Covestic engaged to lead program and project management responsibilities for major technology deployment.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
A Fortune 500 company was in the midst of a major new technology deployment and was experiencing problems meeting
milestones and completing deliverables defined in their project plan. The project involved deploying a new technology
to support the company's national customer care department, including a speech interactive voice response (SIVR)
system. The new system was needed to provide automated functionality that would enable customers to complete
day-to-day account transactions without needing to speak with a live representative. In order to meet
corporate cost reduction targets, timely deployment of the SIVR system was essential.
COVESTIC'S SOLUTION
Covestic was asked to assume all program and project management responsibilities for the SIVR system deployment.
In an effort to maintain business-critical timelines and deliverables, Covestic assigned an overall program manager
and several experienced project managers to organize and coordinate the key functional areas of the program. This
Covestic team worked together with the client's senior business management, as well as the vendors and internal
IT staff, to create a revised, overall project plan with clear milestones and deliverables. Each of the key
components was tracked and issues managed on a day-to-day basis, with overall reporting to I.T and business
executive management being communicated through the program manager on a weekly basis.
Through Covestic's structured program approach, the client was able to achieve key project objectives, including:
- Procurement, installation, configuration, and testing of three new, very large hardware environments installed in three separate datacenters across the United States.
- Client-specific application software developed as a joint effort between the system integration vendor and client developers.
- Development of a datamart with realtime data feed for ad hoc business reporting needs.
- Full user-acceptance testing, planning, and execution.
- Creation and execution of complete system performance testing and documentation.
- Creation of operational readiness testing and documentation.
- Development of a phased-in deployment plan and on-going management of system deployment.
- Support for training of approximately 8,000 customer service representatives.
- Management of the ongoing application tuning and maintenance efforts.
PROJECT RESULTS
While an extremely tight timeline was required to meet business commitments, the initial deployment of the
phased approach was completed as planned. The customer care organization was very vocal in their support of
the program team in general, and the Covestic team in particular, for achieving strong results under a demanding
program schedule. Covestic was invited by the client to participate in the second phase of the SIVR project.
THE COVESTIC ADVANTAGE
Covestic immediately understood the critical nature of this program and the high visibility it was
receiving across the client's senior management team, and responded rapidly by inserting senior
program/project managers (each with over 12 years of experience) into key roles across the project.
Working together as a team and using proven methods of planning, tracking, communication, and problem
resolution, they were able to reorganize the method used to manage the program.
Each of the Covestic project managers assumed a primary role in managing key components of the plan,
but also acted as a quality assurance resource for the other members of the program team. Using
Covestic templates and communication methods, they were able to streamline documentation deliverables
as well as status updates and issue/risk management communications.
|
