Unveiling the Unseen: The Importance of Conducting Annual TechnologyOne System Reviews

Amongst the multitude of modern technologies, where complex systems interweave to drive businesses and daily life, lies an overwhelming challenge; the hidden or overlooked vulnerabilities that silently undermine stability and efficiency.

In the same way that you can imagine sailing a boat on calm waters, completely unaware of the heavy currents below the surface, the concept of “you don’t know what you don’t know” perfectly encapsulates the very essence of why conducting annual system reviews is a crucial practice for any organisation utilising digital technologies like TechnologyOne (Technology One Ltd).

As businesses become more and more dependent on intricate tech ecosystems, the importance of maintaining a healthy and efficient system can’t be overstated. The integrity of a system determines its success and reliability. However, the intricacies of many online systems often lie concealed beneath layers of configuration, processes, and interactions that may seem flawless at a glance. This deceptive appearance of stability is exactly where the dangers lie – the false assumption that all is well until an unforeseen glitch or failure occurs.

This is where taking a proactive approach to undertake an annual TechnologyOne system review not only helps uncover potential issues before they’re escalated but also brings to light opportunities for enhanced efficiency. It’s the act of peeling back the layers, delving into the hidden recesses of a system, and exposing vulnerabilities that might be lurking beneath the surface.

Simultaneously, system reviews also offer a chance to identify areas where optimisations can be made, processes streamlined, and resources utilised more effectively. By embracing this practice, both individuals and businesses can gain a profound understanding of their TechnologyOne landscape, leading to robustness and heightened performance.

7 benefits of conducting an annual TechnologyOne system review

Conducting annual system reviews offers a multitude of benefits that extend beyond surface-level assessments. These benefits are pivotal for individuals and organisations striving to maintain the reliability, efficiency, and security of their TechnologyOne ERP system.

Here are seven key advantages:

1. Early Issue Detection and Prevention

Regular system reviews enable you to identify and address potential problems at their infancy stages. By catching issues early, you can prevent them from escalating into major disruptions, ensuring smooth operations and minimising downtime.

2. Enhanced System Reliability

System reviews contribute to a more reliable system by identifying and resolving vulnerabilities, glitches, and performance bottlenecks. This reliability is crucial for maintaining consistent user experiences and meeting service-level agreements.

3. Data Security and Integrity

System reviews are an integral part of fortifying your system’s security measures, improving data integrity and quality, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. By uncovering weaknesses and opportunities early, you can safeguard sensitive data and enhance your system’s overall reliability.

4. Detailed Documentation

Part of the annual system review and performance checks process includes ensuring that every review is well-documented. System review report documentation can then be referenced in business case requests and risk audits, should risks be identified.

5. Optimised Performance

Performance degradation over time can hinder efficiency and user satisfaction. This can be especially true for those end users who are stuck in the day-to-day, happily ignorant. System reviews enable you to identify areas where performance can be optimised, leading to faster response times, smoother interactions, and improved resource utilisation.

6. Cost Savings and Long-Term Sustainability

Proactively addressing issues identified through system reviews can significantly reduce costs associated with emergency fixes and downtime. By extending the life of your systems and avoiding major breaks, you ensure long-term sustainability and maximise your technology investments.

7. Improved User Experience and Informed Decision-Making

Annual TechnologyOne system reviews contribute to both a seamless user experience and informed decision-making. By maintaining system reliability and performance, you ensure that users have consistent, hassle-free interactions. Additionally, the insights gained from system reviews provide valuable data for decision-makers, enabling them to make informed choices about system upgrades, optimisations, and resource allocations. This alignment of user satisfaction and data-driven decision-making leads to more effective strategies and enhanced overall outcomes.

It is important organisations allocate adequate budget and resources to conduct an annual TechnologyOne system reviews. This should be considered in the annual planning process.

The Lánluas TechnologyOne system review process

When we partner with a new client at Lánluas, we generally start with a TechnologyOne system review. There are two key reasons why we take this approach:

1. It helps us to understand how clients are using TechnologyOne
2. It makes outlining focus areas, where the client should start and how to prioritise the list of work items much clearer.

When it comes to completing a TechnologyOne system review, we follow a four-step process.

Step 1: Team-Based Workshops

The first step in conducting a system review is always centred around information-gathering. Most of the time, this takes place over a series of team workshops. The intent of these sessions is to really understand how users interact (or would like to interact) with the TechnologyOne system, and the functionalities of the ERP system are currently being used.

Step 2: Assessment and Discovery

Once we’ve gathered all the information we need from the team workshops, our skilled consultants then review how the system is configured, assess the information gathered and identify any areas for improvement. With this information, we can then outline the best ways to optimise the existing set-up and provide information on recommended enhancements and restructures to TechnologyOne and any integrations or interfaces. Typically, assessment and discovery reviews take one day per TechnologyOne module.

Step 3: Executive Level Discussions

This step isn’t always utilised, however, for larger organisations who might struggle with communicating all requirements between executives and teams, we will organise 1:1 calls with those at the exec-level. When utilised, the purpose of these sessions is to get executive buy-in and to present the proposed roadmap and ideal end state.

Step 4: Present Findings

Upon completion of assessment and discovery, and executive level discussions, we present clients with a detailed findings report. Quite often, we find that teams don’t know what else can be added to their existing TechnologyOne configuration. The documented reports often uncover additional requirements and efforts, which will lead to process improvements, increased efficiency and visibility, and enable teams to upskill. This provides a clear understanding of the business case, so that an actionable plan can be made.

Conclusion

The importance of conducting an annual TechnologyOne system review cannot be overstated. From early issue detection and prevention, through to enhanced system reliability, optimised performance, data integrity and more, the benefits cascade into a robust, resilient and efficient ERP technology environment. For organisations, the assurance of a well-maintained system is a key cornerstone for success.

For TechnologyOne customers, the advantages are numerous. A system that undergoes annual reviews promises uninterrupted operations, fortified security, and a seamless user experience. It instils confidence in the reliability of services, fostering trust and loyalty.

At the same time, the value that TechnologyOne system reviews offer Lánluas and our expert TechnologyOne consultants is equally profound. Armed with the insights collected from these assessments, our consultants can provide informed guidance to clients, enabling them to make strategic decisions that align with their goals. This data-driven approach empowers our consultants to identify trends, allocate resources efficiently, and implement necessary improvements, solidifying their role as trusted TechnologyOne advisors.