Typical Project Lifecycle

• Discovery is the initial phase of the project.  This phase involves gathering business requirements, generating the backlog, and updating project estimates and schedules.
• Implementation covers configuration, development and testing phases.
• System Integration Testing (SIT) is used to test individual integrations between systems (i.e. end-to-end).  Performance Testing is used to confirm the peak volumes for orders and inventory loads. 
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is where the business signs off on the end-to-end business scenarios and reporting. Typically, the client is onboarded just before UAT, so they can effectively use the web apps (Fluent OMS and Fluent Store) user interfaces during testing.
• Launch and 'go live' carry out the production deployment, data staging and validation testing phases of the project lifecycle

Ecosystem & Integrations

• What systems will be integrated (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe, SAP)
• How many brands the client owns and in what regions do they operate (e.g. Asia-pacific, Europe, Australia only)
• How many order channels are going to be integrated with the Fluent platform (e.g. Amazon, eBay, e-commerce website, point-of-sales system)
• What systems are going to provide product, inventory and location information to the Fluent platform (e.g. A client may have 20 locations: 15 stores, 2 warehouses, and 3 suppliers).
• Expected volume and frequency of information updates (e.g. 1000 inventory positions per minute)
• Other system integrations needed to communicate with the Fluent platform:
  • Customer service systems
  • Logistics/carriers systems for orders that require delivery (e.g. Australia Post, Ship It)
  • Payment integrations (e.g., Afterpay, Paypal)
  • ERP/WMS
  • Systems required for reporting

Omnichannel Experiences

Business Operations, Project and Change Management

• Planning for system testing after development and a plan for how this will be rolled out.
• Non-functional issues, such as:
  • How many inventory positions are expected to change every day and how frequently;
  • How many orders does the client expect on a regular day vs. Black Friday sale.
• Operational support after rollout:
  • Monitoring systems, systems to alert or escalate issues when they arise after rollout / SLAs for support.

Configuration Analysis

Inventory Management Analysis

Workflow Analysis

Custom Plugin Analysis

Integration Analysis

Partner vs. Expert Services Deliverables During Ready for Launch

• At least once as a mid-point project review. 
• At the conclusion of the implementation phase.

Sponsors and Governance

Steering and Design

Implementation

Workshops and Testing 

Typical Project Roles & Responsibilities

Fluent account types

• 2 x Sandbox for Dev, SIT, UAT
• 1 x Production
• Training accounts (30 days expiration)

Provisioning of Fluent Accounts

Sponsors and Governance

Steering and Design

Implementation

Workshops and Testing 

Approaching Project Estimation

• Base = minimal effort (0 to 1 days)
• Small = simple configuration (1 to 2 days)
• Medium = average configuration or simple custom solution (3 - 7 days)
• Large = complex configuration or average custom solution (10 - 20 days)
• X-Large = complex custom solution (20 to 40 days) 

Fluent Commerce Points Of Contact

Platform Support

Application Support