Higher Education Case Study – TRIRIGA EAM Program Management

In the higher education arena, this is one of the more ambitious initiatives to consolidate 8 or more disparate asset management, real estate, and asset management systems and their respective processes and organizational roles under one business transformation framework. Modernization at this scale was fraught with risk with 2,500+ end users, affecting most of the academic colleges at the institution. Therefore, the University sought industry advice from Definitive Logic (DL) to establish the governance model, implementation strategy, deployment model, and vendor management for the multi-year program. Definitive Logic partnered with the University and delivered management consulting services to lead the University through the following program phases:

1. Envision,
2. Design, Prototype, and Pilot,
3. Implementation, and
4. Cutover.

• Envision & Readiness Phase: During this phase, Definitive Logic identified the highly critical business requirements and supported the University to assess the leading commercial asset and facilities management products for fit.  After the University selected IBM TRIRIGA, DL led the stakeholders through the elaboration of the functional and system requirements by creating “Process Playbooks” in alignment with the IBM TRIRIGA platform.  The Definitive Logic team conducted fit-gapping exercises to assess the following:

1. Risk Mitigation – Which requirements must be “proved” to increase the level of comfort in moving forward with this solution?
2. Minimizing Customization – Configuring only enough capability so the University can learn more about the product, saving heavy customization (risk) for later.
3. Velocity – Identify opportunities for collaboration and timeline compression to optimize program funds and overall budget.

• Design, Prototype, & Pilot: During the design and prototype phase, DL led the University through the full design process for each of the aforementioned areas and orchestrated weekly workshops with each business area to increase understanding of the IBM TRIRIGA application, iteratively design the future state operating model, and prioritize future configuration activities. A key value add DL brought to the program was the ability to facilitate the strategic intent into practical functional designs and finally into technical configuration scope. Once Design for all the areas was approved, DL right-sized the scope for the Prototype Phase and commissioned development activities. Once the Prototype was ready for evaluation, DL facilitated a month-long pilot process with 50+ stakeholders to assess the IBM TRIRIGA platform relative to the strategic objectives enumerated in the EAM Program charter. DL utilized the findings from the Prototype to inform the University’s EAM Executive Steering Committee on an end-to-end implementation of the COTS solution integrated with GIS, mobile, and business intelligence (BI). The Design, Prototype, & Pilot phase of this project secured stakeholder sponsorship for this enterprise initiative while properly documenting potential risks and impacts to budget.

• Implementation: The implementation phase encompassed the largest Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) components for the EAM program. During this phase, DL defined and facilitated the agile-hybrid methodology for designing, configuring, and testing all end-to-end business processes. The innovation DL delivered was significant through the weekly tracking of earned value. Near real-time reporting of resources against scope across the entire program provided the University with the agility to address schedule risk proactively rather than reactively. Additionally, DL performed extensive triaging on incoming risks and change requests which ultimately allowed the institution to rid the change backlog of more than $3M in non-critical items. Also, during the implementation phase, Definitive Logic facilitated the execution of the full-scope test plan. DL provided weekly measures against quality standards to prioritize defect resolution activities in order to meet the institution’s quality standards and test phase ‘exit criteria’ by the end of each test phase.

• Cutover: For the Cutover phase, Definitive Logic led the formative detailed analysis of the deployment plan. DL provided the University with critical path analysis while monitoring cutover activities such as: PROD environment readiness, data migration, user activation, end-user training, change and communication management. Definitive Logic is retained in an advisory role to support the upcoming planned Go-Live events.