Open

Overview

Project Management

Cytrack has Prince2 certified Project Management and follows strict Project Management methodology based on Prince2 principles. All Cytrack documentation follows ISO 9001 quality principles and the ITIL framework. Industry leading tools for managing projects and related tasks are utilised for successful project execution. These tools include:

• Our Support portal, benefits include: real-time updates and multiple party collaboration with all stakeholders.

• SmartSheets serve as project tracking/task management tool with visibility to all stakeholders.

Methodology

Cytrack’s Project Management approach follows the 6 phase Waterfall method. Project Scope is locked in and if required a variation is produced.

Open

Waterfall Methodology

Traditional project management (Waterfall Methodology) is a linear approach where processes occur in a predictable sequence. In this approach, the project follows a preplanned set of stages and assumes that the requirements remain fixed while the budget and project timeline can be changed. This approach is more suitable for projects where the possibility of changes in the scope is negligible.

The office of the Project Manager holds all the responsibility of the project and is accountable for the results. Apart from the project planning process, even the customers have no say during the project’s implementation phase. Similarly, in case of any problems, team members are supposed to escalate the issue to their manager who has the final say.

Since traditional project management heavily relies on proper planning and analysis in the development phase, the resulting development process is quite streamlined. This allows the project manager to focus on different tasks since the project team works without minimum guidance unless an issue is raised.

Following Project Management methodology has the following benefits:

• Clear Direction
  Since everything is pre-planned, every single member of the team knows their responsibilities and the project requirements. This allows them to work efficiently and with minimum supervision.

• High level of Control
  The office of the project manager holds almost all the power in a traditional setup and even the most trivial change has to be approved by the manager. This prevents deviations from the original project scope.

• Single point of Accountability
  Since the project managers hold all the power, they will naturally be accountable for the success or failure of the project. Instead of contacting several people, Stakeholders always know who to approach during the project in order to get all the necessary updates.

• Clear Documentation
  Proper documentation is actually a cornerstone of the traditional project management methodology. The documents not only standardize the whole process but also can be used for guidance during other projects in the future.

Change Management

The purpose of the Change Management process is to achieve the successful introduction of changes to an IT system or environment. Success is measured as a balance of the timeliness and completeness of change implementation, the cost of implementation, and the minimization of disruption caused in the target system or environment. CyTrack is governed by strict internal ITIL change management procedures following ISO 9001 principles, standards and best practices. Our engineers will submit changes and attend client CAB if requested. Please refer to ‘Change Management’ below for further details.

Commercial Terms & Milestones

Certain projects may have milestone payments due before certain deployment phases can be progressed. In these instances, the customer will be required to organise payment and Cytrack accounts & administration will authorise the Project Manager to proceed with the next applicable stage.

Stakeholders Form

The Stakeholders Form is where it all starts, this is where we collect information on all the major contacts that will be involved on the project.  This will encompass those parties within the customer organisation and also any pertinent external contacts such as the IT management company, telecoms/PBX supplier, CRM specialists etc, anyone who will be involved in the project.  Its important we get these contacts back as soon as possible so we can then commence sending out information and invites to the project management portal.  If your involved getting the contacts for the stakeholder form for us and don't know who all these contacts are, don't worry, at last get us the immediate customer contacts and we can start there and build more contacts as they become identified and as required. 

Pre-Install Form

Once we have the stakeholders in place the next important stage is for us to send out the Pre-Install forms so all parties can confirm that applicable IT & Telephony requirements are in place ready for the deployment stage.  We require the customer and their appointed IT and Telephony contractors to acknowledge the various minimum requirements are met and also to provide us with the necessary information to ensure a smooth and contiguous installation

Scope of Deployment Service and Engagement

Please review our Scope of Deployment Service and Engagement document which outlines the guidelines and scope of what is included in a standard deployment.  Our products are modular and can be configured into virtually limitless ways and to ensure we provide a well priced and efficient deployment we outline the standard guidelines for certain aspects that can cause the project to creep in time and cost if not identified.  If the project requirements exceed these types of items then additional fees will apply.  Your own deployment may well have been quoted to include additional scope at the project review consultancy, but for a typical contact centre deployment the following is some examples of these guidelines, but please consult the document for full details:

• 5 Queues included – more than 5 will entail additional charges

• 5 Overflows included – more than 5 will entail additional charges

• 5 callback in queue configurations included

• 1 single business partition - more than 1 will entail additional charges

• Up to 2 nested Auto Attendant queues - more than 2 will entail additional charges

• Up to 2 Dashboards - more than 2 will entail additional charges

• Dashboard includes up to 10 statistical items in design – additional items will entail additional charge, any custom queries will be quoted on case by case according to the customer requirements and database type

• CRM integration with supported CRM solutions included, but any non-supported CRM integrations will entail additional cost according to the compatibility of the CRM API and also assessment of complexity of the integration

• Solution testing

• 1 session of Supervisor and Admin training

• 1 session of End user training – train the trainer for initial blocks of 10 users

Change Management

The purpose of the Change Management process is to achieve the successful introduction of changes to an IT system or environment. Success is measured as a balance of the timeliness and completeness of change implementation, the cost of implementation, and the minimization of disruption caused in the target system or environment. Cytrack is governed by strict internal change management procedures following ITIL and ISO 9001 principles, standards and best practices.

Roles and Responsibilities

• CAB (Change Advisory Board) - Analyses and evaluates proposed changes and provides recommendations that the change manager may use in making approvals.

• Change manager - Manages the CAB, coordinates teams and stakeholders, makes final decisions to approve or reject proposed changes, and directs the implementation of approved changes.

• Change owner - Oversees and takes responsibility for the entire change management process.

• Change initiator - Proposes changes, collects, and organizes relevant details, and creates plans for change implementation.

• Software developer - Often takes on the role of ‘change initiator;’ software developers are directly involved in most IT changes.

Change Types

Changes are categorised into three groups:

Standard changes

Standard changes are low-risk changes that follow an established procedure. These changes are pre-authorized and usually very low risk. Because they follow a set process, these may be easily automated. Examples of standard changes include software patching and updating, replacing outdated hardware, and making new DNS entries.

Emergency changes

Emergency changes are unexpected, and generally must be implemented immediately to mitigate or minimize the negative effects of an emergent situation. Emergency changes may include isolating a network from a large-scale DDoS attack or applying an emergency patch in response to a zero-day exploit.

Normal changes

Normal changes describe any changes that are not standard changes or emergency changes. These changes are further categorized as minor, significant, or major, based on the amount of risk involved. These changes are not pre-authorized or scheduled, but also do not carry the same urgency as emergency changes.

Change Submission

Changes are submitted by the Change Initiator as a “Request for Change” ticket. The RFC ticket must detail the following:

• The Change being made

• Reason for Change

• How the change is being implemented

• Urgency

• Risk

• Impact

• Rollout plan

• Communication Plan

• Pre-Implementation test plan

• Pre-Implementation test plan sign-off

• Post Implementation test plan

• Post Implementation test plan sign-off

• Scheduled date/time

Change Review

Submitted changes are reviewed in the weekly CAB meetings led by the Change Owner. CAB has representation from key functional teams including IT Infrastructure, Engineering, and Operations.

Change Approval

A change is either Approved or Rejected. A change must be unanimously approved by the Change Advisory Board members. If a CAB member is not present during the CAB meeting, the Change Owner will reach out to that member to communicate the change and seek approval. Rejected changes are sent back to the Change Initiator to rework, reschedule, or cancel.

Change Implementation

Approved Changes are implemented according to the schedule approved in CAB. Once a change is complete, the RFC ticket is updated with detailed notes.

Change Closure

The Change Owner reviews the change implementation to check for any deviations from the plan. Any deviations are reported and corrected before the change is deemed successful.
Successful changes are closed and archived as per internal procedure.
Unsuccessful changes are evaluated and resubmitted for CAB approval if required.

Training

CyTrack’s method of training is to ‘train the trainer’ using TeamViewer.  The customer will nominate a ‘superuser’ who will receive full hands on training in all areas of the software modules purchased, including the admin tasks. This person is then responsible for training the other users in the software they will be using in their roles.

Please refer to the Scope of Deployment Service and Engagement document for further details

Testing

CyTrack's products are modular and as a result each deployment has its own design and format. Therefore the CyTrack project manager will draw up a specific test plan for the site and cover off all features and functionality identified according to the customers requirements and the plan for the deployment, as well as recurrent tests that we carry out for each module deployed.

Go Live

The Go-Live stage is an important part of the process and is initiated by the Go-Live form which must be signed by the customer and returned to CyTrack before the site can be activated to be working live. If certain commercial conditions are attached to the project stage of Go Live these must be fulfilled before the project manager can activate the site to Go Live.   If for any reason we cannot obtain the Go-Live form and the site has been activated during the process, the CyTrack project manager will assess the date the system has gone live and process the Go-Live form.

Deployment Warranty Period

We provide a period of time called the deployment warranty period whereupon our deployment team will address certain accepted issues or reasonable change requests raised by the customer, without this being deemed chargeable and comprising part of the deployment process.  This deployment warranty period will extend for 21 days from the go-live date.

Deployment Project Completion

The Deployment Completion Form is issued to the customer one week after Go Live has occurred, (for avoidance of doubt - not when the Go Live Form is signed but when the system has been taken live).

The Deployment Project is completed when the Deployment Completion Form is signed by the customer. In certain cases, additional documentation may be attached to address specific needs or contractual aspects of the project, so that their completion may be demonstrated and signed as completed off by the client.

If there are certain issues that remain to be addressed, The Deployment Completion Form provides a section for the customer to enter a list of those issues outstanding (each one of those must have a support ticket issued for reference) and these will be processed and addressed by the coordination of the Project Manager and the support team.

If the customer does not return requests for the Deployment Completion Form for any reason, then the date calculated as 21 days from the Go-Live date is taken as the acceptance of the project completion. In this case CyTrack will deem the project has been completed and will notify the customer of this action.

Once Deployment Completion has been reached then all support tickets will become Billable from this point, excluding IRS issues if the customer has purchased  IRS support.

After Sales Services

CyTrack provides the following services for supporting your system:

Software Care Service

Customers on our Software Care Service receive all version releases of our software.  By keeping your CyTrack software up-to-date, you benefit from a host of powerful new features, performance improvements and bug fixes to optimise your technology and keep your business at the cutting edge of customer experience technology. With CyTrack Software Care you can access the latest software releases for your CyTrack software at no extra cost, allowing you unlock the full potential of your investment.   Please ensure you are subscribed to our CyTrack Insider updates to be fully informed of high level news and information about our version release communicated directly from our engineering team.

For further details check our CyTrack Professional Services Overview

Issue Resolution Service

CyTrack’s Issue Resolution Service (IRS) is a cost-effective, comprehensive maintenance solution to maximise the value of your investment.  Maintain business availability and responsiveness with unlimited CyTrack support-time for all issues related to bugs in the CyTrack Software Suite.  Our highly skilled support team will diagnose the problem, then design and implement a resolution, including full software upgrades where required. IRS really does offer you complete peace of mind, helping to maintain a stable, secure and available infrastructure.  Please note IRS includes Software Care.

For further details check our CyTrack Professional Services Overview

Moves, Adds, Changes, Training

For all your modify, adds and changes (MAC) needs CyTrack Service Vouchers allow you to access training and technical support for any non-software bug related issues such as: 

• Hardware, network, operating system or carrier related issues. 

• Planning upgrades or new deployments 

• Increasing productivity with technical and end-user training

• Software configuration changes 

• Help with software upgrades 

As and when you use Service Vouchers, an automatic statement is sent out for that month which includes details of the support work undertaken and your voucher balance, allowing you to easily track and plan your future support requirements.

For further details check our CyTrack Professional Services Overview

After Hours Support

Our 24/7 After Hours Assurance Service is an optional, annual subscription allowing you to register service requests through our Issue Resolution Service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service is provided by telephone and remote connection.

For further details check our CyTrack Professional Services Overview

How to Access Support

• Email support@cytrack.com

• Web  https://support.cytrack.com/

• Tel - check our web site for local offices https://web.cytrack.com/contact-support/

What’s Next? Keep up to date with new features and version releases with the 'CyTrack Insider' Blog

The CyTrack Insider Blog is available as a link in the CyTrack Support Portal. The purpose of the Blog is to deliver high level news and information about our version release communicated directly from our engineering team.  The blog posts provide you the version numbering of upcoming releases and where exactly they are at in progress on a fortnightly basis.    

Our aim is that our customers will be better informed on the progress and content of upcoming new releases and can also follow particular resolutions to issues or new feature releases that are important to them.  The Blog also provides the means for you to post questions and comments and our engineering team will reply to your query directly. 

One important area to explain is how our release number system works when we provide you a release version that is slated to include items of interest to you.   Releases are numbered based on the month the work is defined and planned - not when its released !  This is because often when starting work we can’t be sure of the exact time it may take to complete and when communicating a release version for customers to track we cant keep changing its release name as dates change as that would be confusing for everyone.   

The release numbering system is year-number-version - so for example 20-1.1 release.  This is a version that has commenced in year 2020, is our first release of the year so '1' and the first point release of the month so '.1', as we may sometimes have more than one release in a single month.   Each cycle increments the point release, so for example release 20-1.2 would be a minor second cycle of the 20-1.1 version released before we could bring the next major version being 20-2.1.   

Our Engineering and Leadership team is constantly reviewing our project plans for issue resolution, customer requests and exciting new innovations, all in our planned product evolution to ensure we deliver products exceeding our customers’ expectations. 

We hope you enjoy being a CyTrack Insider. 

Links for other information

• About CyTrack Professional Services

• CyTrack End User Licence Agreements (EULA)

  • Outright Purchase

  • Subscription Services

• CyTrack Terms & Conditions

• Support Services Terms & Conditions 

• CyTrack Professional Services Overview

• CyTrack Privacy Policy