Ease of deployment
An Optial system can start small with just the functional areas requiring immediate attention and then grow in scope over a period of time as the organisation becomes more familiar with the system. Optial’s SmartStart provides an “out of the box” solution for an organisation wishing to be up and running in a short space of time. Alternatively, a more customised and comprehensive system providing full functionality can be implemented from the beginning.
Optial staff have many years experience of consulting with and implementing high quality solutions in financial services. Working closely with our customer’s project team, business and operational areas, we are confident that our team can deliver.
Requirements Definition
During the implementation project, we seek to work closely with your business and implementation teams, with a prime focus on the diverse business needs of the business units. This means taking a consultative approach to assessing requirements by working together in a series of workshops.
A key deliverable is the agreement of a detailed project plan including clearly defined milestones with customer sign-off at each stage. The essential component is the production of the Blueprint (functional specification) document which is produced out of the workshops with business users.
The Blueprint describes in detail every single function and feature of the system as configured for the customer's use. This document serves as the ongoing basis for scope control, configuration, QA and support and is typically included in the contract. In our experience, the tender document forms a good basis for the requirements but clients do need to have the opportunity to refine and define their desires further, and this is what the Blueprint allows for, in a structured and consolidated fashion.
Project Roles & Repsonsibilities
We set up clear lines of communication and well-defined roles and responsibilities, to ensure that the business objectives are achieved. Ownership of the overall initiative rests clearly with the customer; however we believe in “sitting on the same side of the table” as the customer and regard the implementation as a jointly owned project. A mutually developed and managed risk register is used to ensure that a “no-surprises” implementation is achieved on schedule and budget.
Our track record demonstrates multiple successful implementations brought in on time and within budget, and our clients have publically announced their success in press releases.
Project Management
Fundamentally, we believe that successful project management relies on taking a structured and professional approach to achieve clearly documented roles, responsibilities, tasks and deliverables. Whilst our project plans are not explicitly a branded methodology, members of our team are familiar with a variety of project management methodologies, including SSADM and PRINCE2.
The implementation has as its prime objectives the production of a high quality and sustainable solution, under realistic timeframes, with carefully controlled costs aligned to agreed budgets and a key focus on rapid knowledge transfer to the client staff. Our implementation processes are robust and tested and have been proven successful in a number of major engagements in Audit and Operational Risk Management.
Typical progress monitoring procedures include weekly status calls or meetings to confirm project progress, identify any delays or bottlenecks, record outstanding issues and track progress. The weekly calls are complemented by periodic meetings of the project steering committee or Project Board; Optial is happy to participate in these on request, but recognises that these are primarily intended as a client-internal forum.
Project control is achieved via preventative, detective and correctional measures which are primarily aimed at achieving transparency.