Three key processes for a successful Front Office Implementation 

Three key processes for a successful Front Office Implementation 

Liqueo Senior Consultant, Kenny Wan

Technology has driven change over the last few years in the asset and wealth management industry. The industry has been under constant pressure to reduce operating costs with shrinking margins and improve the time to market of new products and services. In this ever-changing digital landscape of technological innovation, Big Data and move-to-Cloud, some key components to successful software implementation projects should not be forgotten. 

In this blog we talk about three processes which should always be followed at the start of any implementation project to achieve a successful delivery: 

1. Having a solid configuration management process 

2. Applying a test-driven approach 

3. Remembering data archiving 

Configuration Management Process 

Any implementation project must include Configuration Management (CM) as a critical process. CM is the task of identifying, tracking and controlling changes in hardware, firmware or software items at various times during the lifecycle of an application implementation.

Having a simple, streamlined and disciplined CM process is a key component to the successful delivery of projects on schedule and within budget. It establishes baseline development, testing and production environments and regulates the “what, when, why and who” of the change. This makes it easier to implement development and change initiatives, but the process still requires careful planning and management.

When implementing a vendor application, it’s essential to have an application-release automation (ARA) solution in place - to deliver the product within the confines of an organisation’s own processes and restrictions. This ARA solution should be owned by a dedicated release manager to sustain continuous delivery and ensure best practises are followed. 

Test Driven Approach 

Quality Assurance (QA) teams are among those who gain from a stable environment where system configurations are appropriately controlled and managed. Having the correct approach to testing during a vendor product implementation project is another key and essential component to consider.

Invariably not all vendor applications will meet an organisation’s needs and there will be gaps to fill and issues to be resolved during an implementation lifecycle. That is why it is important to utilise a test-driven implementation methodology, which concentrates on developing automated unit test cases before deploying the product. This can guarantee the system will comply with all business operations/workflows, identify product gaps more quickly, and allow for faster deployment of the application. 

Ultimately it will result in better user experiences by ensuring the application is simpler, more intuitive to use and free of bugs. This in turn yields better client satisfaction and more confidence in the product being implemented. 

Data Archiving  

Having a data archiving strategy in place from the outset of a project is a frequently forgotten phase of a software implementation lifecycle. It can be categorised as a post implementation phase, but it contributes crucially to a performant application. 

Client happiness, user experience, and the ability for organisations to continue building upon the “all-singing, all-dancing” application they have just successfully implemented will all be maintained. 

Any software application connected to a back-end database that strives to integrate data into a Front-to-Back application may experience performance issues as data volume rises. Those issues are not necessarily alleviated by increasing CPU or memory capacity. 

Data archiving is termed as storing static data for future discovery/retrieval/reporting purposes. How many days or months of static data to archive can be a key business decision depending on the type of data and where it is being referenced in an application.

Archiving the continual build-up of static data in your production environment should not be an afterthought. If your support team is having to constantly firefight production performance issues amid trying to meet start-of-day service level agreements then it is already too late.

Summary 

The above three processes can go a long way to ensuring a software implementation project is delivered on schedule, within budget and maintains the system at peak performance. This will allow an organisation to focus on what it does best: providing efficient client service, lowering operating costs and accelerating the launch of new products and services. 

Here at Liqueo, we provide organisations with the skills to implement programmes successfully through our flexible workforce model, tailoring solutions for our clients’ strategic goals. We deliver an exceptional, bespoke service to every client via a dynamic and agile framework. If you are interested in how we can help you implement successful programmes or want more information do reach out. 

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