Professional Services

Our Philosophy

To deliver solutions based upon each client’s real business requirements. Avrio will accomplish this in a timely and cost effective manner with a strong emphasis on requirements analysis and design.

Our client success is backed by 15 years of proven experience delivering solutions that work.

The Approach to both large and small scale projects is to employ our Av3 Project Management Approach which relies on three phases in a project’s implementation to ensure success: Assessment, Acceptance and Assurance. It is based on the best practices as detailed by the Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org) and has been proven effective in delivering projects on schedule, with less risk.

Assessment defines the project’s scope and is completed with the cooperation of key user management. The final document produced is a Statement of Work (SOW), specific to exactly what and how the system will look and operate. If tasks can be combined to shorten the timeline, this is determined during this phase. This document is approved by user management and completes the Assessment phase.

Acceptance is where the project is developed and installed. We anticipate a joint effort here by members of your IT staff and Avrio Professional Services. Again, the user is completely involved and must sign an acceptance form upon completion.

Assurance is where plans for long-term success are clearly defined.

Project Methodology

At Avrio, we believe that one of the critical success factors in a project is the quality of the project management and the administration of the project team members. A well-managed project uses a structured approach where the project is planned out to clearly identify roles, responsibilities, task assignments, deliverables, communication methods, and acceptance criteria. These factors are critical in mitigating the risks associated with the implementation of content management and workflow systems.

Our teams solve complex document management and workflow problems by developing solutions that are built upon industry experience and proven technologies. We have integrated content management and workflow systems in both large- and small-scale companies in the areas of insurance, financial services, international banking, transportation, government, healthcare, telecommunications, and in other major markets. Based on our years of implementation experience, Avrio is able to provide its clients with practical working knowledge combined with content management and workflow technology experience.

Business Process Analysis

During the business requirements and analysis phases, we conduct a series of interviews and working sessions with our client’s business users to better understand their manual processes, work assignment and distribution needs, internal and external routing requirements, business forms and usages, system security, document retention and legal reporting requirements, system performance expectations, operational or logistical concerns, legacy integration needs, and other related items. Our interactive working sessions are intended to solicit the business process information from our clients, while we assist the client understand the capabilities and features available with content management and workflow technologies.

Solution Design

Since incorporating a workflow system into an organization re-designs the way business is conducted, it is important that the system design decisions be considered strategically rather than simply as technical solutions. Using the information from the Business Process Analysis sessions and client?s business requirements, Avrio will design a solution to incorporate data, documents, legacy systems and automated processes into a comprehensive and maintainable content management and workflow system. We review the design with our clients to ensure that it meets the business, strategic and financial requirements of the organization.

Business Process Improvement

Incorporating a content management and workflow system into an organization provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at the existing business practices, flow of information, and infrastructure to determine how these items can be optimized. During the project, Avrio assists the client understand and recognize the inefficiencies in their current manual processes. We then re-engineer the paper-based processes to employ more efficient work practices and better utilize the automated features available in the document management and/or workflow system.

Workflow Systems Development

Avrio's programming conventions standardize the applications developed, and facilitate software maintenance and compatibility throughout the system's lifecycle. Where acceptable, the program naming conventions, standards, error handling, directory structures, etc. follow our customer's pre-defined application development policies. In cases where our customer's standards do not apply or are not applicable, Avrio uses Microsoft Application Development Standards. Programming standards are used for all applications development and include the following:

Systems Testing: The purpose of testing is to validate that the document management and workflow components meet the business requirements and system design specifications. Most of our projects involve two levels of testing: (1) system/integration testing, and (2) user acceptance testing. Both testing levels require a well thought out and communicated test plan, and continuous management. Together these techniques ensure that all participants understand the test goals, test activities, timelines, and acceptance criteria. For both the System/Integration and User Acceptance Test cycles, the Avrio assists its customers in carefully planning the following items:

Training and Documentation: Implementation of an integrated workflow system changes the way an organization conducts its day-to-day processing activities. As a result, end-user training must not only define the software features, but manual and procedural changes as well. End-user training serves many purposes: (1) prepares users for acceptance testing and final implementation; (2) provides business users with an understanding of system functions to enable them to complete their day-to-day work assignments, and (3) identifies procedural and organizational changes. Avrio’s consulting teams will provide the client with as much or little mentoring and assistance in planning, developing and executing the content management and workflow system end-user training. Items that need considered for successful implementation of a content management and workflow system.

Implementation Support Services

Avrio assists its clients with maintaining the operational stability of the system during the design, testing and training phases of the project. Avrio believes that involvement by client's IT staff is critical throughout the project. During the project, Avrio progressively transitions system information to the client's IT staff. This approach provides an opportunity for our clients to develop sufficient expertise to assume full responsibility for operations and administration of the content management and workflow application. Items we cover with our customer's IT staff include:

Risk and Change Management: Avrio knows that change is inevitable on any project. However, uncontrolled changes are one of the primary causes of project problems and delays to the implementation timelines. To mitigate project delays and cost overruns, Avrio uses the following strategies for risk and change management.

Risk Evaluation and Management: No project is without risk. Risk evaluation and management requires leveraging on experience and judgment to properly assess a risk's impact to the project schedule, resources, and objectives. As part of the risk management process, all issues or risks related to system, software, administrative, procedural, and other project-related problems are identified, communicated and tracked until resolution. This mechanism allows the project team to accurately log and track issues, and to determine the best method for resolving these items as they arise.

Change Management Procedures: Change Management is the systematic process by which changes to the business requirements, design items, or development activities are tracked, analyzed, and evaluated to determine project impact. On each project, one of Avrio's initial project activities is to work with our client to establish Change Management procedures. These procedures define how changes will be identified, defining the cost and scheduling impacts of requested changes, understanding how the requested change impacts the project scope/timeline, and evaluating which changes are appropriate for inclusion in the project. Changes and system enhancements are tracked using a project-tracking log.

System Enhancements: Analyzing and designing document imaging and workflow systems is best performed on an iterative basis; where after a period of use, users identify and recommend modifications and enhancements to the original design. Items identified outside the project scope or as changes to the design, screen layouts, data, technical specifications, etc., are handled as a system enhancement. For each identified system enhancement, additional funding; prioritization for completion of the item; design, development, testing and implementation schedules will need to be arranged and negotiated between Avrio and its customer before work on the enhancement commences.