4 Key Things to Know About How We Optimally Engage With Your In-house Team During a DataCloud Launch™ Implementation

Standing up a technology platform like Snowflake Data Cloud is a complex undertaking. Although the right implementation partner will take care of managing the technical complexity, there’s also complexity in engaging the in-house team throughout and after implementation. Employee engagement with new technology implementation is where many organizations struggle. In a recent survey of business and IT executives, 78% reported that their software projects will fail when stakeholders aren’t engaged and the business is out of sync with project requirements. 

To keep in-house teams engaged during technology implementation, the first thing that a business needs to do is make sure employees understand what their roles are. At Ippon, we devote extensive time and effort to educating our clients about what their role is vs. our role. The division of responsibilities is particularly important during our DataCloud Launch™ implementations when we’re standing up Snowflake in just 10 weeks. At every stage, every team member —both internal and external— needs a clear understanding of what they’re supposed to be doing (or should be preparing to do). Here are four key things to know about how we optimally engage your team during a DataCloud Launch™ implementation: 

1. Engagement starts at the visioning stage: When Ippon implements Snowflake via DataCloud Launch™, we aren’t waiting until the technology is already implemented to engage the client’s in-house team. We start engaging the in-house team at the visioning stage when we’re developing a clear, comprehensive vision for what the organization’s data management practices should look like. As end users, the client’s employees are uniquely positioned to tell us where the pain points and untapped opportunities lie. These insights are the foundation for the vision we build for each client and for the roadmap we develop for how to optimally achieve this vision.
2. Engagement spans a range of different topics: In-house teams are the carriers of the organization’s institutional knowledge —not Ippon— so we rely on these teams for a range of different topics. In addition to being available for interviews and meetings to help us define the vision for Snowflake implementation, we rely on in-house teams to provide architecture overviews, credentialing for the Ippon team, and work through any unexpected problems that come up. In return, we’re committed to educating and truly empowering these in-house teams for long-term success with Snowflake.
3. We adopt a player-coach relationship with your in-house team: When Ippon begins interacting with our client’s in-house team, it’s so important that we strike the right tone. The type of relationship we seek to establish is a player-coach relationship, where it’s clear that we always have the client’s best interests at heart. We want the in-house team to perceive us as helpful, accessible, and knowledgeable. When the going gets tough, we will hold our ground and be tough and assertive when necessary. But we will always make it clear that our actions and our words come from a place of genuine care for the client’s long-term success.
4. We develop training recommendations for your in-house team: As much as Ippon works to educate and empower your in-house team during the 10-week DataCloud Launch™ implementation, we also recognize that we can’t provide all of the training they’ll need. That’s why we end the project by developing customized training recommendations and other next steps that are designed to ensure the in-house team’s growth and long-term success.

During every DataCloud Launch™ implementation, Ippon understands how to optimally educate and empower our client’s in-house teams. Our engagement process is dynamic and multifaceted, beginning at the Snowflake visioning stage, and spanning a range of different topic areas. Throughout implementation, we adopt a play-coach relationship with our client’s in-house team, and we end by developing detailed training recommendations for these team members.

To learn more about how Ippon sets up our client’s in-house teams for long-term success during DataCloud Launch™, please visit us here or contact us.