Value Design
Apply proven principles and best practices to ensure the solution achieves the expected business outcomes, satisfies the technical requirements, and can be measured.
No matter what stage of your billing journey you’re in, RESPEC offers solutions to meet you where you are and move you forward. We divide your journey into four sequential Value Stages and can help you from start to finish or at pinpointed steps along the way.
We’ve designed a variety of offers to help you move through these stages and can tailor specific components of each to your unique needs. Take a moment to explore the problems we help our clients navigate and solve.
RESPEC's Value Design program offers:
Uncover & Alilgn
Align business goals and value statements and uncover the business and technical requirements the solution needs to achieve the desired outcomes.
Business Requirements
Work across stakeholders within the business to define and align the outcomes to be achieved by the project.
Deliverable
Business Requirements Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Half-day workshop with key stakeholders
- 2-3 days total
Key Activities
- Identify key tasks or activities the system needs to perform
- Uncover business outcomes that will measure the project's impact on the business
- Build alignment across the business on the ultimate measures of success all parties are working towards
Benefits
- Creates a tangible list of metrics to measure success and the impact on the organization
- Identifies success metrics shared across the business to align various groups throughout the business
Functional Requirements
Understand the key tasks, processes, and needs the system must perform, including controls and compliance considerations.
Deliverable
Functional Requirements Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Working sessions and workshops with SMEs
- 3-4 weeks total
Key Activities
- Identify key tasks or activities the system needs to perform
- Identify the processes that facilitate those tasks and uncover users' needs
- Capture nuances and exceptions and determine how to address them in the overall design
Benefits
- Identifies key processes within each main business function to better capture the system's requirements
- Highlights nuances and exceptional needs earlier in the process, minimizing design rework
Technical Requirements
Understand the technical-level requirements to support the system, integrations, and data flows.
Deliverable
Technical Requirements Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Working sessions and workshops with SMEs
- 3-4 weeks total
Key Activities
- Break down the functional requirements into their technical needs and requirements
- Understand data flows, validations, errors, timing, and reprocessing workflows on the data set
- Identify and design integration formats and "handshake" points within the end-to-end flow
Benefits
- Achieve an accurate scope on the integration and data needs early in the process
- Understand file and data formats at key connection points to ensure the solution design supports these needs
- Build cohesion among all parties and vendors to understand requirements and accurately plan dependencies
Architect & Prototype
This package creates the solution's architecture and uses prototyping to validate that the design meets the technical requirements while delivering the desired business outcomes.
System Architecture
Establish agreement among all parties involved in the design and architecture of the system(s) to support the requirements.
Deliverable
Solution Design Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Design and architecture sessions
- 2-3 weeks total
Key Activities
- Define the objects—including custom objects—within the systems and their use based on the requirements
- Create an end-to-end architecture diagram of the solution with integration points and data flows
Benefits
- A Solution Design Document serves as a base moving forward
- Clear understanding of system architecture and integration points
- Alignment among all parties on technical design
Business Process Map
Create an overview map of the key processes needed to support the Solution Design, including the identification of those processes that will be updated and changed.
Deliverable
Process Design Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Process mapping and analysis sessions
- 2-3 weeks total
Key Activities
- Understand the key processes required to support the solution design
- Identify changes in existing processes, new processes, and processes that remain unchanged
Benefits
- Ensures that process changes are facilitated during the implementation to be ready for a successful go-live
- Ensures the solution design is supportable by the business in the long term
Design Validation
Complete prototyping within the systems of the Solution Design to ensure accuracy and test validity.
Deliverable
Validated Solution Design Document
Ideal Format & Timing
- Prototyping and validation sessions
- 2-3 weeks total
Key Activities
- Take the Solution Design and build out prototypes in the system to validate it
- Adjust and iterate on the Solution Design as needed
Benefits
- Up-front validation minimizes significant delays or re-work later in the process
- Provides the customer with early visibility and exposure to the system
- Diagnoses needs or requirements that may have been overlooked earlier in the process
Test Strategy
Develop a testing strategy for User Acceptance Testing at the end of the implementation to ensure satisfaction of business requirements and identify test scenarios and data that will need to be created.
Deliverable
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Plan
Ideal Format & Timing
- Testing strategy development
- 2-3 weeks total
Key Activities
- Understand what testing scenarios are needed to validate that the system is configured correctly
- Identify billing models, tasks, and other use cases that should be tested in the solution
- Define the data and information needed to compile use cases for testing
Benefits
- Ensures thorough testing of the system's ability to satisfy requirements
- Helps the customer meet the challenge of creating quality use cases
- Reduces risk of post-implementation issues
Build & Test
This package completes the system's configuration and build-out while systematically testing it to validate that requirements are met.
Configuration Build-Out
Complete the necessary system configurations based on the Solution Design and Requirements Documents.
Deliverable
Configured Systems
Ideal Format & Timing
Varied based on needs
Key Activities
Complete the work in the system to configure settings, objects, workflows, fields, calculations, templates, etc.
Benefits
Skilled billing experts translate the Solution Design Document into a usable system
Custom Development
Complete any necessary custom development needs, such as integration work or data manipulation and clean-up.
Deliverable
Completed Custom Development Deliverables
Ideal Format & Timing
Varied based on needs
Key Activities
- Define the requirements and scope of the project
- Design the solution and build the software
- Test and iterate based on feedback
- Deploy, document, and train on the new software
- Provide ongoing maintenance or help transition those responsibilities to another group within the business
Benefits
- Allows skilled professionals to design pieces of the solution to specific needs, without utilizing and allocating the internal business resources
- Don't have to adhere to internal development planning cycles, timelines, or availability
- Provides ongoing support and maintenance of the software following build-out to maintain over time
Unit Testing
Complete testing on in-system configurations, integrations with external connections, and workflows.
Deliverable
Completed Unit Testing
Ideal Format & Timing
Varied based on needs
Key Activities
- Complete testing of pieces of the solution from the configuration build-out
- Identify and make corrections to setups and settings
Benefits
Allows for smoother UAT and end-to-end testing performed by the customer
User Acceptance Testing
Support and guide the customer through final User Acceptance Testing, including end-to-end testing of all systems and data.
Deliverable
Signed-off User Acceptance Testing
Ideal Format & Timing
2-4 weeks total
Key Activities
- Support the customer through use case testing
- Identify and correct points within the solution that need adjustments
- Help train and familiarize the customer with the system
Benefits
- System experts provide support throughout UAT
- The team that designed the solution provides the context, exposure, and guidance to new users
Launch & Transition
Deploy the solution, transition ownership, and prepare for post-launch care and support.
Deployment of Solution
Move configurations and components from the sandbox into production and smoke tests integrations in those environments.
Deliverable
Stood Up Production Instances
Ideal Format & Timing
1-2 weeks total
Key Activities
- Move configurations from sandbox and/or staging environments into the production instance
- Configure and smoke test production integrations, such as CRMs and ERPs
- Move and validate the final dataset (e.g. customers, invoices, rates, etc.) in production environment
Benefits
- Utilizes skilled resources to move data into production environments and provides validation of the data movement
- Completes smoke testing on integrations ahead of go-live to identify any production environment differences and correct them as necessary
Data Migration
Facilitate the migration, tie-outs, and testing of migrated data, including additional reports or controls necessary for business compliance needs.
Deliverable
Migrated and Validated Data in Production
Ideal Format & Timing
Varied based on needs
Key Activities
- Move data from legacy systems into the new solution based on the needs of the business
- Perform tie-outs and validations of the data migration to support future audit requests or backup support
Benefits
- Data experts migrate and translate the data into the new solution
- Avoids large time investments from the customer side to validate and tie-out data
Training & Documentation
Create documentation for customized and configured pieces of the solution and its supporting processes, including preparation and delivery of training materials to team members.
Deliverable
Documentation and Training Deliverables
Ideal Format & Timing
3-4 weeks total
Key Activities
- Identify and document business-specific configurations of the system
- Identify and develop resources to use as desk guides
- Identify and develop resources to use as training material
- Help identify and document customer-specific processes or use of system features
- Deliver training on the solution
Benefits
- Documentation is completed quickly to ensure teams are supported
- Documentation is prepared by skilled professionals who understand the business and system nuances
Transition of Ownership
Work with business and technical users of the solution to transition knowledge, ownership, and processes for successful operation by the customer's teams. Includes hyper-care and support through the first month-end cycle.
Deliverable
Transitioned Solution
Ideal Format & Timing
- Heavy collaboration and cross-over time between vendor and client teams during the transition
- 1-2 months total
Key Activities
- Complete handover of the technical components within the system to the customer or ongoing support teams
- Ensure solution administrators have the proper information to maintain the system
- Provide hyper-care to the customer through the first billing cycle
Benefits
- Provides dedicated support resources through the first bill cycle
- The team that designed and configured the solution hands over comprehensive system knowledge
Value Management: The solution to tech-project regret
Companies across all industries struggle to successfully implement the software they've purchased, resulting in unrealized value, frustration, and regret. Regret often occurs when problems are misdiagnosed as a symptom or not fully known or understood. Focusing on business-value outcomes helps ensure the real problems are solved.