Step Three - Pilot/s

Communications and Change Management

Well in advance of the start date for the pilot you need to follow your change management and communications plan and the project team and the supplier need to start holding workshops with the users in the pilot department and their records management support.

At a high level you need to promote the vision for EDRM in the institution as a whole and in that department in particular. You should stress the benefits at all levels and make the point that the extra effort required in the short term to implement the solution will result in significant benefits in the medium term.

You need to ensure that the staff in that pilot department have confidence that the implementation has been well planned and is being tightly managed. You need to ensure that they feel that they are a vital part of a well planned and well supported implementation.

You should state clearly the number of users to be given access to the system during the pilot. You should define the input processes to be supported; the management facilities to be provided; the output facilities and any collaborative and business process management facilities that will be developed specifically for the pilot.

One important area to cover in the pilot and at each step of the roll outs is whether the solution is being implemented on a "day one forward" basis or whether it will include backfile scanning and/or data migration.

You should provide them with a clear indication of how the new solution will integrate with desktop office software and the line of business application/s used by that department.

You should also go on to explain what will happen at the end of the pilot – how the solution will be rolled out in their department and the support that will be available at all stages.

You should provide them with the dates for user training and an outline of what will be covered in the training session.

You should explain the process that will be gone through with their records support staff and the supplier to agree how the folders in that department will be set up on the system to fit into the classification scheme and file plan.

Finally you should provide them with the go live date and the plan for floor walking support for the agreed period and then the switch over to help desk support for technical queries and to the project team and the records support staff for other queries relating to the folder structure etc.

The plan should include provision for detailed reviews and reporting processes and should include the dates for the user acceptance test.