Data Conversion Project Best Practices #1: Leadership
The entire project will not be a success if the agency President, Principal and/or whoever serves as your agency Leadership, aren’t engaged and supportive of the project. The agency leadership must communicate early on the “why” behind the project – synchronized and efficient workflows, magnitude and strength of the collective data being amassed, being only a few of the key agency benefits of consolidating to one instance of a database for the entire organization. Not only should the agency leadership communicate and support the corporate mission, but also the efforts of the agency Epic team and staff to execute the project throughout the implementation timeline and celebrate interim and overall successes of the team.
The agency conversion project lead is a multi-functional role, and can be split up but it is critically important to know who has the final “say” when it comes to communications and responsibilities. This person must have the authority necessary to see that all aspects of the project can and are executed. Making decisions on servicing roles, mapping are key processes to the early portions of the project where authority is needed. Throughout the project however, this person must also keep the project and each person’s responsibilities ever at the forefront of everyone’s mind, making sure deadlines are met, communicating the progress of the project and setting realistic expectations.
Developing a quality agency conversion project team (aka SuperUsers/PowerUsers) that will assist the Agency Lead is very important. While the Agency Lead has the responsibility of communicating and coordinating the project plan your SynerDynamics conversion project manager, the agency Epic Team carries the banner for the project, day in and day out, with the agency staff. Often this group is also included in a level of the mapping review, and typically are the core of the data review process in addition to meeting weekly or every two weeks with the SDG conversion project manager for calls to discuss current aspects of the project, answer questions, or whatever the agency needs are at the time.
After the Epic project is complete, the agency Epic Team or SuperUsers group can continue to function as the Epic champions in the agency. This group can serve as the communication arm for information on webinars and other training opportunities available to the users through the ASCnet webinars, ASCnet User’s Group meetings, monitor updates and enhancements and alert users of new functionality and system changes.
