Epic Conversion Project Management
If I knew then what I know now….is usually how the conversation starts with an agency owner or manager who has just gone through a very painful conversion of their agency management system from one source to another. The unfortunate thing is by the time they get to that stage it’s too late. They’ve spent a ton of time feeling their way through the process and often aren’t happy with what they got because they didn’t know what they didn’t know.
Sounds like project management sales rhetoric, but talk to someone who has suffered through it and they’ll tell you they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
The truth of the matter is – how could you know what you were getting into, you don’t know the system you’re moving to. Shoot, you’d be surprised how many folks don’t even know the system they’re on to begin with, but that’s for another day entirely.
Back to the subject at hand – it’s next to impossible to know what you’re really getting into if you don’t know that system. Yes, the vendors have implementation teams designed to walk you through new conversions, but these are often software folks, not agency owners, operators, former CSR’s, Producer or Account Managers – great folks, but still software people all the same. Sure, they know the software, but they don’t know your agency.
To carefully plan your conversion to Epic you have to consider much much more than just the data. While that’s a very important piece of the puzzle, it’s only one part. You need to evaluate the whole of your organization as it relates to the use of the system and plan every aspect of your conversion, the change management, training, workflow adjustments to take advantage of the system you’ re moving to….and the list goes on.
At SynerDynamics Group we not only help you evaluate your current processes, we help you realize what your future can look like utilizing your new system to streamline, capitalize on efficiencies, set a plan in place to execute the plan.
The whole process doesn’t start with your purchase of the software – it really needs to start with the cleanup of your existing source system data to keep from taking over a bunch of trash that will just clog up your brand new shiny instance of Epic. (Often the most overlooked part of the process for agencies we get called into after they’ve already jumped off the cliff.)
“Well, I think I can do this myself, the sales guy even told me I probably could” might be what’s going through your mind. Yet even they realize the value of independent project managers like SynerDynamics because we’re now seeing referrals from them 🙂
We all realize that you have full and overflowing plates with full-time client service and relationship management responsibilities with the clients who pay your income. You’ve got staff to manage, much less a life of your own that can’t be put on hold for 4-6 months while you focus on converting your system to Epic. Not only will engaging a project management consultant save you an incredible amount of time, you’ll have the unsurpassed value of years of experience taking both existing Applied and Vertafore databases into Epic and all the ins and outs, subtle nuances that only experience can teach you.
Beginning to think about conversion to Epic? Call us before you sign the dotted line, there’s so much more you need to consider and we’re here to help as capacity allows. Booking now for 2013 and 2014 conversion schedules now.
