A few weeks ago, we made a significant investment in business technology. It's a software tool for sales and marketing, so we've all been involved in the selection. Christmas week, they launched our onboarding which started with a kick-off call and concluded with three rounds of training on the platform. While CPS is not usually on the client side, we've decided to use this experience as an exercise to make our client onboarding even more valuable. Overall, we've been impressed with the technology, the trainers, and the process, and we are reminded of the importance of onboarding.
Onboarding is the phase a customer goes through in between deciding that you want to purchase new software, and being a fully trained user of this software, knowing exactly how to extract the most value from the new tools. In technology terms, new software onboarding –is software installation, deployment, and training, that helps you and your team to be successful by preparing you for using the new software and providing support every step of the way.
Those readers who work with us will be familiar with our onboarding program. The framework for onboarding typically looks like this:
The decision to go with Laserfiche/CPS is made.
The client internally communicates to the team about the purchase and any upcoming change management duties. CPS appoints a project manager. Roles are also assigned. Stakeholder team changes happen, if necessary. Functions and teams may already be in place from an RFP process.
Prerequisite Review- This review is a series of questions for the IT team to unearth possible challenges and roadblocks for a Laserfiche implementation from an IT perspective. Critically, it identifies backups that need to occur, if the current OS meets requirements, and which IT teams need to be involved, and other potential issues.
Kick-off meeting and the project begins- CPS and the client determine the timeline based on the unique deployment playbook developed for the client. Tasks will be outlined and assigned to teams.
Checkpoint meetings-The CPS project manager updates status and tasks. Challenges are addressed, and the playbook is modified as necessary.
Pre Deployment meetings- This meeting aims to determine "go" or "no go" status. This meeting is held for both test and production environments.
The system is deployed.
Necessary backups are performed.
System startup
Training starts when the testing environment is launched. Some clients prefer a "train the trainer" approach, and others run through training in teams (IT, Clerk's Office, etc.) If the client has VIP support, they have access to unlimited training.
CPS performs a yearly system check for VIP clients to ensure the client leverages the total value of Laserfiche.
Training continues as required.
Those of you who aren't a CPS client may want to review the thoroughness of your onboarding and rethink your Laserfiche Partner. If you want to know more, don't hesitate to contact us.
