THE 3 STEPS TO REACH SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION AND LASTING VALUE

Effective and successful development and implementation of new digital solutions proceeds in two phases. But ensuring continued value creation in the companies is at least as important.

Anders Have is one of exacto's principal consultants, and one of those who develop and implement new digital solutions to support budget, forecast and resource management for exacto's customers. As principal consultant, it is Anders Have who has the direct and ongoing contact with the customers:

"I sit with the customer throughout the entire project, as much as possible. This ensures that we have the necessary sparring, that questions can be clarified quickly, and that I am sure my work fully meets the requirements and needs of the customer. Along the way, we often find that there are some problems or challenges that have not been addressed initially. Therefore, it is important that our sparring is close and continuous", Anders Have says.

According to Anders Have, his work is typically divided into three phases:

"Once the partners have concluded the initial negotiations and entered into an agreement with the customer, I take over and start the first phase of the development work."

Phase 1: Clarification and overview

Anders Have explains that the initial phase is about getting a complete overview:

“In this phase, I need to gain access to their current environment, where I enter with user rights as an employee. In this way, I gain insight into how the current setup works in practice, and thus which functionalities the employees are used to having access to.

I am also given the data file of the material they have. The history is typically that the amount of Excel sheets has exploded as the company has grown. Therefore, the data file is often very large and unstructured. I analyse this material in a dialogue with the employees, and they help me understand it and familiarize myself with the challenges they face. Finally, I carry out an analysis of the company's data model: Which company structure is it based on, which external factors are at play, and which internal hierarchies must a new solution reflect”.

Phase 2: Establishment of unique database

This is followed by the practical work of establishing the new data platform that the company will be using:

"I start from scratch with a completely empty database. I design and structure this based on the input I collected in the initial exploratory phase, so that it accurately reflects the company's organizational structure, the functionalities that the employees need to be supported in, and the special conditions that, for example, apply to companies with international distribution, where factors such as local legislation, customs duties, external sources, etc. are important to include for the company to continuously be able to draw accurate data both for their ongoing forecasts, simulations, and budgets."

Phase 3: Follow-up and sparring

Once the solution has been developed and implemented, the collaboration enters its third phase:

"Once the solution has been successfully implemented, I typically maintain close contact with the customer. Since I’m the one who has developed and implemented the solution, I will often be able to react faster and actually more efficiently than their internal IT department.

There may be general questions, which the customer needs to address, concrete problems that need to be solved, or sparring about any changes to the current setup. A customer may have a need that they believe is not being sufficiently met and therefore a desire to implement changes. In those situations, as a sparring partner, I can perspective what impact the given change will have and whether there are better ways to do it", Anders Have explains.