Post Implementation Support
By Kathy Bader, RT CPC

Organizations spend an enormous amount of resources to prepare for the implementation of a new system. After the much anticipated "go live" date, the Implementation Support Command Center is staffed and in operation. The project and vendor support teams actively log and resolve user and system issues as they are encountered. Super Users are engaged to assist the users. The system seems to be adequately supported, but users may still have concerns about support going into the future. They may want to know who will be supporting the new system after the initial two weeks of support, how issues will be reported and who is responsible for working them to resolution. Also, how will issues encountered during the "go live" event be tracked and their resolution communicated back to the users. These concerns may be addressed in a post-implementation support plan.

The development of a post-implementation support transition plan is crucial to the perceived overall success of the project. The support transition plan may include items such as:

• Duration of immediate post-implementation support and Command Center operation.
• Issue tracking and resolution metrics for issues logged during the implementation and going forward.
• Policies and Procedures for ongoing issue reporting, resolution and communication.
• Policies and Procedures to address requested changes to the new application/system.
• Support Responsibilities Matrix.
• Development of First Level Support documentation to assist the help desk with user calls
• Application Troubleshooting guide for 2nd level support, typically the application analysts. If possible, it is beneficial to have the support analysts actively engaged in the project phase. This provides them the opportunity to better understand and troubleshoot issues.
• Post Conversion Maintenance documentation to include information as to how to make changes to your new application.

When support is being transitioned away from the Command Center, follow up meetings should be scheduled with the department managers to review the outstanding issues, new issues and any questions they may have. This also provides the opportunity to receive feedback from the managers regarding how well the system is meeting the user's needs and will facilitate a smoother transition to ongoing support.

If you would like further information on this topic or other issues related to implementations, please contact us at (610) 444-1233 or visit our website www.getvitalized.com. You can always email us at vcs@getvitalized.com with questions or comments. We welcome your contact.