HEADSTART Approach for ERP and CRM Implementations

HEADSTARTSM Approach for ERP and CRM implmentations

HEADSTART helps companies reap the transformational benefits of their new ERP or CRM implementations as quickly as possible. Whether you’re a small, midsized organization or a multi-billion dollar enterprise, Sikich’s HEADSTART approach delivers modern business applications faster, safer, and on budget. Whether you’re a business leader looking to modernize your technology or a Professional Advisor helping clients find the best partner, HEADSTART gives you a critical edge on your Dynamics 365 and Salesforce implementations.

What is HeadStart

HEADSTART is a methodology our technology practice developed to accelerate the speed of ERP and CRM implementations for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce.com. When you choose the HEADSTART approach for your ERP or CRM project, you benefit from years of successful solution implementations, and deep industry expertise so you can achieve a successful project outcome, with a clearly defined scope, that generates the most value in the shortest time possible.  

While each business has its own nuances, our pre-configured industry HEADSTART solutions address close to 90 percent of your business requirements with a single set of configurations, ISV products, lightweight extensions and minor process changes, based on best practices. Instead of starting from ground zero, we deliver an almost perfect solution in a fraction of the time, allowing us to focus our energy, and your resources on creating the most value for your business.  

A SIMPLE APPROACH TO DEPLOYING MODERN ERP AND CRM

To streamline business application deployments and shorten clients’ time-to-benefit, Sikich has combined its industry and technology expertise with the new vision of modular, agile solutions in a comprehensive deployment approach called HEADSTART. The following principles guided the development of HEADSTART: 

Projects that are based on agile principles and are adapted to work with pre-built software applications can reduce the risk and cost of deployments. The old way of implementing packaged software, based on a waterfall approach to project management, takes too long and does not consistently result in successful projects.

Starting implementation projects from a blank slate, beginning with lengthy requirements discovery and documentation, is a well-intended process that nonetheless cannot guarantee the best possible project outcomes. Such efforts result in too much focus on past practices and not nearly enough attention to how the business should operate in the future. 

Implementation partners and system integrators must increase the speed at which they deploy systems so that clients can realize value faster. At the same time, technology partners and their clients have to expand project scopes to incorporate data analytics and insight solutions as part of the initial deliverable. 

Clients rightly expect that the quality of the delivery services they receive should reflect their partner’s cumulative, vertical expertise and will not vary greatly with the experience of the individuals on their project team. Every client deserves the vendor’s A team, every time. Clients’ project success should not be at risk because a trusted vendor includes junior professionals in the team. 

“The Sikich HEADSTART approach provided a preconfigured solution that allowed us to move forward much more quickly than we had been. About 90 days in, we were ready for our first conference room pilot using HEADSTART. People were saying, ‘We could go live with this.’” Jon Fondi, Purchasing Manager at Hamilton, adds, “Out of the box, we had a similar or better product than what we had in our old system.”

 

Top 6 Headstart benefits

Certain conditions need to be in place in order to realize value from your technology investments. These 6 must-have conditions will benefit you when you use HEADSTART implementations for Dynamics 365 or Salesforce : 

1. Deliver better customer experiences

2. Help employees to be more productive – achieving more with less effort

3. Contribute to reducing costs, errors and risks 

4. Allow executives and other roles to make better decisions faster 

5. Help companies adapt faster to marketplace changes and competitive pressures 

6. Offer opportunities for increasing revenue by enabling new business models or making it possible to access new markets and grow market share  

HEADSTART Delivers

Up to
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Reduction in project duration

0 %

Reduction in project costs

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Customer satisfaction

Hamilton Company logoLeaders from across our company were impressed that the preconfigured solution provided with HEADSTART did a better job of meeting our business requirements in just weeks than the previous partner had been able to deliver after more than a year. I wholeheartedly recommend considering Sikich as an implementation partner. The tools they bring to the table can be game-changing.

– Alex Ingram, IT Director at Hamilton Company

Give your company a headstart

The time is now to see faster benefits from your ERP and CRM implementation projects. Our methodology works with numerous systems and industries that will get you in your system sooner and more efficiently. Join the growing number of companies that have been impressed with fewer disruptions, more controlled costs, and more satisfied users.