The Revere Group - Lawson Solution

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The Revere Group - Lawson Solution
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Purpose
Title Audience By Purpose
Project Management Implementation
Methodology DePaul University IS560 Jon
Nace Principal The Revere Group Enterprise
Applications Solution Center Deerfield Office A
high-level overview of The Revere Groups project
management and implementation methodologies.
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Lawson / The Revere Group Market Position
Market Position

• Mid-tier ERP clients
• Robust modules (Financials, HR/Payroll,
  Procurement, Supply Chain)
• Partnership with Siebel for CRM
• Rebundled Hyperion tools for data mining
• Rapid implementation (lt12 months)
• Market Segments
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Professional Services
• E-business (everything not included above)

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Lawson Product / Service Mix

• Lawson Software
• Resell hardware and third party software
• Provide client education classes
• Provide Lawson specific consultant expertise

Product/ Service Mix
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The Revere Group Lawson Product / Service Mix

• Lawson Enterprise Consulting Partner (ECP)
• Project Management
• Implementations (Financials, HR/PR, Procurement,
  Supply Chain)
• Upgrades
• Platform migrations (AS400 to Unix, Unix to NT,
  etc.)
• Financial transformation (enhancing production
  Lawson systems)
• Desktop tabs, Process agents, Enterprise workflow
• Reporting enhancements
• Integration (ESSBASE, COGNOS, etc.)
• Analytic solutions (KPIs)
• Electronic distribution (broadcasting)
• Web-enablement (SEA, NED, eConsole)

Product / Service Mix
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Revere Solution Approach

• Our Consultants
• Lawson Relationship
• Implementation Approach

The overriding business challenge our clients
face today is identifying and implementing
innovative solutions in an increasingly
compressed timeframe. Our clients are challenged
in finding system integrators who understand the
fundamentals of building project momentum and
speed, while not losing focus on the complexities
driven by the relationships between people,
process and technology.
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Our Project Approach

• Complexity Driver Analysis
• People/Process Impact Surveys
• Process Complexities and Resource Eater
  Analysis
• Technical Complexities
• On-site Work Sessions

"The Discovery "
Resources
Deliverables
Timeframes

• Benefits
• Realistic Project Scope
• Tightly defined Project Cost
• Clearly stated Resource Commitments
• Timelines that can be met

Scope and Approach
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Managing a Project

• Prepare for the project
• Structure Set goals, objectives and definitions
• Start the project
• Plan Detail worksteps and resource allocations
• Engage resources
• Commence activity
• Execute and manage
• Assess Change Evaluate and implement change
  requests
• Control Measure progress against plans
• Report Give feedback on progress to council,
  management, and stakeholders
• Close the project
• Conclude Assess the project performance

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Project Staffing

• Properly staffing project is a key element for
  success
• Match project timeframe with consultant
  availability
• Match product suite with consultant skill set
• Match industry with consultant experience

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Processes, Actions and Deliverables
Assess Change Control the Project Report Project
Status
Conclude the Project
Structure the Project
Plan the Project
Initiate the Project Review and Confirm the
Project Charter Review and Assess Project
Baseline Develop Detailed Project Plan Obtain
Management Approval
Define Strategies and Direction Define
Project(s) Define Master Project Plan Develop
Initial Project Charters Obtain Management
Approval
Manage Scope Manage the Project Team and the
Development Process Communicate Project
Progress Review Final Stage Deliverables Review
Stage Performance
Review Final Phase Project Deliverables Review
Phase Performance Evaluate Methods and Recommend
Improvements Review Risks and Issues Evaluate
Performance of Project Team Close Down the
Project
ProjectCharter
ProjectPlan
Project Assessments
Initial Project Charter
Project Status
Approvals
Issues
Project Standards and Procedures
Issue Log
Project Control File
Issues
Project ControlFile
IssueLog
Project ControlFile
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Fused Implementation Approach

• Joint project kick-off (Lawson and Revere)
• Project co-management and full knowledge transfer
• People, process and technology focus to all
  implementations
• Full-time on-site project management and project
  support
• Heavy emphasis on quality management
• Bi-weekly Quality Advisor series
• Fused implementation with Lawson professional
  services

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Project Methodology
Knowledge Base Lawson Project
Practice Sets Web-Deployed
KBase
LPPS
Web
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Project Methodology Components

• People What impacts will the new
• system have on users?
• (change management)
• Process What business processes will
• change to maximize efficiency
• delivered by software?
• Technology What technical steps need to
• occur to move from legacy
• system to new system?

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XLR8 Methodology

• How can we minimize cost and time?
• Gap analysis delivered functionality to
  requirements
• Do processes need to be reengineered?
• Must delivered software be customized?
• What history must be converted?
• What third party interfaces must be built?
• Understand reporting requirements
• Assess change management needs

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Why Plan a Project?

• Goals and objectives
• Tasks to produce the results
• Personnel resource assignments
• Plans for
• Risks
• Issues

Establish a baseline to manage and control a
project in terms of Also

• Budget
• Quality
• Knowledge Coordination

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Project Control Activities

• Project Management
• Issue Management
• Scope Management
• Change Management

• Risk Management
• Economics Management
• Quality Management

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Project Management Tools

• Project Charter
• Scope Management Document
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Red Yellow Green Progress Chart
• Issues Log
• Economics Tracking Spreadsheet
• Status Report
• Project Meetings (formal and informal)
• Quality Advisor Series

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Project Charter

• Status Reporting
• Workplan Dev. and Tracking Standards
• Repository of Best Practices
• Quality Plan
• Project Closure

• Communications Plan
• Organizational Plan
• Issues Manag./Control Log
• Risk Management/Control Log
• Scope Management Plan

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Work Breakdown Structure
Phase 1 - Planning Phase 2 - Design Phase 3 -
Development Testing
Phase 4 - End-User Training Phase 5 -
Implementation
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High Level Project Milestones

• Gap Assessment (Current State Analysis to Future
  State Design)
• Project Charter
• Detailed Implementation Workplan (Work Breakdown
  Structure)

Planning
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High Level Project Milestones

• Paper Build (system design)
• Report Crosswalk (current reports to standard
  Lawson reports)
• Develop conversion parameters
• Develop interface parameters

Design
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High Level Project Milestones

• System Build
• Write Financial Reports
• Security Level Build
• Build conversion tables
• Build interface tables
• Conference Room Pilot (CRP)
• CRP Issues Log and Resolution
• Data Conversion Test Results
• Interface Test Results
• Volume / Stress Test Results
• Parallel Test Results

Development Testing
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High Level Project Milestones

• Functional Policies and Procedures
• Technical Policies and Procedures (job streams,
  backup and recovery, printer queues, batch job
  submission, etc.)
• End User Training

End User Training
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High Level Project Milestones

• User Acceptance Testing
• Go-Live Conversion (Cutover) Plan
• Readiness Assessment
• GO-LIVE

Implementation
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Issue Management

• A formally defined matter which may impede
  project progress and about which no agreement has
  yet been reached.
• In-scope issues are resolved by core team or
  TAG team.
• Out-of-scope issues are resolved by Steering
  Committee.

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Control of Issues

• Are issues being surfaced?
• Are issues being assigned to appropriate
  personsfor resolution?
• Do all accepted issues have a reasonable
  resolutiondue date?
• Are any resolution due dates about to be missed?
• Are there any concerns with implementing the
  approved resolutions?
• Are there any issues you need to raise now before
  they become a barrier?

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Ongoing Processes in the Project Duration
Processes
T
o

F
r
o
m

Processes
Issues
R
e

• Assess Change

Project
Project
Issue
Communications
Standards
Log
and
Procedures

• Control the Project
• Report Project Status

Approvals
Project Status
Project
Project
Assessments
Control File
PM-184F
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Scope Management
Scope management consists of paying rigorous
attention to the 5 dimensions of scope throughout
the projects life cycle. Scope creep happens
when one or more of these dimensions change and
affect the project.

• Logical

• Financial

• Temporal

• Deliverable

• Organizational

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What Is Change?
Addition, deletion, or modification of

• Scopetemporal, financial, deliverable, logical,
  organizational
• Project Charter Contentsassumptions, management
  approaches, project organization, plan summaries,
  related projects, investment analysis
• Project Charter Addendum - impact on budget,
  timeframes or resource requirements

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WHY Report Project Status?

• Inform sponsor and users
• Communicate to management
• Inform team members
• Communicate changes, issues
• Stimulate interest and involvement
• Share the good news, as well as bad

Why Ask Why?
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Considerations in Reporting

• Standardize as much as possible
• Balance peer requests for information
• Use automated tools whenever possible
• Focus on identifying and resolving issues behind
  the numbers
• Anticipate sponsor reactions and questions

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Frequency and Formatting for Project Status
Reports
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Role of Quality Advisor

• Risk Management
• Economics Management
• Quality Management

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Role of Quality Advisor
Risk is defined as any area of concern that could
prevent an engagement from achieving
success. The highest risk exists during the
projects initiation. During this phase, the
stage is set which, to a great extent, determines
the final solution. To manage risk, we must

• Identify the Risk
• Evaluate the Risk
• Develop plans to Manage the Risk

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Role of Quality Advisor
A risk factor is assigned for each identified
risk from two dimensions - risk severity and risk
probability.
Risk Management
Estimate the extent of negative impact of the
risk factor on the engagement. Estimate the
probability that the risk factor will occur.
The combination of these two aspects of the
risk factor will represent its risk level.
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Role of Quality Advisor

• Effective project economic management is a
  daily activity.
• Bi-weekly QA sessions with Project Directors
• On-time and on-budget is assured when project
• consumption rates are aligned daily with
  project
• completion rates which are then gapped to the
• project progress.

Economics Management
of Project Dollars Consumed
of task completion
of Project Time Consumed
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Role of Quality Advisor

• Level of adherence to Revere Standards
• Project Charter
• Co-Management
• Knowledge Base
• Checks and Balances
• Delivery as promised

Quality Management
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Conclude the Project

• Assessment of each component
• Appraisals
• Monitoring
• Status
• Learnings

Conclude
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The Future is Now . . .

• The final PM Stages provide powerful feedback for
  future projects
• Lessons learned
• Best practices
• Reusable products

Conclude the Project
Future Project Process
Project Assessments
Project Control File
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To Conclude the Project
Assess the performance of

• Project process
• Team members
• Project impact

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Key Information to Assess
Measure project actuals versus plan

• Estimating assumptions
• Effort estimates
• Roles and responsibilities
• Scheduling assumptions
• Resource assumptions
• Milestones
• Rework, errors, change request relationship

. . . and revise them for future project plans!
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Limitations of Todays ERP Systems

• Address business process automation but not
  business process improvement
• Remote accessibility
• Limited analysis of business trends
• Little support for managers seeking to evaluate
  alternative strategies
• Widespread implementation removes ERP in itself
  as a competitive differentiator

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Evolving Lawson

• Web enable (e-Console)
• Zero training - Self Evident Applications
• Application hosting
• Open Component Solutions
• Java
• Javascript / HTML
• Lotus Domino
• Microsoft / ActiveX

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Evolving Lawson

• Philosophy to stick to core competencies
• Strategic Partnerships
• Siebel
• Customer Relationship Management
• Hyperion
• Data Mining
• Many others

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Evolving Lawson

• Add-on Products
• Collaborative Commerce Suite
• Advanced Workflow
• Broadcasting System (report distribution)
• Resource Directory
• Enterprise Budgeting
• Value Management Solutions
• Analytic Suite (trending, KPIs, etc.)
• Financial Performance Management (Strategic
  Ledger)

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The Revere Group