Foothold Technology’s Implementation Consultants (ICs) have developed and refined our proven implementation process over more than thirty years of combined experience with hundreds of organizations of all types and sizes.
While activities in each step of the process can take place concurrently, the order of the steps is important. Our process seeks to build AWARDS familiarity and skills early, equipping your implementation team with the tools and knowledge they need to make decisions about how your agency will use AWARDS.
Step 1: Initiation of Pre-Implementation Tasks
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Success Manager and Implementation Consultant assigned - Your assigned IC works together with your implementation team to lay the foundation for realizing your goals for AWARDS. You will begin this process with a Pre-Implementation questionnaire designed to identify your goals, and a program setup worksheet to identify your programs.
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Work plan/roll-out plan formulated - Your IC will review your implementation goals and program needs and formulate a work plan with you. It is during this time that system administrator roles are established for your organization and an implementation lead is designated.
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Organization implementation team designated - Based on the guidance provided above, your implementation team will now begin regular meetings with your assigned IC.
Step 2: Orientation Training, Discovery, and Configuration
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Implementation team orientation training held - Your implementation team members will receive basic AWARDS training, which will prepare them to make educated decisions about how your programs will use AWARDS.
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Discovery occurs - Through regular meetings and using your organization's pre-implementation questionnaire and program worksheet, the IC learns the details of your organization's workflow, data collection, and reporting requirements.
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Configuration begins - Your IC will begin to create your programs and will review the pertinent AWARDS modules for each type of program, configuring each module included in your work plan to the specific needs of your programs. Factors such as size and complexity of your agency/programs will vary the length of the Configuration phase. Your IC will provide more precise time estimates in accordance with your agency's custom work plan.
Step 3: Administrator Training and Database Seeding
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Implementation team system administrator training and preparation completed - Your team will be trained in all of the activities necessary to manage your database, including permissions setup and maintenance, building custom assessments/forms and reports, operating your local Help Desk, and managing data integrity.
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AWARDS populated with employees, referral/provider agencies, and census - Your implementation team will manually enter or import employee data and configure employee settings and permissions. They will then begin populating a directory of the referral sources and outside providers who serve your clients. At the same time your IC will work with you to establish a plan to import or directly enter your census into AWARDS, timed to coincide with program training and go-live dates.
Step 4: Custom Training
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Custom training agendas developed - Foothold tailors the training agenda to your organization’s specific needs based on your AWARDS configuration, your work plan, and your internal training plan. In some circumstances, organizations may prefer to break out training by user role or program group.
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Internal training conducted for specific roles - Foothold Technology utilizes a train-the-trainer model for user training. Some organizations utilize the implementation team for internal training, while others have designated individuals responsible for carrying out the initial and ongoing training for end users. In either instance we will work with your implementation team to design your ongoing training program.
Step 5: Launch!
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Go live! - New admissions are completely AWARDS-based and programs begin entering service documentation into AWARDS. Based on the roll out plan, launch dates may be phased in program by program, or there may be a single organization-wide launch date.
Step 6: Post-Launch Support
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Organization goals revisited - After your programs are up and running with AWARDS, we’ll review your initial goals and revisit any deferred or second-priority items.
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Implementation "graduation" readiness assessed - Your IC will help evaluate your readiness to "graduate" from implementation.