Our methodology consists of five major components:
Business System Design
Global Design
Core Business Operations
Change Management
On-going Support
Apps Associates’ Advisory Services are designed to be agile for modern business needs, offering each separately or in combination based on the individual needs and desires of each business we work with.
Business System Design
We work with our customer’s teams to understand not only the pain points within current business processes, but also the future business requirements that must be met in order to efficiently achieve business goals. During this assessment, we will also review the current configurations of business systems and assess the implementation against best practice configurations that we see across our portfolio.
Once the assessment stage is complete, we will offer solutions recommendations based on identified gaps and opportunities to address pain points impacting short and long-term planning goals. Depending on the maturity of the current business application stack, recommendations may range from identifying the right software to evaluate that meets the business needs, assessing a troubled implementation, or even areas where change management can increase user adoption.
Apps can also assist with software selection services, including RFP creation, vendor identification, management of the RFP process, and scoring mechanisms to quantify business user feedback. With deep relationships across the system integrator community and multiple software platforms, we help customers find the right partner to assist with the implementation of the software and even support vendor negotiations to get the best price and contract terms possible.
Our business system design services are designed to be modular and flexible, so that customers can choose the parts of the services that are appropriate for their needs. Our services cross all functional areas of the business system stack, including ERP, SCM, HCM, CRM, EPM, Data & Analytics, Public Cloud, integration and automation.
- On-Prem to SaaS Application Migration Workshops
- Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Hyperion, OBIEE, Fusion Middleware
- NetSuite to Oracle Cloud Application Workshops
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Proof of Concept
- Data Platform Modernization Workshops
- Data Center to Public Cloud Migration Workshops
- Middleware Software Education and Evaluation
- Data Strategy and Architecture
- Master Data Management Design
- Value Optimization Assessment
- Data Preparation Services
- Salesforce Organization Consolidation
- Service Operation Assessments
- Sales Operation Assessments
- Configure/Price/Quote Readiness Assessments
- Marketing Operation Assessments
- DevOps Assessments
Predefined Business System Design Packages:
At this stage of digital transformation, Global Design customers have typically selected a business systems software to implement, but need more nuance around how the software will specifically work to support the desired end outcome of the implementation—this is where Apps can help.
We recommend that customers engage in a global design phase prior to the implementation. This step allows for a deep dive into the standard system functionality and business processes, to better understand system capabilities. We also design required interfaces, master data management, data conversions, extensions, reports and change management requirements with a focus on process change, people concerns, communication, and training for a successful implementation.
Global Design
Core Business Operations
For customers looking to define processes ahead of any business system evaluation and assessment, Apps business process engineering services can help establish a baseline, following these five fundamental best practices:
- Customer Needs: The business process must be designed to improve the customer experience and make it easier to do business with your organization
- Core Processes: The business process should identify opportunities to process data efficiently to all parties who require access, as well as call out people and roles required to support executing the process
- Cross-Functional: The business process needs to be designed to support the entire organization, not just a specific department. Designing the best order management system for customer service users may create additional work for downstream and upstream processes like sales quoting and accounts receivable.
- Organization Impact: The best process design will only work if the people follow the process. A new business process needs to consider the impact to the people performing the tasks, and mitigation steps to address risk in these areas.
- Execute and Track: Ensure that the business users are able to execute on the new process efficiently, and track improvement metrics based on deploying the new solution.
With the implementation of a new system and/or work process, your employees are put in a position where they need to change the way they do things, often without time to prepare or plan. This is not the best way to realize the value of your new systems and/or processes. Help your employees (and the new tools you have implemented) be successful. Change Management helps your employees learn and adapt quickly. A Change Management plan outlines clearly what the expectations are and how to meet those expectations. It facilitates learning, buy in and helps to maximize adoption. Learn More
Change Management
After your transformation project is complete, there is one final piece that will require your attention: supporting your end-users and your application.
Transitioning to a new application can be a big endeavor. End-users require time and support to get familiar with new processes and requirements until they reach a stable pace. There is also the continuous innovation factor to consider, business as well as technology are ever-changing so you need to be proactive to ensure you are protecting your investment.
With over 2 decades of experience, our Managed Services Advisory team is ready to guide you through the different areas you will need to consider and evaluate to ensure a successful implementation to support transition. Using a well-defined methodology, we will walk you through assessing your specific needs, determine your readiness, evaluate all viable options, and help you decide the best strategy for your business.
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