The five golden rules of deployment success
If there’s one word that many organisations associate with the installation of new IT systems, it’s ‘painful’. Far too often, their experience of migrating from one solution to another is memorable for all the wrong reasons – delays, integration issues, unforeseen costs and the product not actually solving the problem it was supposed to address.
Years afterwards, the negative memories and how exasperating the whole process was are still very raw. So much so, in fact, that many organisations continue to use solutions that are outdated and unfit for purpose rather than face the prospect of a similar experience.
As service centre manager for Mintra, it’s my role to oversee support and deployment services and to work with our customers to identify solutions specific to their needs. It’s my team’s job to know our products inside out and to create a project management plan to ensure a smooth and effective delivery.
In short, we are here to make migration painless.
Over the past 12 months, we have rolled out Trainingportal – our learning and competency management system – to approximately 110
organisations.
Each has had its own exact requirements: some need only the learning function of the system, while others also want the competence module and assistance creating training requirements for defined job roles. Some want to deploy Trainingportal across their entire global operation, others to use it only for a specific location.
And, increasingly within the maritime sector, many need our offline version of Trainingportal available onboard vessels.
The Mintra service centre is proud of its success rate. In the last 12 months we have resolved over 36,000 tickets with an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of possible 5 stars. We aim to respond to all customers seven days per week, within six hours. Our average response time for the past 12 months across all tickets has been three hours.
We’ve achieved that high success rate because we’re committed to supporting our clients – their needs must come first. Here are five golden rules I’ve come to recognise in eight years of rolling out Trainingportal to organisations around the world.
Get into the details
When we receive the work order from our colleagues in sales, we don’t dive straight in. We take time to dissect the client’s requirements to get an understanding of what they need to achieve. The team develops and suggests an approach, agrees with the client and then creates a detailed plan of work for delivery to a set timescale. Effective project management is key to success.
Consistency is key
When a client comes on board with Mintra, they won’t be passed around from pillar to post. They will have a dedicated consultant advising them throughout the deployment process. By the time the solution is ready to go live, the client will have someone within Mintra who has a deep understanding of their business and its future needs.
Start with the why
Sometimes, the client needs to visualise the end solution before they can decide if Trainingportal is right for them. So, rather than focusing on where we must start, we focus on where we need to end. It’s critical to get an understanding of what the client needs to come out of the system and work back the way. Essentially, we need to prove the end picture at the start.
Supporting success
Although we are absolutely confident about the results our clients get from Trainingportal, we understand that in opting for a new solution, they are managing a change process. The person within the client organisation who has responsibility for delivering the project can be under immense pressure and our role is also to support them. We guide them through the process, and they feel more confident because of that support.
Meeting the challenges together
Although we have deployed Trainingportal successfully to hundreds of clients around the world, it would be unrealistic to expect to deliver every project without hitting a bump in the road from time to time. If and when this happens it is important to offer complete transparency with our clients and forewarn them about any potential issues. It’s about being open about the challenges and working together with our clients to find the best solution.
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