CFO 4.0 - The Future of Finance

241. Financial Transformation Live: Planning a Successful Project

• Hannah Munro

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In this episode of Financial Transformation Live, host Hannah Munro shares what it really takes to deliver a successful finance system implementation. From preparing your team to managing risks and ensuring a smooth go-live, Hannah offers practical insights and lessons learned from real-world projects.

You’ll learn:

  • How to prepare your team and build urgency using the change cycle
  • The critical stages of a finance implementation – from planning to go-live
  • The role of stakeholders and how to use a RACI matrix to clarify responsibilities
  • Why proof of concept and thorough testing are key to stress-free delivery
  • Best practices for training, capacity planning, and super-user support
  • Tips to avoid common pitfalls like scope creep, poor data migration, and resistance to change

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance. The CFO role is changing rapidly, moving from cost controller to strategic visionary, and with every change comes opportunity. We are here to help you take advantage of this transition to win at work, drive your career forwards and lead with confidence. To win at work, drive your career forwards and lead with confidence. Join Hannah Munro, managing Director of ITAS, a financial transformation consultancy, as she interviews key experts to give you real-world advice and guidance on how to transform your processes, people and data. Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance.

Speaker 2:

Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of Financial Transformation Live. I am your host, hannah Munro. So today we are going to talk about what it takes to have a successful finance implementation, so talking about how to prepare your team for your project and what are the hallmarks of a successful project. So we're going to cover the refresher on the change cycle, pre-implementation and during implementation activities, what that needs to look like and common things that may come up, and, of course, I'm hoping there'll be a few questions as we go through this particular session. So please do feel free, I will keep an eye on the comments as we go through this particular session. So please do feel free, I will keep an eye on the comments as we go through. It'd be great to have some live questions and, of course, for those of you listening on record, I will make sure we cover off any post-recording conversations and questions as well. So don't forget to send those through and we'll do a bit of Q&A because this is a popular topic. So let's talk about leading change, and the change has a cycle. So for those of you that studied Cotter a few years well, actually quite a few years back it was very much a linear process, whereas change now is considered more of a cycle, and I think that's really important to think about. So, and that cycle, when it works well, is about creating a sense of urgency, and we need to do this and we need to do this now, building out your, your guiding coalition, making sure you're clear on the what and the why you're doing this, making it bringing in your, your, your volunteer army and I think that word volunteer is really is really crucial, because it's about people that want to be there, that I want to lead that change, um, enabling action by removing barriers and we'll talk a little bit about that as we go through this and generating short-term wins. And for those of you that have been listening to me for a while, you know I talk and I bang on, I get on my soapbox a lot about phasing, but that's what it's about how do we create momentum for change, then sustaining that acceleration, so making sure that you don't hit any too many road bumps that pull you back and create that change, and then the cycle starts again. So that cyclical view of change is really important as we go through this and you'll see, as I talk about different steps, how we bring that in.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so key stages of a successful project. So I am, you know, by experience, I'm very much focused on business operation systems, so I've done a bit with manufacturing, but my primary focus is finance implementations, and I've done it across multiple industries. So I, if you know, if we've got a few people listening to this from a specific industry and want to know how relevant it is, then this should be relevant to all industries and all core projects as well. So we're going to talk through the different stages and how you make each one a success. So planning, so, as you're thinking through almost the pre-implementation stage, scoping, when you're assessing your requirements, a proof of concept stage, and really make sure that you've got this in. It's a key one that gets missed and we'll talk a little bit about why. Later Training, testing, data migration and go live right, and then the cycle starts again. So the first thing is looking when you're speaking, when you think about your project, where we see challenges and it doesn't necessarily mean failure, but challenges is where people don't really think about who needs to be involved and when. So the first thing I would suggest you do again, for those of you that are listening to this on our podcast I will try and describe, but it might be worth jumping onto the YouTube version so you can see it.

Speaker 2:

Thinking about the different stakeholders and their responsibilities within each stage of the project. Now a typical RACI matrix. For those of you that have not come across RACI before, it's a really great methodology for assigning responsibilities. So what does that mean? So if somebody is responsible, they are actively doing the task, so they're actively involved in that stage. If they are accountable, they are ultimately answerable for the completion of that task. They are accountable for the success of that stage, and there should only ever be one accountable person. As soon as you start sharing accountability, everything gets lost. So be very careful with that.

Speaker 2:

One Consulted those whose opinions are sought and where communication happens before a decision or action is taken. So, for instance, a CFO would be consulted on the structure of the chart of accounts. Right, they might not be doing the actual building of that chart of accounts, so that would be responsible, but they would be consulted and informed. Individuals who are kept up to date but not actively involved in decision-making process. Now, with this kind of stakeholder racy matrix, you can go as detailed or as top level as you like. Right Now I always think with these kind of things you start with the top level, so I go through each stage of the project and agree, and then I would go into the individual tasks that make up that stage of the project and get into more detail. So, for instance, when you come to the scope or the bill, your scoping stage, you might say that everyone's responsible obviously needs to attend, but you might have different stages where individuals are responsible or accountable for different elements of scope, ie chart account design. Yeah, that's a really important one. So I'd start with the top level and work your way down when you're thinking about these different elements.

Speaker 2:

So, once you've established your stakeholders and thinking wider than just finance, by the way, you should be thinking about how do we need to involve the head of sales, how do we need to involve and if we need to involve marketing. So if you've got, for instance, a CRM integration or if you're doing a bar you know part of this is a barcode or purchase order implementation you need to engage those other leaders. So, thinking broader than just finance, thinking about your other stakeholders, and you will end up with like a smaller group of actionable people. So, with those individuals, make sure you're really clear on the why and the why now. So a lot of people focus on the why, but they don't really give the urgency that's required for change, and it is. If we go back to that change cycle, urgency is a key part of it. So be clear on the why and the why now. Figure out the priority. So, when you put together your key objectives, give them a priority, because at some point, they may compete. In order to deliver one, you might have to compromise on another.

Speaker 2:

So, being clear on what the priorities are for this particular project, engage the team, ask their opinions and if I'm going to be honest and say you should have engaged your key people prior to making a decision on any kind of system change anyway, right, so, um, and this is more about saying guys, you are, this is important to you and the team and I want you involved in this and this is why and this is why you should get involved in this. Make it personal. Talking about this, look great on your CV. You wanted more responsibility. Here's your opportunity to show me that you can do this well.

Speaker 2:

Having those conversations, getting a real grip of capacity, right, I think there's a realization very often as you get into the middle of a project. When they've got to, you know, extract data and do all of these things about capacity, having open and honest conversations right at that early stage about either how you're going to create capacity or how you're going to minimize the work involved is really important, but there will be work. Anyone that thinks they're going to minimize the work involved is really important, but there will be work. Anyone that thinks they're going to rock into a new finance or operational system press a button and it's all of a sudden going to appear and start working without any impact on the existing team is living in fantasy land. Right? I'm a realist.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to these things, you need to get really into the detail, and some ways you can minimize mean, you know talking about how your partner can support you with data migration. Talking about how you can minimize data migration requirements and what that looks like. Um. You can talk about um planning the project in a way that it doesn't hit your key busy periods and, you know, extending the length of the project. There's all sorts of things that you can do to minimize the impact in a particular time scale, but on the flip side, there's things that you can do to increase capacity.

Speaker 2:

Talking about things like um, could we, could we cut a particular process for this month or this period where we're gonna have like the majority of the training and testing? Could we just take a view that you know we're going to extend a deadline or do something in there? Um, if there's you know, if part of this process is getting reconciliations done, can we do a pre-data clean to make sure the data is in a good order before we start the project? Um, there's, you, are we going to backfill? And if you are going to backfill or bring in somebody, um, genuinely you, they even have one or two things either need to be technical, so working with your partner to ask for extra resources to support you know um or they need to have a knowledge of the business. So where um and actually it's not us saying this studies have shown that when you bring in external consultants to do the thinking and the decision making you, the projects fail to achieve their objectives.

Speaker 2:

You're much better bringing in people to backfill roles a temporary finance controller or a management accountant to support your FC for six months and letting and creating capacity for that person to step forwards and engage with this project, then you are the opposite, which goes contrary to what a lot of people think. But actually that's that's that, because that knowledge of how the operations, the processes work, their ability to see where things are wrong and to be able to adapt the processes, is really important. Now that doesn't mean there isn't a place for for external resources. Of course there is, but you need to support that with enough capacity from your existing team. And if your team are already completely over capacity, then you need to change that before you start bringing it now. And and there's lots of temps that are used to coming in and doing these jobs right. That's why contracts and temp roles exist, for maternity cover and things like that. So bringing someone in short term to lift your team out to help with reporting and processing, whatever is the task to allow you to release capacity, is really important.

Speaker 2:

And the other thing around this is making sure that you're addressing concerns and worries later. The last thing you want is somebody sitting there and stewing on something and then coming and saying, well, I thought this was going to happen, but I didn't want to say at the beginning. So actually getting the project team to engage early with concerns, worries and risks and the way I phrase it is risks. We'll talk about how we, how we categorize them, but getting them to put forward risks and concerns nice and early allows you to then one get ahead of them, because some of them will be valid, some of them may not be, and it's about them personally versus the project itself, but by getting ahead of it you are addressing them or agreeing a mitigation strategy for them.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and last but not least, set the boundaries, agree what you are going to do and what you're not going to do, and what is in scope versus out scope. So again, I've seen a lot of things change as you go through a six month period and and there's there's a piece about that fine, as long as you're taking something out. What what we often see is things get thrown in without anything getting taken out because the needs of the business have changed. So doing what you can to minimize the scope, particularly for initial phase, right. If you're on your second or third phase of change and transformation, it's now become pretty routine for you um, then that's absolutely fine. You know, you know your capacity, but your first one, now your initial baseline, needs to be as slimmed down as you can make it without making the team feel like they take a step backwards. So that's how I I assess in terms of what we're going to do.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I talked a little bit about risk. So let's just talk about a risk assessment matrix. And for those of you that have been through any kind of strategic or management training, you may have come across this before. So apologies if you haven't, but for me it's really important when you're going in and you're getting concerns and objections right. One is that you've got hold of them and you've documented. Somebody said this, right, and then you go okay, what is the impact of that actually happening?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so somebody comes to you and says I'm worried that this is going to impact our ability to deliver the month-end reports. Okay, so then you would ask them well, how likely is that? Yeah, you know, is it likely to happen? Based on what we've planned so far, Very likely, possible or unlikely. So you've got a gauge. And then, what is the risk to that and how can you mitigate?

Speaker 2:

So you could decide that actually, you're going to make sure you train multiple people in the process to get the reports out. You've got more people that can step up to release your key resource, okay, that backfilling concept, whether that's from another team member or whether that's from a contract resource, or you could say, actually we're going to speak to the board and just tell them that for this three month period, we're going to need an extra couple of days to get out the reports and mitigate the impact of that risk. So they're aware, and so we might be working to a five day instead of a three day, or etc. So you know, um, all of these things need to be discussed so that you can go to that board and preempt those conversations, because in my experience, you know boards are human, right, they're, they're aware, um, and whilst they, you know they absolutely have to have their reports of certain time frame, that what they much rather have is better reporting in three months and maybe take an extra day to get the reports, if that's agreed. So it doesn't, and I'm using this as an example your board may be completely different, they might have a completely different perspective, but at least you've had the opportunity to have the conversation and then, if they say no, then you can go around and have a look at alternative ways to resource in order that it doesn't disrupt business as usual.

Speaker 2:

So, again, thinking through all of the risks, concerns and worries that the team have, make sure they're documented and prioritized and then you know which ones you do need to proactively mitigate and which ones are not particularly are a low risk, as it were. So this is what one of my favorite matrices and it gives you just a way to figure out, because there will be lots of concerns, uh, going in, um, but you've just got to make sure that you've got the right mix of okay, we, we know there's going to be issues, but it's how we deal with them and we've got to make sure we have the capacity to deal with them as we go through. So, plannings and time assistance, just some general advice is phase down. So, as much as you can agree, chunks of activity, because you do get change, fatigue and and I generally 12 month projects are hard. Three months to six month projects are a lot more palatable and and you can give people breaks. So if you've got particularly busy time of year, maybe, um, you're in I don't know in tourism, so your summer is going to be your crazy time, yeah, um, so you would, you would phase it around that and build like periods of rest and kind of letting the system bed in before we start the next phase of change.

Speaker 2:

Um, prioritize based on impact, cost and effort. So with this, the one thing you sometimes you need to have a think about is, if we change this thing out, what do we need to have to get to the same base level that we've got? So your first level could just be a lift and shift. How do we get to the same level that we are now? But with our new platform Right which sounds counterintuitive you will get some natural improvements. Of course You're moving into a new platform. There will probably be speed improvements, data and some basic functionality and UAT improvements, but kind of setting the base that our goal for the first phase is just to shift so that when we do the next phase we can actually work through and process it. So try not to change too much in the first phase.

Speaker 2:

Really really think about year end as whether it's a requirement.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people choose it.

Speaker 2:

I prefer to choose a quarter that is not a year end, because then I don't have to worry about that, but I also have the advantages of not having the pressure of coming to get out year end accounts plus month attend, plus the board wanting their final years reports, all those kind of things. Um, really think about resource. And think about resource not as a flat line, but you and that's why that responsibility matrix is useful at stage, because you'll see the resource requirement go up and down as you go through a project and different individuals will require more resource at different points. And try not to plan more than 18 months out. Right, we live in an environment where technology's changing so rapidly. I think anyone that's really making decisions more than 18 months out is not necessarily going to be in a position to take advantage of those latest and greatest changes. So, with your phasing, 18 months is ideal. You might have an idea post that, but I wouldn't personally plan anything till we see what the next wave of technology does for how processes, how businesses operate.

Speaker 3:

Hey Google, what's the best accounting software for my business? Give it a couple of years and I'll bet you she'll be able to answer you pretty accurately. But for now it's still one of the few questions Google can't give you an answer for. But we can Take our free quiz and find out which Sage products is the right fit for your business. Just head to itassolutionscouk.

Speaker 2:

Scope, so be prepared. So this is one of those things where people think they could just rock up and have conversation, and you can, but if you really want to get value out of your finance implementation actually coming and being prepared, so consulting with your board about your reporting requirements, what they would ideally like to see, again, being careful to set expectations about when they will physically get their hands on it yep, having the right people in the room for scope is super important and I think that's again making sure that everyone started thinking about where are the challenges, where are the issues. Bringing any process maps. If you've got the opportunity and you have the time and capacity to get things processed before ideal Not a requirement, but it's helpful Collecting all of those resources and giving those to your consultants ahead of time is really important. So making sure you know what systems you've got around, the team, what spreadsheets, what each individual is doing and bringing examples of things like use cases, billing use cases, purchasing use cases, reporting use cases and bringing anything that you practically can to show will help with all of these. Um, you know we personally send out like questionnaires and surveys we ask people to to think about before as well. So I'm sure your partner will support you with that.

Speaker 2:

But don't just don't take the time to think, because this is your. You know you get this right. It's gonna accelerate your vision for finance. You get this wrong and you're gonna have a tough couple of months and you might have to redo something. So I'm always about like, just be clear on the vision. Now. That doesn't mean that you will do everything in phase one. But actually being clear about this is the destination, guys, that I need us to get to. This is what I need the ballpark to look like. I need to be able to produce this in two days at the click of a button. That's what you're going to have, and then everyone else can go. Well, this is where I've got a challenge, and that enables your consultants to really get into process, and I think that's the other thing. Don't try and replicate what you're doing. If at all possible, think best practice. Now I kind of like contradicted myself slightly. I said don't change too much, right, but that's the caveat and that's the trade-off. If the new process is going to add more value and it's going to be easier for everybody, make the shift. If it's going to involve lots of moving parts and best practice, see if you can take it out and put it in its own place. Yeah, so there's no reason, as you go through this scope, that you can't have those conversations. So this looks amazing.

Speaker 2:

I now understand where the challenges are with our current process and this is the process we want to move to, but is there an interim step? Can we do a baby step towards that? So a really good example is purchase ordering right. So very often we'll have people coming in and they want to rethink their purchase ordering processes. Right, everyone jumps to right. We're going to get people coming in and they want to rethink their purchase ordering processes. Right, everyone jumps to. Right. We're going to get people out in the field, put all this data in and push it through and I go well, tell me about your current process. And very often they're starting from a point of we send an email to finance and that generates the po and they manually type that in or I fill it. They fill in a piece of paper.

Speaker 2:

So taking away chance and maybe starting with finance, replicating the perfect process and actually putting the PO into a system rather than a spreadsheet and then managing that through, and then your second phase could be wider business enablement around PO. So you can then with the team, feeling the finance team will be really confident they can be supporting the wider team with you. Know how do they do a po on site, from a phone, etc. How do they send in an invoice automatically to the ocr system, whatever the next phase of that piece is. So can you chunk down big changes to process in a way that still gets you to the destination and gets you the improvements and you don't have to do rework. But you're you're not necessarily trying to do everything at once with stakeholders that perhaps aren't as engaged as the others.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, so thinking through how you do that, um, strategic alignment, making sure you're including inputs from the future direction of the business. So if you're looking to change your model of operation, your pricing models, your billing models in the next 18 months to years, bring that forwards right. You know you can. You know, as consultants, we're happy to be told this is a maybe, but can it deal with it? Do we need to think about anything? It's a lot easier to do that now, at the beginning, than it necessarily is to rework and make sure you're thinking big enough, right, if there is something a system doesn't do in a lot of cases you need to challenge why you need it to do it.

Speaker 2:

Because, um, I've had a few instances of this over the years where people are trying to do something in a particular way because and to some very often I'll turn out, because often ask the way they've always done it or the way that the business works, and actually you need to, as strategic leaders, to think about whether this is the right way is the time and effort involved in creating workarounds and using the system in a non-best practice way, with the effort that it's going to take, and then you take, and then you can take a view and an opinion. Um, and make sure people are thinking big enough, because very often, if that people have worked for a particular organization for a very long time, they haven't necessarily had the exposure to lots of different businesses. So, making sure that you challenge your consultants and say, like, this is interesting, how do others do it? And a lot of consultants want to share that and give advice and making sure that you create an environment where the team are open to changing things yeah, that they're going into. This is not. We're not literally going to lift and shift. We are going to have to change our process and you've set a theme that allows your consultants to effectively support you in this shift.

Speaker 2:

And if you personally, as finance leaders, don't have time for full involvement, prioritize the elements right. Prioritize controls, prioritize um work around. So when you're being told there's a workaround, it needs to come through you to get signed off and you need to know have we a workaround? It needs to come through you to get signed off and you need to know have we actually evaluated what it would take to change the process? And prioritize reporting on your data architecture, because those are the things that can make a big difference. If your team build themselves into a dead end because they're trying to keep an existing process that isn't fit for purpose or isn't best practice, that's going to impact how quickly you can get reporting and month end out. If you design a data structure that isn't thinking broad enough and big enough and it isn't going to be flexible enough for your future, that's going to impact you. And making sure controls are in place again, because that sits on your shoulders. So those would be the three elements that I would prioritize as a finance leader If I was going to be if I had to pick when I was going into scope.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so haven't. So please do let me know. Guys, I'm talking a lot. If you have any comments or questions around anything that I've said, scenarios you've hit and you're not quite sure how to deal, it love to hear from you. Please do, let me know. Okay, so I will keep an eye on any comments that come through as we go through this process.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so let's talk about proof of concept. Now, this isn't something that I've seen a huge amount of in other partners, but it's something that we really get behind now as a partner, and we've seen a massive difference. So one of the challenges is if you, if you get to training and some, a key element is missing to a project. So one of the things that's really important is to ask your partners and to get involved with having a proof of concept stage. Now, proof of concept is not training, so it's not going to show you like you put this amount in this field here. What it should show you is the end-to-end processes, the outputs and the reports that you will get from the system for you to validate that that meets the scope of delivery, because then you have a window to change before you show it to your, the rest of your users. And the reality because the reality is is that if you show one version of system and something critical is missing, you you've you've created a barrier and a mindset that, oh, perhaps they haven't understood the requirements, they don't know what they're doing, etc. So you, you want people to go into the training. Go, oh, my god, this is going to make my life so much easier and that's where the proof of concept stage. So making sure you have key process owners in that meeting, key people that are going to be looking at reports and you're validating the outputs right, see enough data coming through it to be able to do it. So make sure you see key use cases. So, if you've got, maybe, recurring billing, but also uncharged-based billing, see in both those use cases Looking at the end results. How does that flow through into my reports, into my nominal? And make sure that if there are any concerns or worries, you address them right now, okay, and you get them on the table with your super users before you give it to your end users. And it's also obviously making sure you take the time to review against your objectives. Is this new system that we've seen going to deliver against the original objectives that we put forwards? Awesome, okay.

Speaker 2:

So next on to training. So, um, I'm a big believer in phased training. If I've got big teams, if you've got three of you, the reality is you're all super users and you need to go through it. If you have a team of 10 to 20, then you need to think about phasing your, your training. So train your super group users, first, get them in the first wave and then do, and then they can support, because it it not only gives your addition you know your other end users more support, but it actually helps embed the knowledge in those super users. Right, and you're building capability for the future plan agendas.

Speaker 2:

Make sure you're clear on what's going to be covered in what session and give that to attendees so if they think it's not relevant, then they don't. Then you can have that discussion, because there's nothing worse than attending training that isn't relevant to your job or you do not need to know. So, wherever possible, make training role specific. Make sure you set ground rules Now. Basic ground rules is you're not on emails, you're not doing other things while you're training. Basic ground rules is you're not on emails, you're not doing other things while you're training, you're not on your phone, you're engaged, you're doing and you will have access to a quiet environment.

Speaker 2:

The best training that if if you know the best training that you would get is if you can bring people in to a shared environment and get them away from the day job. But obviously that's not necessarily as practical if you have online sessions, because very often one of the benefits of online is you can do smaller sessions and not everybody's based in a workplace anymore. So finding the balance between focus and flexibility is really important. And the other benefit of online training is, of course, you can record it. So then you've got that for a future reference. If anybody misses, you can get hold of it.

Speaker 2:

Um training ideally should be as practical as possible, so it should be a mix of seeing, doing, hearing, as well as um listening. So you need to be able to. You need to have the mix right. If your team are struggling with attention, I think there's a conversation, so I would say probably just dipping in of training as a finance leader is useful, because you can just make sure that the team understands. This is a priority where you may not be able to attend every session yourselves, but again, um, it's worth.

Speaker 2:

It's worth thinking about, um, making sure group sizes are small enough. If your trainer cannot keep an eye and watch reactions for every member on that team, um, then you've probably got too many people in your group. So eight to ten is ideal. Bigger than that, you need to make sure you've got some support for people afterwards because, um, in those bigger groups, people tend to feel less confident asking questions and, again, that's why your super users are so important if you've got bigger groups. And then follow-up materials, learning exercises, homework, and we're going to talk a little bit about testing in a session, a second. But again, feel free to ask questions as we go through this.

Speaker 2:

So testing is really critical to the success. I actually personally feel like this and Skype are the most important. Testing is essential if you want a stress-free go-live, and if you look at some of our case studies on our website, they will say, actually, when we got to the go-live, it felt almost like a non-event because we'd done so much work prior. And that is exactly what you should be thinking about. Testing should be the one time where you create capacity, as much capacity as possible, and you make sure it's as thorough as possible. So, plan and set a testing schedule with everybody. So when you get there, make sure you set everybody down, agree what's going to be tested and who is responsible, accountable, etc. Yeah, make sure you're really clear on what's required, set deadlines, and this is where it needs really strong ownership and focus from the entire team.

Speaker 2:

One thing you can do to help with this is to layer your testing right. Your super users have gone through the training, but feeling more confident, right is to get them to do a first wave of testing, because that will then allow them one to get more confident with the system. And you can combine training and testing phases, by the way, but you get them more confident with the system. You can combine training, testing phases, by the way, um, but you get more confident with the system. You can test all of the use cases so that when your end users coming, they're testing their ability to do it versus their system's ability to deliver on the requirements. Right, the super users can handle that. And then that means you need less capacity from the wider team again, um, ways that you can make this easier is to actually have super users in the room with and available at the point your end users are testing or consultants, right, we've done a few projects where they've wanted to have testing workshops and they work really well.

Speaker 2:

When we come down for a day or people come to us and our officers they sit in there, they go through the testing scripts and the consultants literally sit in there. So as soon as they hit an issue, we help them through it and you're building that speed and getting through the volume. So if you are struggling with time capacity, that's a really good way to speed up the testing. Um, but either way, you need to do a certain level. Um, we provide scripts and that's another thing. So we provide scripts and a guide to what needs to be tested and then we'll obviously assess that at different phases through that testing piece. So making sure you have that written down with your particular use cases, particularly around billing, around reporting and around um ap.

Speaker 2:

And if something major changes, right, you shouldn't have, because you've gone through proof of concept, but say there's a major change to how something's configured, you do need to think about restarting the testing. And that's why that proof of concept stage is so important, because if you change the major, like your chart of counts. It can have a knock-on effect to how the testing goes right. Because testing, you're testing when you're entering a transaction. You're testing the routing and the process. You're testing the controls. You're testing the outputs, the nominal, the reporting yeah, so you're looking at all stages.

Speaker 2:

Make sure every user does it. Regardless of their level and seniority, they should at least be comfortable that they can do their day job on the system. And don't forget reports Everybody does. So you might want to think about. There's a certain volume of data you need to go through the testing system before you can pull a specific report, and that's fair. But make sure it does get flagged as a testing phase. And making sure that you're testing things like the postings and all the transactions to make sure the nominals are being picked up correctly is important, because that has a knock-on effect to testing and timing it right. Yeah, so um, with this it's it's getting that connection with the training. So making sure that you align your testing phase along with your training so that they have the training maybe, maybe they have a little time to play, maybe a few days, maximum a week and then they're into testing. It's really important. And if you miss that timing window for whatever reason. Somebody's off sick. Something has to be arranged. Think about getting a refresher, because there is nothing worse than rocking up to a list a testing script and going I don't know where to start, and you don't want that experience for your users. So making sure that you time it correct is really important.

Speaker 2:

And data migration we're almost there, guys. Thank you so much for staying with me. Um, so assessing data migration requirements is really important. Minimize it. I know you've won like all of five years worth of history so you can do all these comparatives with these amazing new reporting tools you're old of, but that takes an awful lot of time right. So two things either do it as a secondary phase, like go back and add in more data, or make the. If you can't get good quality data out of your existing system, do you really want to be putting that data into a new shiny system where you're going to start being able to pull better reports? So I think really minimizing your data requirements and making sure they are genuinely essential is important. Essential is important.

Speaker 2:

And if they are anything more than like a month by month shift, then you might want to consider doing a post-go-live project to bring across the historical data, for instance, say, your other system's getting switched off and you can't get historical license for whatever reason. Then there's been a few instances. But having those conversations at the beginning of the project is really important and I've seen projects not go well and be incredibly stressful because somebody really wanted to be able to pull all their data across. For whatever reason. They didn't want it in, to keep it in spreadsheets or have access, and then when and so they've decided to literally enter the data from scratch um, for months' worth of data. And then when they've actually got to it, they've realized that actually you're asking people to do an equivalent of a day job in a month Six months' worth of data entry in a month, as well as doing the normal job.

Speaker 2:

And when you actually go into it, there's a practicality around it's really important to get hold of. Don't set yourselves up to fail. Um, if you are going to do anything complex, make sure you do a test migration. If you have capacity and you're not complex, do a test migration, just making sure you can get your data out, it's clean and that it reconciles, because it seems. Yeah, it's always a worry when we get given a tb. That doesn't balance. It's happened or we don't have the, it doesn't reconcile to one of the ledgers or something like that.

Speaker 2:

So make sure that you guys are on top of your general finance hygiene before you shift the system. Um, make sure you have a check, controls and reconciliation plan. So what are the key checks you're going to make sure to do? Post that now. Obviously we have our own set of checks and controls that internally, we do, but you need to make sure that you have the same as well. Okay, because you will know your data better and you will know your business better.

Speaker 2:

And try and limit the amount and number of touch points that you're going through in terms of, like, the number of Excel spreadsheets you're going through when you go to data migration, the number of people involved in data migration. They're really key things to think about and it's a great project for the detail-orientated that's really talented with spreadsheets. We happen to have an Excel genius in our teams which, whenever we get a complex spreadsheet, he's the first person we ask. So that's brilliant, but sometimes there's nothing better than an experienced pair of eyes looking over the data before you sign it off, so they can do all the prep and do that, but you just kind of need to look and sense, check that data so and then go live. Okay, think about the prep right, choose the right time.

Speaker 2:

So make sure you're picking the right time for you and the team, making sure that you're having a pre-go live internal briefing before you go. You know you've agreed plan, you agree the deadlines. What are the key things we need to do to get this live? What's the support going to look like if people get stuck? Where do they go? And making sure you've communicated this to everybody. Just because you're super users now doesn't mean that the rest of the team don't need to know. Um set expectations with wider stakeholders. It's so much better to over deliver um.

Speaker 2:

Has someone tell me that when they went live, the board were commented that they could believe they didn't notice that it didn't go live? It was, yeah, and this was a global organization, you know, across multiple continents, and they were like they couldn't believe, actually, that they didn't. It didn't come up as a topic in the boardroom because it just happened right and that's what you want. But in order to to do that, you know, one of the things I always think is you know, plan for the worst, prepare for the worst and then hopefully you know everything other than that is gravy. So making sure you're thinking ahead and setting expectations, you know, making people aware this is going to be a live.

Speaker 2:

We might have a slight delay to board packs, you know, know, or we're not going to do these things this month because they are nice to have, not essentials for finance, to make sure we've got capacity to get this through. And this is when we feel like the next wave of reporting will be the fancy ball. Packs are going to be to you within this time. So making sure that all of the stakeholders across business are aware that they're they're you know things like you know sales, telling them that you know giving us all of the orders on the last day of the month isn't going to work this month, particularly guys, because we've got this big migration to do so. We're going to have an early cut off for sales, on the 28th, for instance. Yeah, so having those conversations and then picking, you know this is again why year ends are really important, because if you don't, if you pick year end, then you don't have as much flexibility. You know they sales will need that full year to get the numbers that another press is on. You pick halfway through the year where the numbers and hitting a particular number isn't as essential, um, then you've got a little bit more flex and, of course, making sure your super users are easily accessible, that they're available to jump on calls, jump on teams to support the wider team, is really important.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so common questions. And again, guys, if you have any particular ones, pop them in the chat and I will keep an eye on that. But should I hire in extra resource? Yes, if you need it, right, but should you hire an extra resource to do the project? No, you should be backfilling your team and giving them support to do the projects. They do need to have capacity to deliver. How much time? That is a how much is a piece of string conversation. So I would say that you need to make sure that somebody has at least a couple of days a week throughout projects, really ideally to support it, but that will flex. So have an open and honest conversation with your project team and ask them to give you a best and a worst case scenario and thinking through the entire project.

Speaker 2:

What are super users? Yeah, I did make, I did talk about super users. For me are those that that either have a lot of really supportive individuals, so people that are really good at getting consensus and, you know, chivvying people along, so have that kind of they're seen as leaders within the workplace right, or they're really technical, technically capable, and you need a mix of both. So you need people that can pick up and figure things out to help users through and can troubleshoot, and you need people that can coach and mentor and go oh it's okay, don't worry, this is going to be fine, you're going to get through. It's just for a short while, until you get comfortable. You know you need the mix of skills. So finding the balance between the emotional intelligence and the authority and coaching skills, plus making sure you get at least one person in that super user group that's particularly technical, will ensure that you have really good success.

Speaker 2:

My team really don't want this. Can I train them last and I put this in because this was an actual question that I had from somebody and if your team really don't want this, you need to get under the skin as to why. Okay, um, you know I talked about getting hold of objections early. Um, understanding the why is really important because then you can mitigate. So it normally falls into a couple of camps. One it's I don't see the point, um, I don't see what's in it for me. And then you need to find a balance between putting it in objectives or helping them understand the business success and how that ties to their success and all those kind of things um. Two, that they are worried about change and what that's going to do. So having an opening on honest conversation, sometimes those people that object the most if you bring them in as like super users or bring them in at particular stages so you can get their buy-in, and then they are almost more impactful because they are helping others, um, and they've sort of been negative but now they've shifted. They can be the most vocal and the most positive people by the end of it, if you do it right and you know, and just making sure that they don't make, they've got capacity to do change. Because, again, you can't expect somebody to be as efficient on the first day of a new system after five years, and normally a lot of the systems we've been in to replace have been in for five years or more. So you know there's a change in a support piece that needs to come into that. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Top tips, thinking phases. Create capacity building, breathing space if you need it. Encourage concerns to be raised, but in a constructive way so you don't want people. You know like it's we've talked about there, you know it's, it's getting it on the table, it's agreeing a mitigation strategy and a prioritization around the risk and moving forwards um. Focus on outcomes, not inputs. Um, and avoid scope creep wherever possible, but do keep a list of future improvements so as you go through this, something will go. It's really cool. Can it do this? And you go, and as consultants, we want to go. Yes, yes, yes, we can change everything, um, but actually that's not necessarily the best way to work. So keeping that list of future things that you're gonna work on and just kind of keeping them out of phase one is really important. But then you've got some amazing little mini projects for people to own and develop and create that change and momentum moving forwards. Okay. So I really hope this has been useful, guys, and that you've gotten some value from the sessions today.

Speaker 2:

If you have any follow-up questions, please do email me, hannahmonroe, at itessolutionsprouk, or DM me on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

That's where I'm often to be found when I'm doing these lives.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to. If you've got follow-up questions, scenarios you've hit, or maybe you're in the middle of a project and it's not quite going to plan, then you know love to be an Agony Aunt. We've got another Transformation Agony Aunt session coming up in the next month or two, so I really hope you'll join us for that and if you need some additional content. So if you are looking at new systems, please do take our which Sage Products is Right for you quiz on our website, wwwi-destinationscouk, and we basically ask you a series of questions to help identify either multiple or which product is specifically for you. Some previous sessions I've done integrations have a particular structure that you need to get behind, so I have included that for those that want to access that. That's the how to map out your finance integration project and, of course, how to assess your current finance system. Perhaps you're doing this because you know you need to look but you're not quite sure how to justify the shift or how to assess your current system. Then please do go and check that one out as well.

Speaker 2:

And, of course, if you are listening to this on the podcast, so after the fact, we will put all of these links in the show notes for you to get access to. And, yes, and David, for those of you listening now, David is popping a number of links in the comments for you to get access to, so I really hope this was valuable. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your days to join me, and if you've got ideas, thoughts for future podcasts, I'd love to hear them. And if you've enjoyed this podcast, please do like share it on your LinkedIn. Give us a review on your favorite podcast app. It would be a massive win for us.

Speaker 2:

So we do keep an eye on all of those things. So thank you so much for joining me today on FTL and I hope you see you next time on Financial Transformation Live. So for those of you that don't know what we do here at ITAS, so we are a financial transformation consultancy that specializes in Sage Technologies. Whether that is looking at a new solution, evaluating your current solution or just helping you to get the most out of your current setup, we can help, but rather than me tell you all the reasons that you should consider working with us as a Sage partner or a transformation consultancy partner. Consider working with us as a sage partner or a transformation consultancy partner.

Speaker 4:

I'm gonna let our customers do the talking for us. I tasked with there from the, from the sort of get-go helping us, you know, talking through what the process was going to involve, setting expectations, you know, making it clear that how much work we were going to have to put in to make sure that the project was a success at the end. And then talking us through all our different options, looking through our current processes, making us re-evaluate what was important, which elements we wanted to move across to the new system, how we wanted to configure our new system, and also kind of making us sit back and really think about what is the success of this project. When we get to the other end, when we finish the implementation and we're in the system, what's success going to look like? And actually, you know, putting that question back to us and really making us sit down and think about what is it that we are looking to gain from this whole process was really useful Internally, making us really think about the key objectives and which areas to maybe prioritise over others.

Speaker 4:

It was also really helpful sitting down and thinking about it rather than one big, huge project, actually splitting it down into different phases, sort of smaller bike-sized chunks which made it seem a little bit more achievable within the time. And then, thankfully, itas have been super flexible with us during this process because it happened to coincide our implementation with our first ever financial audit, which just took up huge amounts of our time that we didn't expect. So we did have to slightly push back some of our go-live dates and thankfully ITAS were accommodating and actually helped us navigate through that process and I'd like to say that thankfully we're out the other side of our first days of go-live and, yeah, loving the move to Intact.

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