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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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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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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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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Project – Test Audit
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 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?