Peter Kelly, Louis Miller and Matthew Peck explore the considerations for designing, testing and managing an implementation of Elite 3E.

1. Elite UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT IMPLEMENTING 3E
Peter Kelly, Louis Miller and Matthew Peck
Baker Robbins & Company
16 September 2009

2. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS
• DESIGNING THE PROCESS
• TESTING THE SOLUTION
• MANAGING THE SYSTEM

3. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
PROCESS DESIGN:
Making a start
Begin with a software-independent perspective
• Functional specs should only come after you understand
the options for implementing the process in 3E
• Prioritise from the start: phased design / deployment makes
sense
Making the design a reality in 3E
• Stock functions, Setups, Workflow, Security, IDE
Customisations
• Keep in mind:
– Every transaction is created by a process
– Every process must have a beginning and an end

4. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
COLLECTIONS CASE:
Think your process through
Questions to ask
• What is the preferred practice for chasing debts?
• When are the actions performed?
• Who are the involved parties?
• How will they interact the system?
• What output do they require?

5. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
COLLECTIONS CASE:
Translate process into workflow
Answers give rise to setups
• Actions
• Collectors
• Workflows
• Templates
• Collection groups

6. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
PROCESS DESIGN:
Migrating from Enterprise
Don’t make assumptions about 3E behaviour
• Specific functions are different
• Distinction between foreground and background
Greater functionality = greater complexity
• Understand data flows
• Configuration choices have effects across the application
• Post-go live setup changes may be harder
• Introduce change control early

7. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
COLLECTIONS CASE:
Considering the legacy system
Users have been operating outside of Enterprise
• Integration has tremendous benefits
• Seemingly unrelated system setups have new impact
What are the functional differences?
• A new, evolving application
• Small customisations can make big differences
• Don’t discount low-tech solutions

8. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
COLLECTIONS CASE:
Updating the interface
One address to four…

9. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
PROCESS DESIGN:
New Technologies
Metrics and Reporting
• Metrics are powerful, but with power comes responsibility
– Distinguish between scheduled and ad hoc metrics
– Performance and capacity implications of multiple metric runs
• Most reports will need IDE development – especially
partner / manager facing
Interfaces
• Biztalk to load data; SQL or Biztalk to export data
• Use standard connectors wherever possible
• May need custom process development - e.g. for error-
handling

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COLLECTIONS CASE:
Output optimisation
Consolidating reports
• Metrics can be used across functional areas
• Soft grouping: from 50 reports to 5

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COLLECTIONS CASE:
Output optimisation
Consolidating templates
• Three layouts, infinite outputs
– Letter, fax, or email
– Collector-specific details
– One of four recipient addresses
– Three reminder stages
– Translated labels and office-specific template text
3 formats x 30 collectors x 4 addresses x 3 stages x 16
languages x 65 offices = 1,123,200 reminders

12. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
PROCESS DESIGN:
Security
Security can be as complex as your requirements
• True matter-based security is feasible
• You may need all of the options:
– dashboards, process roles, data roles and row-level security
• Process roles give more granular control than Enterprise,
without IDE customisation
• Data roles can include any custom code you can write: a Get
Out of Jail card – to be handled with care
• Implement security early

13. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
SOLUTION TESTING:
What to cover
Test your expectations
• Stages:
– Shakedown
– Transaction (shoebox) testing
– User acceptance testing
• Processes: Stock functions, Setups, Workflows, IDE
Customisations
• Other custom code: Reports, Templates, Interfaces
• Performance: Does the solution perform acceptably on the
Production infrastructure?

14. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
SOLUTION TESTING:
How to approach it
It’s better to find issues in test than in production
• Top-down planning of functions and data involved
• Following processes all the way through
• Testing team – needs business AND application
knowledge, common sense, leadership
• Test environment – infrastructure, software, setups
(including security!), and data all as near Production as
possible

15. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
COLLECTIONS CASE:
Testing
Start with the basics
• Can I set up the necessary workflows?
• Does the collection control panel support my configuration?
• Are the reports sufficient?
Move into transactions
• Do new invoices create / update collection items?
• How are collection items managed and modified?
• When templates are in place, are they accurate?

16. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT:
Instance bingo
• You will probably need multiple 3E instances throughout the
implementation process
• Consider approach for development, release testing (“crash
and burn”), functional testing, performance testing,
conversion, training, production
• Give each instance the IT resources needed to do its job.
Flex the resources proactively.

17. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT:
Release Management
• Use standard Source Code Control software where
possible – e.g., templates, BizTalk code
• For IDE code, you will need to use Elite best practices and
tools
• Keep a clear record of the exact code packages installed in
each instance

18. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT:
Monitoring
Start well in advance of Go Live
Use Elite best practices and tools to monitor:
• Scheduled tasks and key system queues (BillSumMsgQue,
Post Message Queue, Journal Manager)
• Print jobs and queues
• SQL behaviour – long-running processes, blocking, etc

19. UK/EMEA User Group Meeting
Questions?