Conversion Project Management

The increasingly complex and competitive nature of financial services often requires organizational transformation.  Process modifications and procedural changes require not only the adoption of new skills, but foundational changes to organizational structures.

The implementation of new hardware or software, does NOT guarantee success alone.  Sometimes you need help.   Pohl Consulting and Training can assist you in the planning, preparation and training of your conversion need through a program design that uses tactics developed to foster participation and collaboration.  We focus on control and data integrity, and can also assist with:

  • Onsite orientation and assessment
  • Pre-training on the new system
  • Code mapping
  • Test data conversion monitoring and correction /modification processes
  • Coordinating conversion meetings
  • Implementation Training
  • Oversight of data, cash, securities conversions
  • Procedural revisions
  • Post conversion reconciliation
  • Follow-up projects and cleanup (if any)

The careful selection and empowerment of a project team establishes points of contact, responsibilities, ownership, stake holders and decision makers.  The team is the key ingredient to embrace, support and drive the objective through conversion phases:

 

Phase I – VISION

A vision is the organizational declaration of the objective. This will clearly define the short-term and longer term objectives while establishing clear references to the systems or processes undergoing conversion.  It sets the stage and determines the specific ownership, deliverables, dates, and establishes achievable targets.

 

Phase II – MISSION

The recipe for success is defined in the project plan.  This is the blueprint. Project management discipline and open dialogue will keep a conversion on budget and on time.  It will also minimize the impact of process rework, which often occurs in complex conversions.

 

Phase III – IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

Training, often and early, cultivates exposure and leads to innovation, one of the most vital components of any conversion.  An analysis of workload in a test environment identities missing features and new target opportunities of the new hardware or software.  Coding and process review defines the structure and testing confirms integrity.  A successful project must be flexible and malleable to leverage discovered opportunities and address unplanned bug fixing during and post implementation

 

The stability of data, integrity of conversion controls, organizational adoption, and strength of the new operating environment are all essential to success and mitigating risk during a conversion.

 

We provide unbiased leadership that will shift culture to the new business model and manage a conversion from concept to completion. Pohl Consulting and Training focuses on the need of the organization, not the size of the project.