Author: Kevin Gough, Customer Succes Manager at Board and Community Captain
You don’t need a lengthy twelve-month project plan to kickstart a Center of Excellence (CoE) successfully. The key lies in beginning with a focused scope, achieving visible wins, and ensuring practical delivery.
Here’s a structured approach to launching with purpose:
Step 1: Define Your Purpose/Objectives
Align with leadership to:
- Reduce manual work
- Decrease cost of ownership
- Own/Innovate/Expand usage
- Improve business reporting accuracy
Step 2: Build Your Core CoE Team
- Utilize hybrid resourcing involving finance, IT, and consulting partners if necessary.
- Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
Step 3: Align Your Team to Meet Objectives
- Collaborate with your team to assess their capabilities
- Coordinate with vendors associated with the objectives to empower personnel
Step 4: Assess Funding Needs
- Identify if new roles are necessary
- Consider leveraging external skills initially
Step 5: Training and Knowledge Transfer
- Explore standardized training options
- Participate in and complete vendor training and certification programs
- Engage with vendor services personnel for knowledge transfer on previous application deployments
Step 6: Shadowing for Confidence
- Passively observe services teams for insights into scope, configuration, and deployment
- Actively participate in build and support activities to boost confidence in application implementation and maintenance
Step 7: Governance Establishment
- Set up controls, communication practices, and operating models for a seamless transition from scope definition to deployment and support
Step 8: Launch and Monitor
- Begin operations while closely monitoring impact, areas for improvement, and goal achievement
- Initiate small but frequent progress reports focusing on smooth operations, time saved, accuracy gained, rework reduced, and end-user satisfaction
- Treat each success as a case study to highlight value realization, secure buy-in, and secure budget for future expansion
Final Thoughts
The CoE isn’t a project. It’s the engine for sustainable, intelligent operations, and tangible business gains. Start simple. Prove value. Build momentum.
Do you have a good example of building a CoE? Let us know in the comments below.
