For an application rollout or implementation to be successful it is absolutely necessary to carefully plan every step of the application.  During our initial meetings with the customer, we first need to learn about the business processes of the company and what need we are trying to address.  The need may be as simple as automating Email reminders to their customers about upcoming appointments or the needs may be as complex as modeling an order request, tracking, and invoicing system that handles multiple line items and status of the order along the way.  Once our team of experts understands the goals and needs, we can begin to make suggestions on what technologies may solve the problem and help the company to gain the desired efficiency and function.

The first meeting typically includes brainstorming different functions.  This is often referred to as the wish list.  Some of the things on the wish list may be simple and able to be accomplished easily while others may be very complex and require many hours of work to tackle.  At this stage, we are trying to find out how broad in scope the project may be and what areas of the business this may impact.  Taking what we have learned about the companies business processes and workflow, we can help to formulate the brainstorming ideas and ask questions as to the impact and desired effect of the items on the wish list.  The information gathered at the first meeting is then compiled by the IGD Solutions team into a sample application specification.  This specification is written from the user’s point of view and then reviewed with the customer at a typical second meeting.

The second meeting runs through and recaps everything discussed at the first meeting relative to goals and ideas.  The specification is then presented to the customer and the application is explained to the customer from a user point of view.  Each case is presented letting the user know how an administrative user would use the application and how a customer would use the application (and any other potential types of users).  At this time any changes are gathered and then worked into the specification.  We then work out a specific proposal for the application putting budgetary numbers with each section of the application and deciding mutually upon a possible timeline.

At this time the customer can decide which portions of the application make sense to implement first and which portions make more sense to implement in the future.  With application implementation it is important to always know what the next upgrades and revisions to the application will be so that current rollouts and implementations do not interfere with planned future rollouts.