E.N.A.B.L.E – The Framework for Implementation Success

Software implementations are always much easier in theory than in practice. It’s extremely important that your implementation partner has a clear approach to ensure ultimate success of your implementation. You’ve made the investment and the last thing you need is an implementation going awry and causing delays and unexpected costs down the road. Based on our work with more than 150 implementations, customizations and integrations, Celerity has developed a framework to help clients achieve success throughout their implementation of Adobe Campaign.

Celerity’s proprietary ENABLE (ENgage, Assess, Build, Launch and Evolve) Methodology is a 5-stage structured implementation process that our Project Teams successfully utilize during the implementation of the Adobe Campaign & Adobe Marketing Cloud applications.  ENABLE prescribes the steps, tool and training to support the full implementation life cycle, from installation to go-live and support.

The key goals of the Celerity ENABLE methodology are to:

Minimize Business Disruption: Celerity understands that the transition to the new Adobe Campaign processes should be an enabler for your business. Following the ENABLE process rigorously helps to ensure a seamless transition so that there is minimum disruption for you and your end-users.
Transparency: For every client, it is important to have a high degree of communication and visibility into the Build and Launch activities. Celerity assures clients 100% transparency, 2-way dialogue and involvement during the entire implementation process.
Cost Controls: The project plan and costs outlined upfront are tracked closely to ensure there are no surprises. In addition, a rigorous change management process is adopted with joint sign-offs for any material changes.

Here’s a breakdown of each stage of implementation and the deliverables, always followed up with Quality Assurance protocol.

Engage

The ENgage stage serves to understand the vision for the project and identifies the high-level marketing business requirements at your organization. The key responsibilities of the Celerity project manager include project plan creation, risk management, resource assignments and overall project management.

Deliverables

• High-level requirements and scoping documents for your review
• Proposal and approach to completing the project. Please note that as we complete the next stage (Assess), we will have a more detailed Statement of Work developed for your review
• Introductory training on Adobe Campaign
• Overview of ENABLE methodology and anticipated project deliverables and accountability

Assess

Efficiency, scalability and ROI are the three factors that we want to ensure you derive from the implementation. During the Assess stage, we work with you to begin that process and define both your current state and your future desired state. We will help you create your data mappings, your list of potential Campaign business scenarios, detailed use-cases, interfaces to other systems, storyboards and other design artifacts that may be needed, such as reporting and integration specifications.

Deliverables

Most of the deliverables in this stage are in the form of workshops and training sessions surrounding the follow topics:

• Strategy & Campaign Structure Session document– includes the results of the multi-day collaborative work sessions where current campaign requirements and future business needs were collected
• Technical Architecture, Data Migration & Integration document – outlines how the Adobe Campaign product will be installed in your current environment, the approach to data migration and the various integration points with current systems in place
• Reporting & Dashboards document – outlines the existing metrics that must be captured and new optics to be reported on for the marketing end-users
• Risk Assessment & Mitigation Options report – identifies potential risks and options to mitigate those risks prior to the final launch
• Roles and Responsibilities guide – identifies the typical roles/responsibilities/skill sets needed to support and manage the Adobe product(s) once the Launch of the project has been completed

Build

This is typically the longest stage of the project as several key activities are completed and built-out by the team. The includes the Adobe Campaign installation and configuration as well as the set up of the various environments (e.g. Dev, Test, Production).The data migration that was outlined in the prior stage is also completed during this stage. The Celerity team builds your agreed upon technical workflows in the test environment and helps conduct User Acceptance Tests  (UAT) on the new set up.

Deliverables

During the Build Stage, the team will produce several deliverables for your review and sign-off. They include:

• A customized Installation & Configuration checklist, which outlines the complete installation process and the various configuration decisions that need to be made
• The completed Data Migration onto the new installation
• A Production Runbook for your IT team which documents how the configuration of Adobe has been completed
• A Production-Ready Campaign Playbook, which outlines the process for how your end-users will create and execute campaigns.
• A User Acceptance Test (UAT) Test Plan to be used by the end-users
• A final sign-off form that the UAT has been successfully completed
• A Campaign Launch & Training Plan, which includes the launch plan, schedule and the content for successfully onboarding your end-users to the new application
• A Support Plan document that outlines how support from Celerity will be provided once the launch has been transitioned over to your internal team
• An End-User Readiness Assessment, which identifies any readiness issues that could affect the successful launch of the new Adobe solution in your organization

Launch

At this point, new campaigns are ready to be deployed throughout your marketing organization using Adobe Campaign. We will also be executing the Go-Live Launch & Training plan to ensure your end-users are fully onboarded and are able to successfully utilize the new application. Leading up to your full launch, your Celerity Project Manager works with your team leaders to develop a communication strategy and messages that build excitement around the Campaign training and roll-out.

Deliverables

During the Launch Stage, the team will produce key deliverables for your review and sign-off. They include:

• On-site training sessions on Adobe Campaign & Adobe Analytics
• Using the Celerity Support Portal for all users post-launch

Evolve

Following the launch of Adobe Campaign in your organization, we will connect with you on a weekly or monthly basis to review overall usage, as well as other key performance and utilization metrics so that you can effectively realize your investment in the platform. We also review any feedback your have collected from your end-users as they have built and executed campaigns. With this information, Celerity  identifies strategies to further optimize your installation, implement ancillary Adobe features, incorporate Adobe Campaign application updates and increase usage and adoption.

Deliverables

• Roadmap & Proposed Next Steps, which outlines activities to help innovate and optimize your environment on a go-forward basis
• Ongoing Onboarding & Training Plan for new Adobe Campaign end-users
• Guide to incorporate new releases and patches that are delivered from Adobe

We’ve seen successes for enterprise-level clients across all verticals leveraging this implementation approach. There is a wealth of details available regarding a successful implementation, and we are the choice partner with the most experience. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you’d like more tips & tricks, read our blog 12 Ways to Ensure a Smooth Adobe Campaign Implementation.