By: Archana Joshi, Head - Strategy, Enterprise AI & Banking and Financial Services, LTIMindtree

In the previous blog post on Remote Transition, it was mentioned how some of the conventional challenges of Transition have become more streamlined amidst the COVID-19 storm that has afflicted us all, impacting our long-standing processes and ways of working. We saw the advantages in planning and conducting Transition during these times, and challenges and hurdles to overcome.

Here are seven considerations to keep in mind in order to achieve a successful and efficient Transition. Some of these are relevant even for normal Transitions, but one must put special focus on these during remote working conditions:

1. Protocols and Processes
   • Protocols should be agreed upon and issued by Transition partners to adapt to remote working conditions and their compliance should be mandated and ensured.
   • All hands-on deck approach should be implemented for hyper care with simulated cutovers.
2. People and Resources
   • Backup personnel should be identified for delivery in case of any unforeseen issues
   • Remote onboarding of new personnel should be quickly established and tested with existing engagements.
3. Collaboration and Communication
   • It is advisable for the transition partners to reach near 100% Work-From-Home capabilities with access to work machines and high bandwidth internet.
   • Recording of meetings should be ensured and shared with all participants as an information fall back mechanism to mitigate the effects of network disruptions
   • Daily standup across the Transition partners should be undertaken to maintain information awareness and parity.
4. Governance and Tracking
   • Transition tracking tools should be readied and pre-configured, ensuring that they are cloud-enabled.
   • Knowledge Management should be kept ongoing by leveraging existing platforms or extending ready toolsets (Teams/ SharePoint etc).
   • Schedules should be made incorporating the extra bandwidth while ensuring more can be freed up if necessary.
   • Regular and thorough tracking of invested hours and work schedules should be undertaken.
   • Metrics and Transition Governance should happen through online tools.
5. Tools and Enablers
   • Immediate provision of advanced collaboration tools for example Teams, WebEx and Office 365 must be undertaken.
   • High cloud storage along with services like SharePoint and OneDrive should be implemented for seamless data transfer and storage.
   • Device Logistics should be enabled for end-to-end device provisioning across the supply chain.
   • Automated and quick resolution of errors should become the norm to prevent business process disruptions.
6. Security and Privacy
   • Complete data privacy must be maintained as per set company guidelines.
   • All remote meetings should to be encrypted and password protected while ensuring that only the intended participants are involved.
   • In case of multiple partners involved in Transition, information transfer should be on a need to know basis only.
   • Ensure the latest security updates, anti-intrusion software and features are installed in case of private machine use.
7. Transition Risk Mitigation
   • Business & Technology-wise Transition Risk Analysis should be quickly performed to arrive at transition design with information on which areas have a low risk impact and are fully ready for transition as well as which the areas need a mitigation plan

Successful Remote Transition is not only feasible but can also be effective – while maintaining timeline milestones – if we leverage the advantages and address the challenges by incorporating the above measures. Through it all, it is important to remember that this fight belongs to all of us and we must come together, put our brains together and work in unison to come out stronger. In these troubling and challenging times, we look to Alexandre Dumas’ sentiment: “All for one and one for all” and remember that this too shall pass!