Go Live

The Go live process varies by client, your project, and your own internal processes.

This blog attempts to give ideas and a framework for what you should think about when preparing and executing the go live of a Planning Analytics on Cloud solution.

Pre go live:

There are a few areas to consider before golive that include, but are not limited to:

• What does success look like? Gather feedback from stakeholders
• Timelines, prepare a list of tasks that need to be accomplished with their relevant timelines. The may include:
  • Ensuring that Planning Analytics for Excel is installed on end user machines that require Excel integration: Configure Excel
  • The latest "Cut" of the data is moved to Production: Deploying/Migrating for go live
  • Users are added and assigned to appropriate groups: Administer Users and Groups
  • Security for Groups are configured to appropriate objects Users, Groups and role security
  • All test cases including dataflows and model logic are complete and performant.
  • Users have been trained and acceptance testing is complete.
  • Entire user community has been invited, added and security defined on the production model.
• Change management process is agreed
• Communication of timelines for all stakeholders
• Contingency plan is in place
• Ensure you are subscribed to this community for breaking news and  any questions
• Subscribe to the Planning Analytics Status page for maintenance updates and system notifications
• Configure Agent and Database thresholds and emails for your system alerts

Needless to say,  good communication is key.

An email (or another chosen route) to users including (at minimum):

• What to expect at invite (screenshots are always helpful)
• Who to contact if there are issues
• The new url for the Planning Analytics on Cloud production environment
• The Excel url used in configuration (if required) Configure Planning Analytics for Excel
• The time of the go live (including any perceived downtime in the systems)

If you are migrating from another Planning Analytics system such as an on premise implementation, there are two approaches to plan for at go live.  one is to use a firewall or other technique to block all user access to the on premise system.  This allows for live access to the, soon to be, old system should any checks be required.  the other approach is to plan to stop the on premise system services so it cannot be accessed.

If the on-premise system is required for historical view of data and validation of the cloud system you can also configure the database security so that all data is read-only.

Go live:

If you are migrating from another Planning Analytics system such as an on premise implementation.  Prevent user access to the old system at go live and/or set all database access to read only.

Communicate that Planning Analytics is now live to all stakeholders.  A summary email to users with base information such as the environment url and who to contact if they have issues is also a good idea.

Track that users are accepting the invites in the administration screen Users and Groups. Note: a user who has been sent an invite but not accepted will show as pending.

Monitor the performance of the system using the alerts screens (Agent and Database).

Post go live:

Reach out to the stakeholders for Feedback.

Evaluate the success criteria

Discuss a phase 2 modernisation plan

If you have migrated from another Planning Analytics system such as an on premise implementation,  Backup the data and decommission the system.

Congratulations on the rollout.