Implementation and support
Alongside the communications and change management activities described above the project team and the supplier should be agreeing any revisions and extensions to the specification for the pilot - including integration with a line of business system - reviewing every detail of the implementation plan for the pilot and ensuring that all the milestones and check points are in place.
The following represents some of the core milestones:
Dates for workshops and meetings;
Dates for RM planning meetings - reviewing folders and defining folders on system
Date to agree business process management requirements
Date for draft changes to specification
Date for agreed specification
Date for solution to be ready for supplier testing in their own environment
Date for pilot solution to be brought on site
Date for testing integration with line of business system
Date for any backfile conversion to be completed and data loaded on system
Date for any data migration to be completed and data loaded on system
Date for user and operator and records management and system administration training sessions
Go live date for pilot implementation
Date for formal acceptance test
Date for end of floor walking support
Both parties need to agree how far ahead of the start of the pilot the team should go into the department to start the planning and support process and how long after acceptance the team will need to stay to provide floor walking support.
If a complex integration with an existing line of business system is required then this will extend the timescales and increase the amount of support required.
The time taken to set up the folders and agree the indexing rules will again vary depending on how many different types of records are handled by the team.
Day one forward or backfile conversion?
One decision which has to be agreed is whether you introduce the system on a day one forward basis or whether you do some backfile conversion.
One example would be in student administration. You currently have a paper folder on each student linked by a number to the data records held on the student on the administration system. Should you just close that paper folder and open up a new electronic folder part and go forward with an electronic folder and a closed paper folder? Another option would be to scan the contents of the paper folder and load it into a new electronic folder for that student.
We would certainly not advise education organisations to scan old closed paper files early on in the project. The choice between the two options above will depend on the level of activity on the existing paper.
Generally speaking it is expensive and time consuming to do large scale backfile scanning and indexing exercises so we would tend towards the day one forward approach in most cases. When the system is rolled out you can then identify areas where you are retrieving high volumes of paper folders and do selected backfile scanning.
