Team players

It is a pleasure to be able to bring you two pieces of extremely encouraging news. I am delighted to announce the appointment of my new research guru, Lauren, who will be helping me understand the geometric complexities of curves and graphs. Lauren has an honours degree in something or other. She also possesses extensive ground-level experience. Welcome aboard Lauren! Meanwhile the new man from the team in charge of making our splendid computers function correctly has also been busy. I am happy to pass on his message in total partly because of its positive content but mostly because, despite my extensive business background, I do not understand very much about the small print. That is why we have insisted on bringing in big brains. SOP has had a few teething problems but I am filled with hope now.


A message from Peter Armstrong, SAP Release 2 Deployment leader to all Southwest One staff

Dear Colleagues,

Agreement has been reached between the SAP Project leadership team, the Southwest One leadership team and our authority partners on the roll out dates for the functions in SAP (also known as SAP Release 2 or 'R2'). Further details about the roll out and news from the project will be sent to you over the coming weeks through the e-newswire and from Richard Jones. Please make every effort to read these messages as they will contain important information and dates. Talk to your Change Manager if you have any questions.

The SAP Release 2 programme plan

I'd like to tell you a little more about what I am working on at the moment and the key ingredients to making Release 2 a success. Not only is a successful release 2 important to the authorities, it is also our chance to enhance the reputation of SWOne as an organisation that delivers the very best service. As you know, a successful project doesn't happen by chance; it is achieved by everyone appreciating the steps that need to happen through the entire project from start to finish, along with outstanding team work and a lot of hard work to ensure that all of the components are well planned and executed, with meticulous attention to detail. In the end, success comes down to how well we perform as individuals and as a team associated with the development and implementation of the system, and how we support our staff in the first days and weeks after it is rolled out. There are 12 'Quality Assurance' steps built into the programme plan around these key themes of checking that;

• SAP is ready for roll out


• The service is ready and able to support the release of SAP


• Staff are trained and able to use the new functionality and processes.


• My current focus is ensuring that:

1. Remaining service and project activities such as testing are completed properly and as planned.

2. The plan to manage the 'cut-over' between existing systems and SAP is well constructed and communicated, and as we get closer to the roll out that the tasks, key check points and governance approvals are clearly identified and understood by all those concerned in SWOne and the authorities.

3. We are thorough in checking the data we load, so we are very confident that the information in SAP is accurate.

4. Our support team consisting of Super users, floor walkers, change managers and service desk advisors are ready, and have sufficient training to handle enquiries and fix defects. Between now and Release 2, there will be a number of checks undertaken by our colleagues in the Authorities and Service Line teams to make sure the activities in the SAP programme plan are progressing as planned, and to agree the steps to take if problems arise. Look for updates and news in the e-newswire and messages from Richard.

Best Wishes,

Peter

So that's alright then, isn't it?