be ill-fated and may require reorganization.
EstesGroup Remote Consulting can save you money and provide you a better implementation if done right. Watch how:
EstesGroup remote consulting mixes in with onsite visits to provide you a more flexible implementation schedule when the work still needs to get done. See more about our approach here: Epicor Consulting.
