Working with us: From proposal to in-depth project scoping

Discover what’s involved in fleshing out a project plan when you work with Leverage Technologies to implement your MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced) ERP solution.

It’s a great feeling when you’ve chosen MYOB Acumatica as your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, found a MYOB-certified implementation partner you can trust, and committed to making your digital transformation a reality.

Leverage Technologies takes a consultative approach to every customer interaction, but we pay special attention to project scoping because it sets the scene for a successful project. 

Why bother with project scoping?

Before you sign on the dotted line, we take the time to understand and map your needs in order to provide an accurate estimate and clearly defined proposal for you to consider. 

That initial proposal lays the groundwork for more in-depth scoping, to develop what we call a project blueprint. 

The project blueprint is important because it provides:

• An overarching view of the project’s goals aligned to your organisation’s vision
• Project budgets 
• Project timelines and a project plan
• Resource requirements (customer and implementation partner)
• Expectations with regard to project delivery
• A review of functionality that will be delivered 

The blueprint is a helpful guiding document, but not fixed: there is flexibility to change elements as the project unfolds and different needs emerge. However, a carefully crafted project blueprint makes implementations more purposeful, and testing and training become easier.

What steps are involved in project scoping?

Depending on the size and complexity of your business, scoping the implementation of MYOB Acumatica in your business can take up to a week. 

The crux of the work usually occurs during a one or two-day face-to-face workshop with key members of your team on-site at your business. Some homework is required to make the most of this session. 

Before the workshop:

Before the workshop, we provide you with a list of pertinent questions, an outline of documents or background material that may be needed, and a meeting agenda. Ideally, each affected team or business function would then have the opportunity to discuss the implementation internally and gather relevant documents or samples to bring to the workshop. 

Preparing for the workshop in this way helps ensure that end-user input is included in the planning. That’s important because you want frontline employees to be empowered to make the most of MYOB Acumatica’s powerful features. Engaging employees in the process is also important for helping them adjust to, and embrace, the change.

At the workshop:

The workshop is a chance to draw out the structures, processes and functionalities required to achieve your vision for the adoption of MYOB Acumatica. 

Because it’s a robust yet affordable cloud-based ERP solution, each instance of MYOB Acumatica is configured for a business’ unique circumstances and workflows. The integrated solution is capable of helping you to improve the management of customers, finances, payroll, projects, supply chain and field service. 

Which features and activities you choose to focus on will depend on the business challenges you’re seeking to address. 

For instance, MYOB Acumatica includes Customer Relationship Management (CRM)—but how businesses use that function will vary based on the channels and marketing tactics they employ, whether they manufacture and distribute goods, and what level of after-sales service they offer. If a business has multiple ABNs or branches, we would discuss how to configure the accounts and automatic transactions for ease of reporting across multiple companies or branches. Less data input and increased automation can help your business save time and money whilst providing better information for decision-making.

Together with your business, Leverage Technologies will work through each relevant module and third-party solution that you plan to implement. In collaboration, we will determine how the solution should be configured for your team, and what resources/data is required to do so effectively.

We’ll also touch on factors including integrations and data migrations.

Who usually attends? 

Often the CFO and heads of each department will sit through all sessions to provide high-level input. Other team members who are usually involved during specific sessions include business process owners, sales team members, the warehouse manager, the service manager, the procurement head, etc. If you’ve already appointed a project manager, their involvement is crucial.

When departmental heads all get in the room together it can be revealing. Often team members are so busy working in the business, they can’t see the big picture. Hearing from other parts of the business about their ways of working can unearth silos or disjointed efforts that could be improved. 

As well as raising issues to be resolved, you also get more cross-fertilisation of ideas: in both cases, the end result is a more comprehensive, tailored project blueprint and improved business outcomes. The core reasons for implementing MYOB Acumatica are to achieve better business outcomes – 

• Improved cash flow,
• Better customer service, 
• Reduced costs,
• Improved teamwork and co-working 

Move into your MYOB Acumatica implementation with the assurance

Our process to develop a project blueprint provides greater assurance that your implementation will be successful, certainty about what will be delivered, and how and when it will be delivered. 

The business benefits of this process include:

• Reduced cost of implementation
• Improved clarity associated with project timelines and budget
• Quicker time to implement
• Better planning information to assist with resourcing your ERP project
• Clarity on Return on Investment Expectations

These factors reduce the risk of project budget and timeline blowouts – making sure your MYOB Acumatica project is delivered on time and on budget to achieve maximum business benefit in the shortest possible time frame.

You have an opportunity to review and amend the blueprint before implementation starts in earnest. 

If you’re considering other implementation partners that don’t follow a similar process, you may want to ask how they will maintain oversight of your project’s objectives.

Talk to an MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced) expert to ensure a well-planned implementation in your business. Call Leverage Technologies on 1300 045 046 or email info@leveragetech.com.au today!