athena software PENELOPE CASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE deployment guide

Transcription

1 athena software PENELOPE CASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE deployment guide

2 table of contents/ links to sections 1. Introduction 2. Deployment Steps Welcome to Penelope Installation Business Readiness Activities Kickoff Meeting Finalize Project Plan Configuration and Training Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) Verification and Preparation End User Training Go Live Support 3. Risk Management Identify key stakeholders Business Analysis Access/ Security Permissions Reporting Requirements Setting a Project Timeline Number of Attendees for Training Transition Planning Data Migration Living in Two Worlds Workstation Requirements End User Training 4. Change Management Understanding the Reasons for Change Investing in Successful Change The Psychology of Change 5. Installation of Penelope Roles/ Responsibilities Penelope Installed via Software as a Service ( Cloud ) Penelope Installed on Your Server 6. Business Readiness Activities Business Analysis and Process Mapping Identify Key Roles and Processes Documentation and Requirements Gathering Current State Process Mapping Analysis and Future Planning Future State Process Mapping 7. Data Migration 8. Reporting Requirements Reporting on General Statistics Reporting on Client Outcomes Reporting on Performance Metrics 9. Training Roles/ Responsibilities System Configuration Workflows Document Building Billing Reports Moodle End User Training SAMPLE TRAINING AGENDA System Config I System Config II System Config III Billing I Billing II Document Building Workflows and Basic Processes Reports 10. Go Live / Launch Roles/ Responsibilities Go Live Ongoing Support Priority Classification Critical Support Requests High Priority Support Requests Medium Priority Support Requests Low Priority Support Requests Scope of Support Services Optional Technical Support Packages How to Access Technical Support 11. Additional Detailed Information Client Service Lifecycle Overview Glossary of Key Terms Individual Information Overview Case Structure Overview Penelope Inputs General Agency Information Staff Information Programs / Services Third Party Service Providers Additional Setup Items Billing-Related Information Professional Services Tele-Training and Consultation On Site Training and Consultation Business Analysis and Process Mapping Workshops Document/ Assessment / Form Creation System Configuration Data Migration Custom Data Export or Reporting to Third Party Tools (e.g. Excel) Custom Database Views Basic Project Management Premium Project Management Custom Learning/Help Resources Out of Scope Technical Assistance and Consultation Sample Deployment Packages

3 Chapter 1 introduction Overview of deployment process and essential components.

4 Section 1 overview OVERVIEW This document outlines the steps to a successful deployment of Penelope at your 1. Outline of deployment components to consider organization. In its ibook format, it can be used as a great toolkit - you can add notes, share with colleagues and jump from section to section as needed. The bits at the end (detailed information) can be helpful for getting a more general orientation of Penelope s key concepts and terms. Whether your organization is large or small, it is important for you to fully engage in the deployment process through appropriate preparation, appropriate time commitment and ongoing review and analysis of the deployment s health. Regardless of your organization location, type, size or complexity, the success of the deployment will be measured in terms of the degree to which adoption of Penelope has: achieved your documented pre-deployment business goals achieved the deployment areas documented as in-scope been deployed in accordance with your project plan has enabled successful business continuity has been adopted by staff effectively and efficiently 2

5 been achieved within the pre-deployment budgetary parameters set by your organization The components of this guide comprise each of the core deployment considerations or factors that you must engage with in order to maximize your prospects for success. Make no mistake about it, transitioning to a new case management application that will become the new beating heart of your organization is a massively transformative process that demands an appropriate level of commitment and planning on your part. This document should help you prepare for this transformation, so please take the time to read and understand it. 7) Training 8) Launch/ Go Live 9) Key Terms and Concepts / More Detailed Information In the interests of keeping this guide fairly streamlined, we ve designed it to be interactive in the sense that there are numerous embedded links to other more detailed information available online. Please take advantage of these links to explore any topic more fully. Lastly, please let us know how you liked it and any suggestions you have for improving this document or the deployment process- - us at info@athenasoftware.net - we d love to hear from you! This document s main components are: 1) Deployment Steps 2) Business Readiness 3) Installation 4) Risk Management 5) Change Management 6) Project Plan 3

6 Chapter 2 deployment steps This section provides a general overview of the steps that occur in a typical deployment process. There is variability with every deployment and for larger deployments custom packages can be designed to suit your needs.

7 Section 1 deployment steps OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation WELCOME TO PENELOPE Once the license agreement and payment have been finalized, you will receive an welcoming you to Penelope. The content of this will vary based on 3. Business Readiness Activities the specifics of your deployment but it will always include a link to your web based 4. Kickoff Meeting deployment charter. Typically, your sales representative will begin filling out the 5. Finalize Project Plan charter for you based on information they have already gathered. You will complete the deployment charter based on your agency needs. Once you submit 6. Configuration and Training the charter, an Athena Deployment Project Manager will be notified. If you are not 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) sure of the answers to all questions on your deployment charter, then just do your 8. Verification and Preparation your Deployment Project Manager. 9. End User Training best for now and flag these items for discussion during the first phone call with To see a blank copy of the Penelope Deployment Charter, click here. 10. Go Live 11. Support 5

8 Section 2 penelope installation OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation 3. Business Readiness Activities 4. Kickoff Meeting 5. Finalize Project Plan INSTALLATION OF PENELOPE The next step is to install Penelope. Depending on what you decided earlier on in the process, your Penelope database is either cloud-based (installed and hosted by us on one of our secure servers) or installed and hosted on your own server. For more information on the installation process, click here to jump to the installation section of this guide. 6. Configuration and Training 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 6

9 Section 3 business readiness activities OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation BUSINESS READINESS ACTIVITIES There are a variety of business readiness activities which you should complete in order to ensure a successful deployment of Penelope. Business readiness 3. Business Readiness Activities activities include items such as internal business analysis and process mapping, 4. Kickoff Meeting identifying report/stats requirements, and data migration planning. Although it is 5. Finalize Project Plan 6. Configuration and Training 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) identified here as step three it is never too early to begin this step. For more information on recommended business readiness activities, click here. 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 7

10 Section 4 kickoff meeting OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation KICKOFF MEETING During the kickoff meeting, your Deployment Project Manager will try to gain an understanding of your business needs. Together you will go through the 3. Business Readiness Activities deployment charter and discuss your answers, as well as additional information 4. Kickoff Meeting about your organizations services and procedures that will impact your 5. Finalize Project Plan deployment and use of Penelope. Be prepared to discuss data migration, reporting requirements, and results of your own business analysis. This is a great 6. Configuration and Training opportunity to share your current frustrations and future goals and to discuss if 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) you would like to purchase any Professional Services to facilitate your deployment. 8. Verification and Preparation For more information on professional services available from Athena, please click here. 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 8

11 Section 5 finalize project plan OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation FINALIZE PROJECT PLAN Based on information gathered during the kickoff meeting, your Deployment Project Manager will create a training agenda tailored to your specific needs. At 3. Business Readiness Activities this point you should be ready to book the training sessions and set milestone 4. Kickoff Meeting dates, and be able to clearly identify responsible parties at your organization who 5. Finalize Project Plan 6. Configuration and Training 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training will help to reach these targets. In order to create a realistic project plan, make sure you have considered how much resourcing and availability you and the other stakeholders are able to allocate to working on the deployment. Click here for an example project plan for a large agency (4 month rollout). Note that this is just a sample rather in depth plan - we always tailor plans specifically to your agency s requirements and the timelines and resources can be shifted accordingly. 10. Go Live 11. Support 9

12 Section 6 configuration and training OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation CONFIGURATION AND TRAINING Once you have done thorough analysis and planning and have created a project plan, you will be ready to learn how to configure and use Penelope. This is 3. Business Readiness Activities typically the longest stage of the implementation. It involves multiple training 4. Kickoff Meeting sessions on everything from initial configuration to end user procedures and you 5. Finalize Project Plan 6. Configuration and Training 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) will need time to complete homework after each session. To learn more about this stage, please click here to jump to the training section of the guide 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 10

13 Section 7 data migration and custom report writing OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation DATA MIGRATION AND CUSTOM REPORT WRITING Depending on your needs, you may choose to migrate existing data into Penelope or you may require custom reports. If this is the case you should have already 3. Business Readiness Activities identified this as part of your business readiness activities. This work is often done 4. Kickoff Meeting concurrently with training and configuration. 5. Finalize Project Plan Click for more information on assistance from Athena for 6. Configuration and Training data migration and custom reporting 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 11

14 Section 8 verification and preparation OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation VERIFICATION AND PREPARATION Once you have completed configuration of Penelope, it is a good idea to do a walk-through of all of the processes for which your staff will use Penelope. This will 3. Business Readiness Activities allow you to confirm that you have setup Penelope correctly and help to eliminate 4. Kickoff Meeting setbacks at go-live. We also recommend that you create custom learning 5. Finalize Project Plan resources to assist your staff with this transition and to support new staff that may join your team in the future. Please click here to jump to the Professional Services 6. Configuration and Training section if you are interested in hiring Athena staff to create custom learning 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) resources for your organization. For larger deployments, you may also wish create 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training a sandbox/test environment for your staff to learn and play in Penelope. For more information regarding a Penelope sandbox, click here to jump to the Installation section of the guide. 10. Go Live 11. Support 12

15 Section 9 end user training OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation END USER TRAINING Once you are confident your procedures and learning resources are ready, it will be time to train your staff. It is best to split up your staff by role or by how they will 3. Business Readiness Activities use Penelope so that they learn only what is relevant to them. For example, you 4. Kickoff Meeting could conduct a training session for your clinical staff on how to put a new client 5. Finalize Project Plan into service and record session notes while in a management training session you may cover how to run reports and understand the results. You can also purchase 6. Configuration and Training additional training hours from our Professional Services if you would like an Athena 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) trainer to conduct the End User training. 8. Verification and Preparation To learn more about this stage, please click here to jump to the training section of the guide 9. End User Training 10. Go Live To learn more about our professional services, click here 11. Support 13

16 Section 10 go live! OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation GO LIVE Congratulations! Its time to officially launch Penelope and see how all of your hard work has payed off. Your Deployment Project Manager will be in touch with you 3. Business Readiness Activities shortly after your launch and provide you with information regarding ongoing 4. Kickoff Meeting support. 5. Finalize Project Plan To learn more about what happens once you go live, click here to jump 6. Configuration and Training to the Go Live section of the guide. 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) 8. Verification and Preparation 9. End User Training 10. Go Live 11. Support 14

17 Section 11 support OVERVIEW 1. Welcome to Penelope 2. Installation 3. Business Readiness Activities 4. Kickoff Meeting 5. Finalize Project Plan 6. Configuration and Training SUPPORT After a successful Go-Live the Athena Deployment Manager will begin to include the Athena Support Team in any correspondence with the agency project lead. After the initial touch point session, the Athena Support team will take full responsibility in providing ongoing support to the agency. The agency should provide an individual to act as a point of contact to Athena Software (if different from the agency project lead). This individual acts as the 7. Data Migration and Custom Report Writing (if any) communication interface between the agency Penelope end users and the Athena 8. Verification and Preparation be channeled through this individual. Support Team. Any issues that require Athena Support Team involvement should 9. End User Training To learn more about Support Options, How to Access Support and 10. Go Live other Support related items, click here 11. Support 15

18 Chapter 3 risk management The risk management section outlines recommendations to minimize risks and to ensure a successful deployment of Penelope. It is recommended that the project manager and other responsible parties for setting up Penelope at your agency review this section.

19 Section 1 risk management OVERVIEW 1. Identify key stakeholders 2. Business Analysis IDENTIFY KEY STAKEHOLDERS It is important to identify all of your key stakeholders prior to/early on in the deployment process. Stakeholders coming on board later in the project often 3. Access/ Security Permissions results in confusion about project direction and changes late in the project, which 4. Reporting Requirements can be costly and/or impact the project timeline. Ensure you include stakeholders 5. Setting a Project Timeline who are content experts and have strong knowledge of your business practices. 6. Number of Attendees for Training BUSINESS ANALYSIS Conducting a thorough business analysis is critical to ensuring a successful implementation. Ensure you have a good understanding of the end-to-end procedures and workflows that are followed in your organization from incoming referrals through to client discharge. Being confident in this knowledge will ensure you are setting up Penelope for use in the best possible way for your organization and reduce the likelihood of discovering necessary changes post-launch. This is also a great opportunity to identify procedural gaps and improve workflows that you have found to be inefficient or cumbersome. For more information regarding business process mapping, click here. 17

20 ACCESS/ SECURITY PERMISSIONS Ensure you have a good understanding of what types of access/ permission each of the roles in your organization should have. For example, should workers be able to access each others client records? How about records for clients who see a colleague at another work site? Having a good understanding of what your staff should or should not have access to will make it easier to set up their security access in Penelope and ensure everyone is seeing only what they need to see. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS Identify your report requirements prior to configuring Penelope. What statistics do you need to generate? Who are you providing reports to and what information do they need? This information will help determine the best way to set up Penelope. It is important that items you want to gather statistics on are captured in Penelope in a way that is easy to report on. For example, it is much easier to draw statistical data based on an answer to a drop down question with predefined text than to try to extract meaningful data from a free form text field. For more information on gathering report requirements, click here. SETTING A PROJECT TIMELINE Identifying a target launch date and milestone dates will help to keep your deployment on track. A structured approach with deadlines will help you to maintain focus on the implementation of Penelope rather than let it sit to the side while you get consumed with your regular work duties. Setting aside the time now to work on the implementation of Penelope will help you gain efficiency in the long term. Your Athena Deployment Project Manager will discuss your needs with you and help you to come up with a project plan. Want to launch Penelope as soon as possible? Take a look at your time and resources and figure out what as soon as possible realistically means and make that your target. NUMBER OF ATTENDEES FOR TRAINING Try to have a minimum of two stakeholders at each training session and also to maintain a small training group size. If only one person attends a session and then becomes unavailable to work on the implementation for any reason, it causes major setbacks in the project timeline and can be costly if you need to purchase additional training hours. Also, larger groups are less 18

21 able to focus on the core training material. Narrow down the list of stakeholders that need to attend each session by reviewing what material will be covered and identifying which stakeholders this will be most relevant to. *These recommendations apply to training the deployment project team members and not to End User training where a larger training group may be anticipated. 19

22 Section 2 transition planning OVERVIEW 1. Data Migration 2. Living in Two Worlds DATA MIGRATION If you would like to migrate data into Penelope, it is important to identify exactly how much data you would like to transfer over and ensure that this data is in a 3. Workstation Requirements migration-ready format. It is important to think about this early on in order to 4. End User Training identify associated costs and ensure the work involved will be completed in time. If you have limited resources, think carefully about what data you really need to move forward. Can you leave out information related to closed records or past appointments? For more information on data migration, click here. LIVING IN TWO WORLDS If you do not migrate all of your data into Penelope prior to launch, you will be temporarily living in two worlds, so to speak. While logging new information in Penelope, you may be going back to paper records to read old progress notes or looking at your old calendar to see appointments which were booked prior to launching Penelope. Whatever transition plan you move forward with, ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of how to access information and conduct their job properly during this time. 20

23 WORKSTATION REQUIREMENTS Ensure everyone who will be using Penelope has a work station which meets the technical requirements. You may want to have everyone log in to Penelope prior to the launch date to ensure that there won t be any hiccups on Go-Live day. Find out more about Training options here Click here for workstation requirements (scroll down) END USER TRAINING Ensure that everyone who will be actively using Penelope has received training and has an understanding of Penelope prior to your launch date. When conducting End User training, it is recommended that you split up your staff by role or by how they will use Penelope. This way you only cover what they need to know and don t overwhelm staff with additional information that is not applicable to their role. It is also recommended that you create custom training materials to assist your staff while they are new to the software and to support new staff that joins your team in the future. Click here to see an example of custom learning resources. An Athena staff member would be happy to assist with End User training and/or creation of custom learning resources. *additional fees apply 21

24 Chapter 4 change management Change is a big portion of implementing Penelope. It is important to make sure that this is managed appropriately and any risks arising are dealt with in a timely manner. Any kind of change in any organization requires appropriate management to succeed. Penelope implementation is no different. Appropriate change management by the stakeholders coordinated by the project leads will ensure timely successful Penelope implementation.

25 Section 1 change management OVERVIEW 1. Understanding the Reasons for Change 2. Investing in Successful Change 3. The Psychology of Change CHANGE MANAGEMENT Change is a big portion of implementing Penelope. It is important to make sure that this is managed appropriately and any risks arising are dealt with in a timely manner. Any kind of change in any organization requires appropriate management to succeed. UNDERSTANDING THE REASON FOR CHANGE If your organization has decided to purchase Penelope, it means your agency will be undergoing change. This may be a large cultural shift if for example you are moving from paper to Penelope, or may be more of adapting to new routines while retiring your old case management system. Whomever made the decision to purchase Penelope likely made the decision with a vision and specific goals in mind. It is important to understand this vision and the reasons behind it. Why was Penelope purchased? To improve efficiency? To measure outcomes? To report statistics to funders? To improve client experience? Understanding the reason for change is critical to ensuring it goes smoothly and successfully. Keep these goals in mind throughout the implementation process, and identify ways to measure your success in accomplishing these goals. 23

26 INVESTING IN SUCCESSFUL CHANGE By purchasing Penelope your organization has already made an initial investment in change, but it is important to know that the purchase of a new software is not enough to ensure successful change and realize your future vision. In order to ensure success, your organization must accept that a successful implementation requires the commitment of time and resources and may require other corporate changes. Stakeholders who understand the future vision may need to make difficult decisions regarding the future. Is your corporate culture shifting? Perhaps to realize your long term goals you may need to eliminate outdated roles in your organization, for example you may have a position dedicated entirely to the filing and management of paper records which is becoming obsolete. Perhaps you are planning to host the software on your own server and/or have very specific reporting requirements for which new technical staff could be hired. Additionally, ensuring time and resources are allocated to the implementation of the software itself goes a long way in ensuring that Penelope will be configured in a way that meets your organizational needs and generally creates a smoother transition for staff. When key stakeholders are not engaged and an appropriate investment to understanding and configuring Penelope is not made it puts your organizational goals at risk. While Penelope can be reconfigured and modified in future, a poor initial implementation will foster negativity and mistrust from which it may be difficult to recover. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHANGE Change is frightening, and typically staff resist change. It is important to be mindful of this and begin making an action plan early on to facilitate the transition. Make a clear communication plan and ensure messaging from your leadership team is consistent and positive. Ensure your communication plan includes key messages including the reasons for change, how change will impact the organization and the people in it, when change will occur, and the resources available to facilitate the change. Allow a safe means for staff to express concerns, voice their opinions and provide feedback without fearing negative repercussions. Open discussion and feeling like they are being heard will help staff accept change even if you are not able to address all of their concerns immediately. Once you get an idea of how resistant your staff is to change come up with a change management strategy tailored to your agency needs. What types of training styles do your staff best respond to? How much time is reasonable to allow your staff to adjust? Is your agency more likely to adapt with a slow transition where you build and add more functions into Penelope over time, perhaps rolling out use of the software by different teams and programs over time? Or are you more suited to longer preparation time with one organization wide shift in processes? Identify the levels of your organization and roles within them which must accept the change to ensure success. Invite members of each of these groupings to be part of 24

27 the discussion early on and to assist you in developing your change management strategy and implementation plans. These individuals can then foster a positive attitude towards change throughout your organization and assure colleagues that their input is valued and heard. 25

28 Chapter 5 installation process The installation section walks you through what you can expect to occur during the installation of Penelope. Your installation experience will differ depending on who hosts and installs Penelope.

29 Section 1 installation of penelope OVERVIEW 1. Roles/ Responsibilities 2. Penelope Installed via Software as a Service ( Cloud ) INSTALLATION OF PENELOPE The installation section walks you through what you can expect to occur during the installation of Penelope. Your installation experience will differ depending on who hosts and installs Penelope. 3. Penelope Installed on Your Server Stakeholders and their responsibilities at this stage include: Agency Project Lead Communication Interface between Agency Signing Authority and Athena Project Manager Change login password on initial log in Agency Signing Authority Provide approval for Penelope Installation Athena Deployment Manager Pre-installation - Gather necessary information from Agency Project Lead to facilitate installation 27

30 Post Installation - Provide Agency Project Lead with software link and login credentials Athena IT Personnel Install Penelope Prior to commencing the deployment of Penelope, we will require the name and contact information for the security officer and signing authority at your organization. You can submit this information via the Deployment Charter which will be sent to you by once your purchase of Penelope has been finalized. Even if you are hosting and installing Penelope software independently, we require these contacts. This way, if you run into an urgent technical issue in the future for which you require our assistance, we will be able to quickly identify and contact the appropriate authorities at your organization who can allow us permission to access your database and assist in resolving the issue. Once your license agreement has been signed, payment has been made, we will have your Penelope database running and accessible within one or two business days. You will receive an from your Deployment Project Manager containing a link to your Penelope database and a system administrator login. For security purposes, your system administrator password will not be in the . Instead, you will be requested to either call the support line or create a support ticket to receive your password. If you have purchased a minimum of 10 concurrent licenses, you are eligible to receive a Sandbox which will be available for 90 days from the installation at no additional charge. For more information on Penelope in the secure cloud, click here. PENELOPE ON YOUR OWN SERVER PENELOPE IN THE SECURE CLOUD / SaaS Athena Software hosts your data with physical security, services redundancy, advanced server configuration, availability and disaster preparedness that is world class. Click here to see minimum hardware requirements and recommendations when you host Penelope on your own server. If you provide us with remote access to your server, we will install Penelope for you at no cost as part of your Gold Support Package. In order to do this, we require the following: 28

31 Remote access via an administrator-level account such as Remote Desktop including the remote IP, Username and Password - For security reasons, never submit the password and login information via the same type of communication. Authorization to reboot the server once during the installation process Server must be able to access the web site penelopehelp.com to download required components Someone on your staff may need to perform some functions at the server terminal but we can guide you through this or provide instruction You have identified for us one http/tcp port to run the application and, if required, an https/ssl port for remote access. If you prefer, we can provide you with instructions so that you can do the installation yourself. Please let your Deployment Project Manager know if you are using a Windows or a Linux server so that we can forward you the appropriate instructions. You can install as many Sandbox environments as you need on your server and keep them permanently. You will be responsible for the maintenance of these databases but can hire Athena staff to assist you for an additional fee. 29

32 Chapter 6 business readiness activities This section describes recommended activities to ensure your organization is ready to launch Penelope and to use Penelope as effectively as possible. This section will cover topics such as Business Analysis and Process Mapping.

33 Section 1 business readiness activities OVERVIEW 1. Business Analysis and Process Mapping 2. Identify Key Roles and Processes BUSINESS READINESS The first step in getting your organization ready to implement Penelope is to identify and engage your implementation project team members. This team should 3. Documentation and Requirements Gathering consist of key stakeholders who have the responsibilities, competencies, 4. Current State Process Mapping implementation. Your project team should consist of various types of people - both 5. Analysis and Future Planning 6. Future State Process Mapping experience, and knowledge necessary to work towards a successful big picture visionaries, and detail oriented individuals, people who can make high level decisions and who understand the organization wide targets and goals, and subject matter experts who will know which details are critical to success and understand why each step in a process occurs and what it impacts. It often occurs that the team responsible for the decision to purchase Penelope is not on the project team responsible for implementing the software. It is important that the implementation project team understand the reasons for purchase and have clear goals in mind. Purchasing Penelope provides an opportunity to review and improve your internal business practices. It is also recommended that you use these goals to track your return on investment over time. 31

34 BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND PROCESS MAPPING In order to ensure a successful implementation, it is important to understand how your organization currently operates and have pre-defined goals on how it should operate in the future using Penelope. Below are recommended activities to ensure a thorough business analysis has taken place in preparation for the changes to come. Conducting this analysis and documenting the outcomes will not only prepare you for launching Penelope, but can also give you resources which can be used for business continuity and training in the future. Why? What processes does this person follow? Who else does this staff member interact with at your agency in relation to the clients? Will any of those individuals processes be impacted by Penelope also? From a management perspective, what information do you need to view in Penelope? Who is responsible for collecting this information? Who is responsible for recording the information? How is the information captured today? All processes which will be transferred to Penelope should be identified and captured no matter how simple or small. Sometimes something that seems simple can have a large domino effect if taken out or forgotten. For more on Process Mapping please click here For more information on Athena s Professional Services, click here IDENTIFY KEY ROLES AND PROCESSES Identify and document all of the roles and associated responsibilities that exist in your organization which will be impacted by your move to Penelope and identify each of the processes that these roles perform. While trying to identify key roles and responsibilities, take a walk through common procedures from various perspectives. For example, from a client perspective - who does the client interact with at your agency? DOCUMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS GATHERING As you start making decisions on how to move forward with Penelope, it is critical to identify your Reporting Requirements in advance as well as your needs with respect to Data Migration. It is important to have these needs clearly documented (including specific forms that are used to capture data for reporting and where this information could/ should be located within your business processes/ client lifecycle); we highly recommend that you share this information with your Deployment Project Manager. You should also start gathering key information which you will need to have on hand in order to configure your Penelope database. 32

35 For a list of items to have prepared to assist with system configuration please click here. CURRENT STATE PROCESS MAPPING For each of the roles and processes identified above, create a process map which illustrates how these activities currently unfold at your organization. It is a good idea to interview subject matter experts from the roles you have identified to collect information and also to have them review your process maps upon completion to ensure you have captured information correctly. Be sure to capture who conducts the work, what action is taken, what triggers the action and detailed information on how the action is completed and how work is moved forward to create a trigger for the next action. Please click here in order to see an instructional guide to process mapping. mapped out your current processes, take a look at the visual display of your procedures - is the map easy to understand? If it is messy that may be an indicator that you should use this transition to streamline procedures. Common things to consider include eliminating duplication of efforts such as different workers recording the same information and reducing the number of handoffs between roles as work travels through a process. Other examples include process elements that, because of legacy issues (eg. using a paper based system), often require communications, notifications and other back and forth elements that can be made redundant through functionality in Penelope. As you are looking at your procedures it is important to raise questions. Why does this process take place? What is the purpose of this process? Is there another way to accomplish this that is more efficient or has less room for error? What QA procedures currently in place will need to be streamlined/ changed as part of the transition to Penelope. As you look to the future which processes should be changed and improved? Think about how all of these processes will live in the future and within your Penelope database and what adjustments will be needed. ANALYSIS AND FUTURE PLANNING In addition to planning for transitioning your processes into Penelope, this is an opportunity to improve quality and/or efficiency of processes that may be outdated. Now that you have FUTURE STATE PROCESS MAPPING For each role and process identified above, create a process map which illustrates how these activities will unfold in the future using 33

36 Penelope. Be sure to address all of the items that were captured in your current state map so that you will be prepared for a smooth transition. If you don t know Penelope well enough to map out the details of how each process will work then take this opportunity to start the map and identify the gaps that need to be filled in. As you go through your training, continue to come back to this map and fill in these gaps and engage your Deployment Project Manager to help if you have areas of concern. It is also a good idea to identify where and how key data elements will be recorded if you later need to collect the data for your Reporting Requirements. These maps form the critical structure that serves as the basis for the development of training materials, a form of User Acceptance Testing and ongoing compliance framework. This set of process diagrams forms the master documentation against which staff and system performance will be evaluated). 34

37 Chapter 7 data migration Athena Software can help migrate your legacy data into Penelope. We often use the services of a 3rd party organization, CIMEND. They have many years of experience migrating legacy data from many different systems and database types into Penelope.

38 Section 1 data migration (if applicable) DATA MIGRATION How important is it to be able to migrate your current data into Penelope for continuity purposes? If it is critical, are you moving from another case management software solution to Penelope? If so, can you extract your current data into Microsoft Excel or Access format for migration? One thing to consider is that sometimes when you migrate data you also potentially migrate bad data, errors, incompatible legacy concepts and other elements that you may want to be moving away from (rather than to ) when transitioning to a new system. For example, in Penelope we have the concept of a case file uniting affiliated individuals into a unified family file in which all service information is recorded. If your legacy system doesn t have this concept, migrating your data will be problematic at minimum and even in some cases, impossible. Sometimes migrating data also makes it harder to break away from policies, procedures and service concepts you want to move away from so thinking about how migration of legacy data fits into your organization s strategic transformation is vital. You even may want to consider a hybrid model where basic individual data is migrated but the rest is printed out from your current systems and uploaded as an attachment or entered manually by data entry staff. 36

39 To provide you with a price quote and time estimate for performing the migration, below are some questions that your deployment manager will ask to get the process started: Can you get the data from your legacy system into separate CSV tables? Do you understand the relationships of the tables in your legacy system to each other? Is there reasonable degree of matching (correspondence) between the table structure of the current system and Penelope (so that things can be easily and logically mapped)? Is the data clean? Were there sufficient data validation checks in place when entering data into the legacy system so that the data is consistent and doesn't require a lot of cleansing? What is the scope of the data to be brought over? Is it all clients? Just open clients? Of the client records to be brought over, is it just their name / address / phone / demographics or extensive additional information? If so, what? Before providing sample data for evaluation/assessment, please provide Athena Software with an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) to sign as we will be dealing with client data at this point. NEVER send any confidential client information to us unless we provide a specific method for you to do this securely. Once the sample data is provided, an estimate will be provided within 2 5 business days. Approval for the estimate provided will be required from your agency stakeholders and management team before any work begins. Upon work completion, the data will be converted to a sandbox site (test environment) for final approval/sign off from your agency stakeholders and management team. Once sign off is received, the data will then be converted to your production Penelope database on the agreed/scheduled date. Sometimes, if you can budget it, it is more efficient to do a two stage conversion where the first one is done to ensure the data is mapped correctly and accurately (and can be used for training of staff) and then the final one can be done immediately prior to go live to ensure the most up to date and recent information from your legacy system. Can you provide some sample data? If so, when? 37

40 Chapter 8 reporting requirements During or prior to the system configuration process, it is especially important to identify your reporting needs so that the system is configured and processes are designed to ensure that this information can be generated and retrieved effectively by the appropriate stakeholders.

41 Section 1 reporting requirements OVERVIEW 1. Reporting on General Statistics 2. Reporting on Client Outcomes 3. Reporting on Performance Metrics REPORTING REQUIREMENTS During or prior to the system configuration process, it is especially important to identify your reporting needs so that the system is configured and processes are designed to ensure that this information can be generated and retrieved effectively by the appropriate stakeholders. When looking at reporting from Penelope it is important to consider that there are multiple levels/layers within Penelope from which you can extract reportable data and many different types of data that you can collect - for example, are you looking to track aggregate statistics and/or the performance of your agency and staff? REPORTING ON GENERAL STATISTICS There are many statistics which can be pulled out of Penelope and which clients will use to provide information to funders, or for publishing quarterly reports either publicly or to their internal board of directors. These statistics can be pulled from many different levels of Penelope depending on your needs. For example, at the case level you can collect information such as the number of families served, at the service file and event level you may be interested in tracking the number of 39

42 service files opened, and at the client level you may be interested in tracking stats on basic demographic information such as gender and ethnicity. Penelope has customizable user defined fields, unlimited customizable tracking of data through documents, and the ability to customize your own units of service to be as granular as needed and to be tracked within your own customized unit of measure. Any data which is captured in Penelope can be reported on, however it is imperative that your specific needs are clearly identified. For example, if you are interested in the number of clients enrolled into service - does this mean unique clients? Or if the same client is enrolled into three services should they be counted three times? How about if this client is returning to a service that they had been enrolled in two years ago? These types of questions need to be identified and answered in order to ensure that your reporting needs have been met and that you understand the information contained your reports. REPORTING ON CLIENT OUTCOMES Many agencies require reporting on client outcomes both to provide evidence to funders of the value of their services and also to use for internal assessments and improvements. First you will need to clearly identify what defines and measures a client outcome, and then determine how this will be tracked in Penelope in order to report on these important items. For example, Penelope has a feature where you can record outcomes assessments over team throughout the client s treatment and you can see a graph of their progress. Common information to include in these types of reports would be degree of family engagement, change in condition over time, service closure reason, and client satisfaction survey results. REPORTING ON PERFORMANCE METRICS Agencies often require reporting on both agency level and individual staff level reporting metrics. Performance metrics can be drawn from Penelope throughout your workflows and at varying levels in the system. For example, from an agency perspective you could report on wait times to get into service, time taken between an intake assessment to their first appointment, reasons why potential clients do not enroll into service or unplanned discharges. From a staff perspective you could report on items such as case load metrics (number of open files, number of sessions provided etc.), types of services provided, service outcomes, and amount of direct time spent with clients. Please note that Penelope comes with a myriad of in built reports that can be used to suit your organization s needs. Please review this reports guide [insert reports guide] for details on what is available. Talk to your Athena Deployment Manager for extra information. 40

43 After reviewing the guide, if you have additional reporting needs, you can either write your own queries using tools such as MS Excel, SQL Writer, Crystal Reports,,ACCESS etc or engage our staff at Athena in writing queries for you that can pull your required data into tools such as Excel (for example, in Pivot Tables or just tabular data sets). It is important to remember that anything that is entered into Penelope can be reported upon, but the complexity of pulling it in the format and criteria requested can have a significant impact on the effort involved. One other helpful tip to remember is that reporting categorical aggregate data from open text fields or open memo fields is not really advisable (or in many cases possible) so try to use data field types appropriate to your reporting needs (eg. drop down values, check boxes etc.). 41

44 Chapter 9 training The training section provides a general overview of our typical training model, highlights common training topics, and describes our general learning resources.

45 Section 1 training OVERVIEW 1. Roles/ Responsibilities 2. System Configuration 3. Workflows TRAINING STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES Agency Project Lead: 4. Document Building Prepare agency staff for training 5. Billing Verify that the correct roles are represented in the respective training sessions 6. Reports 7. Moodle 8. End User Training 9. SAMPLE TRAINING AGENDA Penelope End User(s): Attend training session **Training sessions are role based Athena Deployment Manager i) System Config I ii) System Config II iii) System Config III iv) Billing I v) Billing II Setup the training session Facilitate the training session (if not done by training resource) Athena Training Resource(s) Facilitate the training vi) Document Building vii) Workflows and Basic Processes viii) Reports 43

46 Penelope is a highly configurable software with many features and options. At Athena Software we help you to understand these options so you can configure Penelope in the best possible way for your organization. After your initial phone call your Athena Deployment Project Manager will construct a training agenda tailored to your needs, highlighting areas of Penelope which will be most relevant to you. The agenda will consist of multiple training sessions typically ranging from minutes. The majority of these sessions will center around showing you how to set up Penelope for use by your staff. Click here to see a sample training agenda. After each session you will have homework to complete where you apply what you have learned in training by configuring Penelope for your business needs. (e.g. setting up workers in the system and setting their security/access permissions). We will also include a train-the-trainer session on Business Processes/ Workflows to ensure you have the knowledge and confidence to train your staff and provide support. Here is a brief description of some common training sessions: SYSTEM CONFIGURATION In these sessions we will log in to your Penelope system and show you areas that are waiting to be configured and explain how to make your business decisions and practices a reality in Penelope. Topics include security/access permissions for your staff, how to customize user defined fields to track information, and setting up your services/programs in Penelope. WORKFLOWS We will make sure you understand the basic processes that your staff will be conducting on a daily basis such as intake, booking appointments, tracking attendance, and recording clinical information. This session will give you the resources you need in order to train your staff on using Penelope. DOCUMENT BUILDING If you provide us with your blank forms/documents we will use them as practical examples to show you how you can make custom digital documents in Penelope. At the end of the session you should be able to make more custom documents on your own and will already have some conveniently started for you! BILLING Penelope offers an advanced set of features to facilitate your billing and fund tracking needs. Topics may include setting up policies, third party payers, tracking services against grant/fund values, invoicing and EDI claims. 44