Workplace as a function - All inclusive
In last week's blog post, we reviewed the needs and requirements of the business. The final part of this blog series is about the workplace as a function and its delivery.
The basic needs of the business around the workplace drive the requirements. These requirements, in turn, result in a complete technical solution, which in turn is driven by the processes and procedures agreed between the company and its supplier:
- Ordering and delivery
- Management
- Service and support
- Communication & Reporting
It is important that the service handles all the processes that affect the workplace. Think All inclusive.
Introduction
Before these processes can be applied and the delivery of the new platform can begin, all the service components in place and the technical system support must be established and adapted in line with the cooperation of the parties. We call this establishment phase the transition project. This project is led by AddPro and is guided by the conditions set out in the feasibility study and the objectives and budget set.
System support
Many parts of the transition project involve establishing system support for the processes that will apply during the contract period. Examples include:
- Ordering portal with attestation support and asset register
- Distribution system for images, software and patching
- Support system for reporting and:
-Incident
-Change
-Problems
-Release
In addition, there are the required integrations, for example with Active Directory (AD) and others, to support attestation and role-based application deployment.
The systems mentioned above are often present at the customer's premises in one form or another. Here, it is important to be pragmatic and choose a path based on conditions. This may mean that one or more of the customer's equivalent systems is a simpler and cheaper route with good price/performance and low risk.
Roll-out logistics - Important!
The user-facing elements of the implementation are important to manage well. One such thing is the roll-out of new equipment to the business. This needs to be prepared very carefully and the plan should include both Plan B and Plan C. Delivering new workstations and cash registers, on the appointed day, to each employee, for example, to a retail chain with a presence in 400 locations, is very demanding. It's all about making sure everything works, from configuration and installation, to receiving goods at the local offices and taking back existing equipment.
AddPro always has a dedicated sub-project manager for complex client deployments. This allows us to re-use the experience gained from delivering 1000s of devices to larger companies and organisations, which has proved invaluable.
Own configuration factory
AddPro's own configuration factory in Sundbyberg, means that project managers have unparalleled control over the rollout processes. This becomes important when things go wrong, as they sometimes do, and the proximity and control over the configuration allows for quick resolution of problems or replanning to plan B when required. This can include problems with configuration files, new changed customer delivery dates and more. This becomes very difficult to manage if configuration is outsourced or done in the manufacturer's factory on another continent.
Common process instruction
We started this post by describing the importance of processes and procedures during delivery. An important part of the implementation involves writing down and aligning the respective responsibilities of the customer/supplier, and detailing how a change will be made, how support will be provided, how decisions will be made and so on. The final product is called the delivery instruction and should be signed by both parties.
The Delivery Instruction then becomes the parties' joint instruction manual for how we will work together with our common recipients of the service, namely your company's users.
Finally
We hope this short blog series has given you an insight into how AddPro both implements and delivers workplace as a feature at a fixed cost per user per month. We've touched on the overall methodology that starts in a needs analysis, then translates into a solution, and finally implementation and delivery according to a well-developed framework.
We at AddPro are here if you are curious to know more, or perhaps share experiences by meeting other customers of AddPro who have been in the same boat. Speaking of boats, fingers crossed we have a great summer, but don't forget your life jacket!
