Planning for projects can, at times, be a challenging and
daunting prospect, especially when overhauling IT infrastructure is concerned. But our highly skilled and experienced project management team
are here to help. Together, we can make IT project management work for you.
Questions such as, “Who will manage the project?”, “What are the timescales?”, “What are the expectations and are they realistic?” are often asked. Yet, perhaps the most important question that gets asked is: “Do we have the tools and resources necessary to deliver the project within a realistic timeframe, and to the standard that is expected?”
Embracing digital transformation
We understand that undergoing a digital transformation naturally raises concerns within teams, especially when members who have been working in one way for so long, are suddenly asked to adopt a new way of working.
We strive to alleviate any worry associated with moving to a modern way of working; our project management team is there to assist by significantly reducing those challenges by working with your team. Through regular communication and comprehensive in-house training, we will work with you until each member of the team is confident in navigating your new infrastructure, software and hardware.
Simple, yet effective IT project managment solutions
At Chalkline, our approach to projects is straightforward: to design simple, yet highly effective solutions that deliver business outcomes to our clients using enterprise processes. This enables our clients to take a more collaborative approach, ultimately operating more efficiently, securely and reliably than before.
We pride ourselves on addressing each project with a “no project too small” attitude. Each and every project is delivered using our Project Governance Framework; we treat a 2-user migration in exactly the same way as we would a 500-user migration.
Our Project Governance Framework comprises of:
- Project Dashboard (Executive Reporting)
- RAID-C Log (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies and Change Control)
- Plan On A Page (POAP)
- 8 Week Look Ahead (8WLA)
- Project Plan
- Weekly Project/Stakeholder Update Meetings
- Daily Communication (when required)
Our project management team uses enterprise grade tools, including Microsoft Project, which enables us to easily assign, track or share the progress of every line item.
Each stage of the project lifecycle (initiation, design, execution, and completion) is meticulously planned, this approach ensures that what has been asked for, is always delivered. As a matter of course, changes to the client’s system at all stages of the project are communicated to manage expectations, and this guarantees they are always aware of any modifications and ultimately how this may affect them.
Managed service providers – with a difference
Our approach to projects is one of the key differentiators between ourselves and other Managed Service Providers.
Where some companies deliver Office 365 migrations using a few check boxes on a page of A4, we have a comprehensive plan, comprised of over 150-line items for a bottom-up view. This is then summarised using the POAP and 8WLA for a top down view.
This level of detail ensures that we never miss a step, always ask the questions that our clients don’t know to ask, and think of every eventuality, enabling us to confidently deliver within scope and, most importantly for our clients, within budget.
Chalkline can also provide infrastructure reports and security checks for clients to ensure that they are always in line with overall security best practice. Most recently we also created a Disaster Recovery plan or ‘DR Runbook’ for one of our clients, it is essential to plan for the unthinkable although we hope it never actually happens!
Even if our client has an internal consideration for IT, more often than not they find it useful to use a 3rd party to offer an impartial view and effectively give their existing solutions another set of eyes. It’s extremely easy to rely on a mentality of ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ but the reality is that IT is evolving and changing at such an alarming rate that most companies have a duty of care to review their IT on a regular basis.
Microsoft Gold Partner
As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we pride ourselves on continually using best-in-class products and services. This means that a small or medium sized business can adopt the same products to run and secure their business, as a major bank or enterprise would use.
Our approach allows our clients to reach their objectives in the most efficient way possible, as we draw on the experience gathered over thousands of cloud migrations – allowing us to replicate this in the most cost-effective way. The result is that the client has a smooth, stress-free experience.
If you want to discuss Office 365 or Azure because you believe Microsoft can deliver the results your business wants to achieve, then make sure you to speak to a partner who has already been down that well-trodden path and can help safely take you on that journey.
We are here to help!
This blog post has been updated with new content as of 18/8/2020
