Best Practices View
These process adoption best practices are used by top performing Microsoft Dynamics
Partners, and are highly recommended to help your company positively address Sure
Step.
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Step 3
Led by Champion
Form & Train a V-team
"Be sure that Sales are involved from the beginning."
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Step 1
Led by Champion
Assess Your Adoption Maturity
"Be prepared to run a deep and honest assessment of yourselves. Your skills, your
processes, and your org structure will be impacted."
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Step 1
Led by Champion
Process Redesign
“When looking at role design, make sure your Practice Managers are accountable (paid)
based on capacity utilization. They will naturally seek out ways to increase utilization
rates.”
“Conduct a series of customer pilots across the multiple types of projects you operate,
to test your process & systems design. Be prepared to design, pilot, and redesign.”
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Step 2
Led by Champion
Implementation Pilot
"Go back to key pilot customers and ask them to assess the success of the pilot.
Did you adhere to the standards that you promised?"
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Step 1
Led by Champion
Deploy Sure Step Training
“Focus on skills development training, such as project management, before deploying
Sure Step training.”
“Train teams in small groups in 3-4 hour sessions, led by practice managers. Focus
on reaching your process milestones.”
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Step 1
Led by Champion
Re-assess Adoption Maturity
“Compare your re-assessment against your baseline. Re-assess your skills needs,
teams, and organization structure.”
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Step 4
Led by CEO
Executive Communication
“Encourage your people to manage the adoption of Sure Step as if it was a customer
project.”
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Step 3
Led by Champion
Management Reinforcement Coaching
“Mature consultants and managers will need ongoing coaching – their tendency will
be to fall back on what they know.”
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CEO
The CEO is the leader of the company, its mission, strategy and goals. The CEO is
responsible for the overall business plan, investments and results.
The ideal person in this role has:
- Held the CEO position for a multi-year period.
- Has strong understanding of the business and the drivers of profitability and growth.
- Understands the importance of business and process management.
- Has a background in leading change initiatives.
Champion
The Champion is the day to day leader for the Sure Step initiative. The Champion
is responsible for developing & executing the adoption plan for the company.
The ideal Champion is a senior level person with the expertise, gravitas and credibility
to facilitate and lead a company-wide change initiative. Your company's Director
of Services is ideally positioned to become the Sure Step Champion. This person
should have:
- A background in leading company-wide change initiatives.
- A detailed understanding of multiple company-wide job functions and roles.
Responsibilities:
- Manage cross-group collaboration.
- Coordinate the assessment and definition of all solution processes.
- Manage people & define functional requirements.
V-team: Sales Manager
Sales should be represented on the V-team by a Sales Manager or a senior sales representative. The
Seller leads the effort to review and optimize the processes Sales use to diagnose
the business pains and opportunities of customers.
This role should be filled by a sales person who:
- Has a track record of modeling sales excellence.
- Has the capacity to identify inhibitors and weaknesses in the current sales processes.
- Has a bias towards solution selling and relationship management.
Responsibilities:
- Assess the current sales processes.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in the existing process.
- Lead the definition and execution of new processes based on Sure Step.
V-team: Application Consultant
The V-team should include a Senior Applications Consultant who leads the analysis
of customer requirements, the design of the solution, and the completion of the
solution proposal and business case.
The ideal participant is a consultant who:
- Has a strong track record in developing functional and technical specifications,
designing solutions architectures and project managing solutions on-time and on-budget.
- Has the capacity to identify inhibitors and weaknesses in the current solution processes.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current approach to develop functional specs and design solutions.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing processes.
- Lead the definition and execution of new processes based on Sure Step.
V-team: Development Consultant
The V-team should include a Senior Developer who leads the analysis of existing
configuration and custom code development processes – both in-house and/or offshore.
The ideal participant is a consultant who:
- Has a strong track record of solution development and project management.
- Has the capacity to identify inhibitors and weaknesses in the current development
processes.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current approach to develop functional specs and design solutions.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing processes.
- Lead the definition and execution of new processes based on Sure Step.
V-team: Project Manager
The V-team must include a strong Project Manager with experience of managing specific
projects and the experience of overseeing multiple projects simultaneously.
The ideal participant is a manager who:
- Has a strong track record of project managing single and multiple projects on-time
and on-budget.
- Has the capacity to identify inhibitors and weaknesses in the current project management
processes.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current approach to develop functional specs and design solutions.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing processes.
- Lead the definition and execution of new processes based on Sure Step.
Marketing Manager
The Marketing Manager is not required to participate in the full activities of the
V-team, but does play an important role in key activities through the Adoption process.
The ideal participant is a manager who:
- Leads the development of marketing strategy and programs.
- Has responsibility for branding the partner to customers.
- Has a strong track record of marketing.
- Has the capacity to identify inhibitors and weaknesses in the current project management
processes.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current customer messaging.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing messaging strategy around implementations.
- Lead the definition and execution of how Sure Step messaging will be incorporated
into customer messaging.
Information Technology
IT is not required to be individually represented in the full activities of the
V-team, but there are key IT activities through the Adoption process.
The ideal IT participant is a manager who:
- Has a formal IT role or takes on the role of IT as part of their job function.
- Has a strong appreciation for your company's existing IT systems.
- Knows the configurations and construct of data and document management repositories
and key internal systems such as: time and billing, CRM, Knowledge Management, Performance
Management and collaboration.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current approach to project management.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing processes.
- Lead the definition and execution of new processes based on Sure Step.
Human Resources
HR is not required to be individually represented in the full activities of the
V-team, but there are key HR activities through the Adoption process. In smaller
organizations that do not have a full-time HR resource, the Champion should take
responsibility for these activities, or delegate them as appropriate.
The ideal HR participant is a person who:
- Has a formal HR role or takes on the role of HR as part of their job function.
- Developed the company’s HR policies and procedures including Job descriptions, job
levels and the compensation plans that sales and services teams are on.
- Has the capacity to lead changes aligned to the new processes and expected behaviors.
- Has a background of leading change initiatives.
Responsibilities:
- Assess current HR polices relating to job descriptions, levels and compensation
plans.
- Identify weaknesses and inhibitors in existing policies.
- Lead the definition and execution of new approaches aligned with the behaviors required
resulting from adopting Sure Step.