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The Easy Implementation Process

Like eating an elephant

Introducing a new IT system can be a nightmare: lots of expense, a big investment of time, many people impacted, lots of hassle and, in the worse cases, the end product doesn’t do all that was claimed of it.

We know you can’t eat an elephant in one go and likewise it would not be sensible to try to reorganise the way an organisation manages all its information in one go.

Propel Systems' goals for a Cimera implementation are:

• Make it easy for the customer
• Minimize the customer’s investment of time.
• Phased, iterative approach so the customer starts enjoying the benefits before too much commitment is made.
• Up and running rapidly – often within the first day or two.
• No commitment until you are satisfied

Start with the biggest pain

We have found that the best way to start using a Cimera solution is to concentrate on the area that would give you the greatest benefit, generally that which removes your greatest pain. This could be one of the following:

• replace the spreadsheet lists that are used most, are the biggest, the most complicated or have the most duplicated data in.
• replace the in-house application that was written many years ago and is now too expensive to maintain or add the required new functionality to.
• stop certain bits of information being stored in email inboxes and finally have a central list.
• introduce workflow to your processes and get rid of email as the way of tracking who’s working on what.
• put a collection of documents into Cimera so that full text searching enables you to find the right one (for example, if you are a recruitment firm then adding your CVs into Cimera will allow you to find all candidates with specific skills in seconds)

Only 4 steps (and Propel Systems do most of them)

When you have decided what to include in the first iteration:

1. We sit with you and understand what things you need to manage and the way you want to manage them
2. We configure Cimera to fit your processes
3. We load your existing information into Cimera
4. You start using Cimera

To elaborate:

1. Because a Cimera solution is custom-made to your specific situation, your requirements need to be defined. This is best done by a Propel Systems consultant sitting with you and helping you decide what you want.
   
   
2. Cimera has a comprehensive administration system that allows you to configure it through simple screens. At a high level this means you decide what sorts of things you want to manage, what attributes they have, what lifecycles they have (workflow), what relationships they have with other “things” that you want managed and what security you want applied to them. This is a relatively simple operation when you are familiar with what to do but initially it is quickest if we either do it for you or sit with you so you can get started as soon as possible. In the long term we will provide whatever training is required to enable administration of Cimera to be done in-house (help is always a phone call or email away). Of course, if you prefer, all administration can be done by Propel Systems.
   
   
3. Much of the information that you want to start managing in Cimera will already be stored in your existing data repositories (spreadsheets, databases etc). We will import this data into Cimera so there’s minimal re-typing of information. The original data source can then be archived.
   
   
4. Start using Cimera!
   

To summarise

To get a Cimera solution up and running the only tasks a clients needs to perform are:
1. tell us what you want
4. start using it.

If the size of the phase is small (say, a few spreadsheets) that could be on the same day. Because of the phased approach the biggest pain is dealt with very quickly, time is being saved and the other benefits realised right from the start. Once “phase 1” of a the solution is being used it will probably become apparent very quickly which part of the organisation’s data should be added to Cimera next. And so phase 2 begins.

The iterative approach will now continue as long as your business does. You have a uniquely flexible solution that will grow with you as your business & processes change.

Cimera's system requirements