1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. management
4. project management

Session 104
CONNECT.
COLLABORATE.
INNOVATE.
Is Your Terminal Ready to Go Live?
Setting Your Project Up for Success
Jennifer Blythe – Navis Sr. Manager, Professional Services
What is a Successful Go Live?
Containment of Any Problems
Invisible to the Outside World
Rapid Return to Productivity
Plan for Recovery
How do I plan for recovery?
Identify Risk Areas
Find Training Opportunities
Manage Change to Minimize Risk
Assign a resource to “own” change management
Enhancements
Software version updates Case tracking
Data Refreshes
Verify Your IT Infrastructure
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0.875” x 2.25”
Server Sizing and Architecture Design
Systems Monitoring
Software Testing
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0.875” x 2.25”
Have a Written, Repeatable Plan
Track and Publish Results
Consider
Test Automation
Project Control
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0.875” x 2.25”
Status Reports and Meetings
Executive Reviews
Readiness Assessment
Pick the Right Time
Volume Trends
Resource Availability
Readiness Assessed
Go-Live Staffing Plan
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1.41” x0.94”
Terminal Project Team
Terminal Ops and Management
Navis Go Live resources
Labor staffing
Plan Time to Pause
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0.875” x 2.25”
Software freeze after Testing Phase
Training Training
Training
Rest critical resources
Assessing Your Readiness
Bryan Miller – Navis Director, Professional Services
Factors to Consider in Go Live Readiness
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0.875” x 2.25”
Vendors
• Cases
• Resources
IT
• Hardware/Software/Network
• Integration and Custom Development
Go Live Readiness
Project
• Functional Testing
• Stress Testing
• Parallel Testing
Operations
• Training Investment and User Readiness
• Terminal Health
Vendors – Case Status
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Strict Prioritization
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Delivery Is Step 1
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Then Install
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Then Configure
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Then Test
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Then Train
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IT – Infrastructure and Development
 IT
Stress
Testing
 Wireless
Network
Assessment
 In
House
Development
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0.875” x 2.25”
Project – Test Audit
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0.875” x 2.25”
 Non-biased
3rd Party
 Status
vs. Plan
 Completeness
of the Plan
 Focus
on Risk
Project – Test Status
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Insist on Executive Visibility
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Total Tests
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Total Passed
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Total Failed
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Total Blocked
Assess the Risk of Failures
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Project – Parallel Testing
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100% Repetition
Parallel Processing •Daily Migration
and On The Job
•Space at Site of Work
•Roaming Help
67%
Doing
Exercises and Scenarios
•Exercises (per user)
•Supporting Data
•1:1 Assistance
33%
Hearing and Seeing
Classroom Training
•Training Materials
•Training Dataset
•Environment
•Instructor
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Operations – Training Investment
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0.875” x 2.25”
Operations – Terminal Health
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Do Not Go Live
When The Terminal
Is Not Healthy!
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Yard Capacity
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Vessel/Rail Backlog

Heavy Gate Traffic

Weather Related
Events
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VIT-NIT N4 Go Live Experience
Darich Runyan, Director of Information Technology, Virginia International Terminals, LLC
What Makes a Successful Go Live?
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Have a strong team
Lower risk with an incremental approach
Integrated field testing
Extensive/thorough training
Strong Navis support - on-site and remote
Timely and effective communications with SLT and community
Planning for crisis at go-live
Have – Build – a Strong Team
 Put together a team of your most experienced personnel from
each area operational area.
 Include personnel from operational areas that will not be in the first
cut so that all areas are integrated seamlessly.
 Remove them from daily support – they must be dedicated to
the project with no interruptions.
 Centrally locate the team so that they can work together
openly on the project
 Move them to another building - or even better off-site.
 Include IT on your team
 N4 is as much an IT project as an operational one
Incremental Approach
 While not always possible, implement operational areas
incrementally – just a few at a time.
 Work out process flows and custom programs to allow for the use of
N4 with your legacy systems
 Focus on N4 only, don’t try to implement auto gate, auto TZs, ACS,
PDS, etc. at the same time – N4 is big enough.
 Only focus on your current business processes – don’t add in or try
to change anything.
 Keep customizations and extensions to a minimum.
 At go-live, bring operational areas online one at a time and work
through the issues before you bring the next online.
Field Testing
 You will do a number of different types of testing leading up to
your go-live but field testing is essential.
 You need to test the full functionality of your system on the
actual equipment it will be run on in the environment it will be
used.
 These need to be as close to operational load as possible expensive and requires close coordination with operations to
pull off but worth it.
 Allows working out issues/bugs that are not thought of or
exposed during lab testing.
Training
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Basic computer training
Basic XPS and N4 training
Super user training
Operations training
Field training
Navis Support
 Important to have a Navis implementation consultant
embedded on your team from the beginning.
 Your team will have lots of questions...
 Use your assigned Navis PM to the max to ensure that
you have the right support personnel at the right times.
 Make sure to have Navis on-site at go-live to assist with
working out any unforeseen – or possibly foreseen –
issues that arise.
Communications
 Communicate… Communicate… Communicate…
 Ensure that your Executive Leadership and Boards know the immensity of the project
and how it affects all business areas and keep them updated on a regular basis.
 Include Senior Management in monthly meetings to keep up to date.
 Post internal project updates to your work force.
 Make sure that all community stakeholders know what you are doing and how it will
affect them – let them know early and regularly – they have a loud voice and can have
an affect on your go-live.
 Post project updates regularly to all.
 Have go/no-go meetings with the team leading up to and including the night before
after data conversions
 Never communicate a hard go-live date
 Write your communiqués such that you have room to deal with unforeseen issues that may
pop up.
Crisis Planning
 Be prepared… No matter how well you plan, test, train, things can
and will come up.
 Have a go/no-go meeting before data conversion and after.
 Have back up plans in place to keep the boxes moving and provide
fight through.
 Most importantly – be prepared to communicate problems to the
community and stakeholders.
Thank You
Is Your Terminal Ready to Go Live?