Professional Services
Being the Best for our customers means more than simply having better software than our competitors or providing better service (we can't control the quality of our competition). We see Best is an absolute, something we constantly strive for by giving every opportunity and every project our full effort.
Northwoods Professional Services provide the experience and technical knowledge to get your agency's project up, running, and keep it running, at peak efficiency. Our staff includes former human services professionals who understand how agencies work, as well as project managers, technical and engineering staff, trainers, and support specialists. Together, we have well over 300 years of experience installing, maintaining, and supporting agency solutions.
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Our experience with human services agencies in several states puts us in a position to help agencies determine best practices. We know what has worked in the past and what hasn't. We listen to what the agency needs and work with the staff to create the best solution we can for each challenge.
Our services begin behind the scenes while we form the project team, discuss the project and formulate a plan to achieve optimal results with minimal disruption to the agency's daily work. At discovery, our team meets with agency staff to examine business practices and determine the best solution and configuration for the agency's specific situation. Following discovery, the Northwoods team, working with agency staff, proceeds with installation, testing, training and rollout of the solution to agency employees, and then moves into ongoing support of the project. Northwoods uses industry-standard project management principles throughout the project lifecycle.
Northwoods uses a shared implementation model that tailors each installation to meet the individual needs, competencies, budget, and time constraints of our customers. In some cases, agencies may choose to have Northwoods assume responsibility for providing training and rollout support. In others, the agency may elect to reduce implementation costs by sharing in those duties. The possibilities for variations on this theme are virtually unlimited.
In smaller agencies or others that cannot dedicate key employees to the project, Northwoods employees will provide full-agency training and support. If the agency has the resources and technical ability to take on more of the implementation, the onus for some or much of the project can be shifted from Northwoods to the agency. This can occur at any of a number of points along the implementation timeline. Northwoods team members are responsible for the business process analysis, software configuration, and testing, as well as training of key agency personnel and rollout support for an agency-designated number of centers or units. Based on the agency's desire, Northwoods may also assist in the hardware deployment. Agency staff is responsible for implementation of the solution (training and rollout support) to the remaining end users throughout the agency.
