Overcoming Core Conversion Challenges: Adjusting Timelines for Success

"Don’t let a vendor's timeline dictate your project’s success. Right-size your timeline to match your team’s capacity and the true complexity of the conversion to avoid shortcuts and missed opportunities." - Alison Van Pelt

One of the biggest—and often self-imposed—roadblocks in complex core conversion projects is the timeline. Many core vendors push for a standard 12-month timeline without conducting due diligence or considering their client's unique needs or the project itself. Vendors tend to assign arbitrary timelines based on superficial factors like asset size or a standard process they've used for years. These timelines usually only account for a core system change but rarely encompass the entire project scope.

Clients often sign up for these timelines without a second thought, reasoning, "The vendor always does this! If they say it can be done, it must be true."  While it's true that core vendors frequently manage these projects, this is precisely the issue: they're incentivized to bring clients live on the new system as quickly as possible. It's their daily job. However, the project becomes overwhelming for the client, and the inability to keep pace often results in shortcuts, shifting deadlines, or reduced quality. This, in turn, affects the overall utilization of the final system, leaving missed opportunities for leveraging the platform your company has made a significant investment in.

Completing a core conversion project within a short timeline is possible, depending on several factors. I always advise our clients to "Right Size" their timeline to ensure the quality of the end product. Two critical factors in determining the proper timeline are the size of your team and the scope and complexity of the project. Let me explain further:

Right Sizing Your Team

The size of your internal team is a critical factor in project success. If you have limited resources and your team isn't wholly dedicated to the project, a 12-month timeline may be insufficient to complete all tasks with high quality. Balancing day-to-day responsibilities with the demands of the project can lead to compromises. Vendor deliverables will often take priority to meet their stated timelines, leaving essential tasks, like comprehensive testing, deprioritized.

Vendors may advise your team to test, but their expectations are often limited to data validation and high-level testing without detailed scripts. Sometimes, vendors even provide testing scenarios, which may simplify their workload but only serve clients who need the system to support their specific processes.

The Complexity Trap

Project complexity and scope can vary significantly between clients. At the start of projects, I often hear terms like "Rip and Replace" or "Core Only," suggesting minimal changes beyond the core system. Unfortunately, this assumption is misleading. In reality, processes constantly change to some degree, and interfaces to other platforms must be updated because the core is changing. While focusing solely on the core may reduce project scope, critical steps like establishing and testing interfaces must still be addressed.

Clients commonly choose to replace multiple platforms simultaneously, adding to the complexity. If that's the case, you must seriously assess whether the core timeline is sufficient to implement all systems fully. Deploying everything simultaneously using a big-bang approach requires extra caution, especially when timelines are tight.

Why Timelines Matter

Vendors do this work daily, but your team still needs to do so. Project quality will suffer if there's an imbalance between team size and project complexity. Shortcuts will likely be taken, particularly in critical areas like writing test scripts, documenting the current state, and collecting testing results. Your team may feel the pressure to take the path of least resistance initially, but this almost always leads to issues down the line.

We've seen clients resist the hard work of developing a solid test plan despite my advice, and the result is always the same: chaos. They experience overrun calls to the service center for months, exhausted staff who need to be fully trained, and limited team members who understand the new system well enough to assist the front line.

If you recognize early on that the current timeline isn't sufficient, adjust it now. Give your team the time to develop and execute a thorough test plan. In doing so, you'll have a stronger, more knowledgeable team and maintain your standing in the community.

Conclusion

Take the time to evaluate your team's capacity and project complexity. Don’t rush into a timeline that fits the vendor’s pace but not your own. Adjusting your schedule to fit your specific needs will set your team up for success and ensure a smoother experience at go-live.

If you need assistance assessing your project timeline or building a robust test plan, our experienced consultants are here to help. We have expertise across various projects and have successfully guided numerous clients through these challenges. Contact us to learn how we can support your core conversion efforts.