Change is coming: The transition to iMIS EMS Enterprise is all but certain.
Maybe you’re already heading down the road toward destination iMIS EMS Enterprise. Or maybe not.
In either case, we’ve got you covered. ISG has worked through enough iMIS EMS Enterprise implementations for commonalties to have emerged, and we’ve developed a roadmap for critical aspects of the transition. Along the way, we learned seven key lessons. We’d like to share those lessons, which we hope will smooth your path — however far along you may be.
Lesson #1: Think Migration, Not Upgrade
It’s tempting to brush off the impending transition as just another iMIS upgrade, but doing so is perilous. The move to iMIS EMS Enterprise is a full-scale migration, with all that such a process entails. It’s absolutely imperative to plan for and build in the time, effort, and expense that comes with a migration to ensure your successful transition.
Lesson #2: Define a Broad Discovery Phase
Every successful migration includes an examination of your current system before moving to your new system.
For the iMIS EMS Enterprise transition, it’s crucial to conduct that examination through a wide lens that captures customizations, third-party products, APIs, and other integrations and dependencies. The last thing you want is to skip over this phase and end up with functionalities that simply break once you get to production.
Completing your discovery phase the right way may take weeks upfront, but doing so will ultimately save months further down the line.
Lesson #3: Widespread Buy-In Is Essential
There’s iMIS — and there’s iMIS EMS Enterprise. You’ve got the one, and you’re going to have the other. Once you make the transition, there’s no going back.
Not everybody will be happy about this change, but it’s a vital change they’re going to have to live and work with. The sooner you start talking about the transition, the better. It will go more smoothly if you give people a chance to learn about the new system, to ask questions and express concerns. The more people you have on board — from top to bottom, all across your organization — the easier and more effective the transition will be.
Lesson #4: This Implementation Isn’t a Spectator Sport
You may be used to standing on the sidelines for iMIS upgrades, but you need a different approach for the migration to iMIS EMS Enterprise.
The new system is powerful and chock-full of enhancements and new features (some of which we talked about here) that can significantly benefit your organization, but only if you do the work to tailor iMIS EMS Enterprise in ways that maximize its potential.
You’ll work harder as a player than you would as a spectator — but you’ll also savor the wins iMIS EMS Enterprise will deliver for years to come.
Lesson #5: Like Apple Says, “Think Different”
Just duplicating in the new system what you’re doing in the old system would mean missing out on all the advantages of new tools and technologies that allow you to work better, faster, and smarter.
If you can be open to change, to thinking differently about what you do and how you do it, you can leverage iMIS EMS Enterprise in myriad ways. Cleaning up and consolidating messy data, streamlining your processes, or querying your own online reports are just a few examples of what you can do with iMIS EMS Enterprise.
This transition is an exceptional opportunity — and a chance to reimagine how you work and see what you reimagine come to fruition through the vast capabilities of iMIS EMS Enterprise. All you have to do to take advantage of that opportunity is, as Apple says, “think different.”
Lesson #6: Budget (Time and Money!) for Testing and Training
All businesses look for ways to trim expenses, but we’re here to tell you that cutting corners on testing or training for your iMIS EMS Enterprise transition is not the way to do it.
See Lesson #2: The more integrations and dependencies you discover, the more testing needs to be done to ensure they all work in the new system. See also Lesson #1: This is a migration to an entirely new system, which means people need to be trained on and learn an entirely new system.
Take the time. Spend the money. There are less consequential places to cut corners if you must.
Lesson #7: Appreciate the Security Improvements iMIS EMS Enterprise Implementation Imparts
Malware, ransomware, and other kinds of hacking are ubiquitous these days. Though not always highlighted as such, iMIS EMS Enterprise is a modern, cloud-based system that rests on Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure and offers noteworthy improvements in security. It may not be one of the most visible rewards of your transition, but it may be one of the most valuable.
Check out this map of ransomware attacks in the US (external link provided by Comparitech)
Time to Go Back to School!
These seven lessons are our biggest takeaways from iMIS EMS Enterprise implementations to date. We have no doubt that we’ll learn more as we do more, and we plan to share other salient information with you as we continue this journey together.
Have questions about the lessons learned or want to talk with us about where you are on the path to iMIS EMS Enterprise? Leave a message in the comments or contact us directly.
We’re here, as we have been for decades, to do everything we can to ensure the success of your organization.