COVID-19 – Something on everyone’s mind and how their places of work may be affected during such times of uncertainty.
Rest assured, here at Soft Options we have contingencies in place to allow us to continue providing day-to-day support, training and consultancy to ALL customers.
To our customers who are currently in the middle, or about to begin, their V14 journey and fear COVID-19 could jeopardise their project, we would like to share our recent success at The West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre.
“A tip to all that are considering Best V14 go for it you will never look back.”
Kerry Mclean, Operational Support Manager
Last week the team at Birmingham successfully went live remotely with BEST V14 – a first for Soft Options!
You might read this and think how is that possible? Here’s a short in-sight of what last week’s Remote Go Live entailed:
16/03/2020 – The call was made to Go Live remotely
Our project lead and trainer held an initial WebEx with the key members of the service, including their technical team to finalise arrangements in light of the change in circumstances and the fact that Soft Options staff would not be physically present for Go live or hand-hold.
What is a Webex?
A WebEx not only lets you conference call any number of people, it lets you share your screen whilst having the ability to view their screens too. You can also to take control of each other’s screens, making it greatly beneficial for remote training sessions.
Soft Options also provided a list of available staff contact details with guidance on who to call in the event of particular scenarios arising.
The site confirmed that Super Users would floor walk on Go Live day to ensure everything runs as planned and to identify any gaps in user knowledge, allowing David, our trainer to connect up and cover any additional training needs.
Like all Go Lives, we agreed a deadline for the site to make all final checks and make sure all users were out of BEST before running the final conversion. All users were requested to make a note of the client numbers they had worked on pre-conversion to allow for effective Go Live checking.
17/03/2020 – GO LIVE Day
The day began with all Admin & Clinical staff checking records and comparing V12 with V14 to ensure all data converted as expected. No real-time data was entered until this checking was signed off by the site’s manager. Note, data checks are undertaken throughout the project to safeguard against any ‘show stoppers’ on Go Live day.
Mike and David also worked with the site via telephone calls and WebEx’s to ensure all outstanding ticket requests and any reported issues were resolved prior to sign-off.
17/03/2020, 12:23pm
The Go Live completion form was completed and sent back to the office meaning Birmingham Rehabilitation Centre are officially LIVE! The rest of the afternoon involved David contacting all users and offering assistance as needed.
“On 17/3/2020 we went live with BEST v14 remotely. At first this was a very scary thought, knowing Soft Options staff would not be present with us.
The remote go live date went extremely well, even though it was in the midst of Covid 19.
The reason it went well was due to the amount of work that was put in by the Super Users and Soft Options staff, preparing for the day, and also the knowledge we previously had with Best V12.”
Kerry Mclean, Operational Support Manager
The extensive planning and constant communication between the team at Birmingham and those involved with the project at Soft Options allowed for an extremely smooth Go Live with minimal anomalies. The flexibility of WebEx and conference call facilities enabled both parties to easily discuss and quickly resolve queries throughout the day.
“Overall, the journey from Best V12 to V14 has been successful, and the benefits of Best v14 are outstanding.”
Kerry Mclean, Operational Support Manager
18/03/2020 – Hand Holding
If on site, this day would usually involve our software trainer spending time with all staff to make sure they are happy and confident with their processes, and go over further training as needed. Despite working remotely, we agreed the following format for the day:
1. The Super Users carried out a physical floor walk and phoned the dedicated support staff at Soft Options as required.
2. David individually contacted all users to further check on their progress and fill in any support gaps.
Despite the current uncertainty our advice to customers remains – For a successful BEST V14 project it is important to ensure you have dedicated staff and resources and communicate clearly with our team here at Soft Options. We are mindful of the ever-changing situation and the difficulties surrounding COVID-19 and will remain as flexible as possible whilst continuing to pride ourselves in been BIG ENOUGH TO COPE, SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE.
“If the West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre can go live in the midst of Covid 19 then anything is possible”.
Kerry Mclean, Operational Support Manager
