(and its friends: VSys Live Kiosk, Schedule Lookup Tool, Online Training Module and Volunteer Request Tool)
Your VSys Live implementation will go something like:
Initial demos, questions, homework.
Followup demos, questions; repeat as needed.
Site build, including:
Basic template installation;
Look & feel;
Applications, tools, notifications, etc.;
Training in end-user configurable aspects for long-term self-maintenance.
Testing/QA.
Site go-live.
If you're working from a demo site (which you probably will be) during the early part of this process, note that the demo site usually has every single possible feature enabled, some more than once in different forms, and usually some that you haven't licensed. We do this not to frustrate you with too many options but instead to let you see everything possible and then to remove the things you don't want or need. This lets you see the feature in real life, what it looks like and what it does in order to make an informed decision.
VSys Live implementation ground rules
Before starting your VSys Live implementation process, keep in mind a few basic ground rules.
Your hours are limited! (Your signed proposal tells how many are included.)
You must have a project lead on your side, someone empowered to make decisions or reach get a consensus agreement on all manner of things during the implementation. If we're given contradictory answers by different people or teams on your end, we can't choose for you, and we can't organize your staff. Have one captain on your team who can make the final sign off on decisions.
Bring a Project Manager. There may be a lot of moving parts on your end, and a good PM will keep the project moving from your side. Your PM and ours will talk their own special language and make magic happen. This may or may not be the project lead on your side, your PM probably can't make the decisions on what your department needs, but can organize meetings and herd cats.
A PM is strongly suggested; a project lead is mandatory.
Planning ahead for this is critical: if you change direction mid-stream, you may find that many implementation and training hours have been burned through and end up with the project going past deadline and over budget - and you only have a limited number of hours allocated in your implementation.
If you're self-hosting VSys, bring an IT person. We'll tell you which types you'll need depending on the specific project.
Involve your marketing/branding/web folks. They may provide some basic guidelines and send you on your way; they may have very detailed requirements that need to be met.
You don't want your project sidelined at the last minute when the branding team gets wind of an "unauthorized" site that doesn't meet their guidelines - get that buy-in early!
How does the process work?
Our first meeting will be a walkthrough of VSys Live and whatever tools you're implementing. We will show you all of the important options and ask you a lot of questions, then send you home with homework.
Do your homework! It's important, and brings you to the decisions we'll need to build your site. Skipped or wrong decisions early on will delay the implementation and could cost money if/when you run out of implementation hours.
Bring the decision makers and affected parties to the meetings. You'll be making decisions that affect how the site is put together, and you want their input. Changing things later is time-consuming and potentially expensive.
It's okay for you to be working on decisions, having off-line or online discussions during these meetings - in fact that's really helpful. If you're stuck, we'll try and provide guidance. But in the end the decision (within the bounds of our technology and your budget) is in your hands. You know how your organization works and wants to work better than we do.
We'll help you choose reasonable specs that can be done in the allotted hours.
We'll do as many pre-implementation demos and walkthroughs as you need. Have questions on how something works? Or could work? Or how others have done it in the past? We're very happy to have these meetings since they save a lot of time later on.
These meetings don't count towards your implementation hours until after implementation begins.
We'll document everything along the way so everybody has a record of what was done, how and why. This will be very helpful down the road when you want to make changes!
Site building doesn't start until the specs are written and the decisions on how things are to be implemented are made: you don't pour the foundation until you have your building plans approved.
