As a follow up to our prior podcast “To Cloud or Not to Cloud”, we wanted to focus on the “Road to Cloud” once Oracle Cloud EPM has been selected.
Project Handoff – Sales to Delivery
The first turn on the Road to Cloud is a seamless handoff between the sales and project delivery teams. At EPMI, we conduct a series of internal knowledge transfer sessions to review the scope of the SOW and align consulting resources. We collaboratively identify requirements of higher complexity and dedicate tenured resources to address the challenge at hand.
Identifying Requirements
All Cloud EPM projects begin with the Requirements gathering phase. During these first 2-4 weeks, our consultants conduct white-boarding sessions to assess the current state and marry the requirements from the SOW to the future state. As a deliverable from this phase, our project and client teams jointly sign off on a Requirements Traceability Matrix, to define success criteria and prevent scope creep.
Design & Build
Once the requirements have been solidified, our consulting team goes into the design + build phase of the project. Here, the team will build the application based on the inputs from the client business team. As part of our pillars of success, we conduct several “application walkthroughs” while we are building the application. This allows us to incorporate user feedback into the final state design, while also familiarizing the client with the UX, terminology, and process flows within Cloud EPM. By integrating feedback at every step of the way, we ensure the final deliverables align with the client’s expectations.
SIT & UAT
Prior to go-live, our team conducts several weeks of testing and training. Systems Integration Testing (SIT) validates that the integrations function as expected and that data flows from source to target without a hitch. For User Acceptance Testing (UAT), we employ a “train the trainer” methodology, which allows the client team to be self-sufficient in maintaining the application post go-live. Each client receives an administrative document and Zoom training library, making onboarding new team members a breeze.
Go-Live & Support
Once SIT and UAT are completed and signed off, it’s time to go-live. All of our projects include 1 week of go-live support, and many of our customers opt to spread these support hours over high workload periods of the year. For example, during the annual planning cycle, it’s never a bad idea to have an EPMI resource in your back pocket in the event a data hierarchy or forecast calculation needs to be changed. We offer a broad range of post go-live managed services as the client teams grow into their EPM applications.
EPMI projects come in all shapes and sizes, from privately owned companies with less than 500 employees to the largest organizations in the world. With cloud, we apply the same project methodologies to build successful applications for customers across industries.
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