Greg's Blog - October 30. 2009

With this foray into the "blogosphere" here at Athena, I'd first like to describe the kind of content that I'll try to regularly provide here in this forum. While I am certainly no expert in many facets of this business, my exposure over the years to our global client base and their diverse operations has afforded me a somewhat unique insight into the challenges, opportunities and best practices that prevail across the many sectors of human services with which Athena works. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with incredibly talented, dedicated and knowledgeable people from around the world, people who are committed and engaged - in one sense or another - on helping improve the lives of their fellow community members and for this I am deeply thankful. From this perspective, I'd like to share my thoughts about some issues relevant to our field of work and also to offer some thoughts on other non-related matters (just for a bit of a laugh).

Change Management and Version 3

As many of you are aware, we have been working many years on the massive upgrade to Penelope we've come to call simply "Version 3". This upgrade has incorporated our accumulated experience in working with agencies around the world as well as the feedback they've provided us on how to improve the application. The way Penelope evolved was a a bit like a house- where it was originally designed to suit a couple but over the years, as the family grew and their needs expanded, new additions and modifications were grafted onto the original structure where they could. With version 3 being designed from the ground up- we were able to finally design a much more coherent system in which the components were integrated together in a much more consistent and systematic manner. The net result is a system that is much easier to learn for end -users, perhaps analogous to the switch from Mac OS 9 to OSX.

With the over-arching goals of making the system more coherent/ intuitive, flexible and powerful, we launched v3 in the summer of 2009 to a wonderful response. We've since moved about 40% of our clients over to this sleek new Penelope and the feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive. This formidable transition has been managed and implemented in a variety of ways by our clients. What factors have contributed to a smooth transition to v3 ?

• Planning - After the organization has had their look at v3 and has assessed that its advantages and benefits warrant performing the upgrade, the critical first steps are to plan the transition process, staff roles and responsibilities, additional effort / resources required (if any), IT-related modifications required (if any), and the timeline. Having a person or team assigned to manage and oversee this transition is vital.
• Preparation - The key area here is to identify specific functions and business processes that are handled differently in v3 and to develop new processes to adapt to them. There are a number of significant new opportunities with respect to data tracking, security configuration and user permissions that can be implemented in v3 with which agencies should familiarize themselves in order to take advantage of new capabilities. Again, here, existing processes need to be reviewed with an eye to streamlining steps, eliminating unnecessary processes and ensuring that all the bases are covered. The transition represents a great time to perform a generalized review of the agency's operations so that efficiencies can be identified and the service structure (as operationalized within Penelope) can be refined and improved. Some simple examples may include things like looking at how new clients are added to the system, how internal referrals are handled, how and where custom documentation is implemented, refinements to a user's permissions and screen layout and client check-in procedures. There is even a new Client Matching feature that could be incorporated into your processes to help improve responsiveness to client expressed requirements. Preparation should include walking through all current processes in v3 and to document these new processes for staff to support their transition.
• Support - In addition to the free training provided, you'll likely want to create process-specific cheat sheets that you can distribute to staff to assist them in doing their current processes in v3. Having a v3 sandbox setup during the preparation and (post-transition phase as well) can really help staff familiarize themselves with how they can work with their data. Some allowances for staff to get up to speed on the new system should be made in the immediate transition phase ("cut people a little slack" as they get used to the new system).
• Review - After 14 - 30 days or so, perform a follow up review and feedback gathering process to get a sense of how the transition went and how it can be improved moving forward. Processes may need to be re-designed and tweaked to incorporate observations and comments. Please feel free to share these with us as we are always keen to know how it went and how we can improve the application.

Brief Miscellania ( Ok, enough of the work stuff! )

> Recent Movies I would recommend.... The Damned United (about Brian Clough's short spell at Leeds United), The Boat that Rocked (ficitonalization of the Pirate Radio stations in the 60s UK, called Prate Radio in North America)

> Recent Albums I would recommend.... Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast by Cornershop, Radio Retaliation - The Thievery Corporation, Willie and the Wheel - Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel.

> Guitar Effects I would recommend for your rig .... Moogerfoogers (Ring Modulator and Envelope Filter) - lots of fun - virtually unlimited soundscapes!

October 30, 2009

About the Author

Greg Stanley-Horn is one of the founding partners of Athena Software and has extensive experience in a variety of roles in the human services sector including:

• Front-Line service with High-Risk Youth
• Community Development planning and advocacy
• Development of Community Health Centres
• Fund-raising / Development Campaigns
• Development of Outcomes Indicators
• Software Development and Implementations

With Athena, Greg is the Director of Deployment Project and chairs Athena's Strategic Planning and Management Committee.

Greg can be reached at greg <at> athenasoftware.net or by phone at 1.866.806.6014 x 302.

NOTE: the personal opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are not the official positions of Athena Software or its employees. No endorsements or warranties are made with regard to its content and it is offered purely on an "as-is" basis.