Every institution has different levels of expertise already on staff; the assistance listed below explains Next Step’s most utilized supplemental services.

Testing Consultant
Next Step’s Project & Risk Manager oversees the overall project, managing all involved parties. The full-time, dedicated commitment of a testing coordinator on your team is also essential to the success of the project. If your institution does not have a qualified individual available for this role, Next Step can dedicate a Testing Consultant whose sole focus every day is to ensure that all system components are comprehensively validated and tested according to the Test Plan. The Testing Consultant provides detailed hands-on guidance to your testing team on a day-to-day basis to validate all converted data, perform acceptance testing, and resolve issues.

Specialized Training Advisor
One of the largest risks to the institution is significant loss in productivity as each individual transitions from a high level of comfort with the old ways and accepts the new way of doing business. If this transition is not managed effectively, there will be a significant loss of productivity and negative customer/member impact. The training requirements associated with a conversion or acquisition are exponential compared to day to day teller turnover training. If your institution does not have a training manager with experience in major conversions, Next Step can assign a Training Advisor to help guide your training manager at a detailed level through the enormous task. With effective training, your staff will gain the knowledge to confidently use the system from the very first day live, thus ensuring no degradation in customer/member service.

Process Improvement / ROI
Today’s leading systems offer significant opportunity for improving a financial institution’s operations. Next Step can help you get the most return on your technology investment through an organization-wide process improvement initiative. We perform this service with the active participation of the core system vendor and representatives from each area of your institution. Our best practice experience and vendor insight combined with your institution’s knowledge of its operations enables optimum results. The best timing for a full process review is 90 days following conversion, once management and staff have obtained significant experience using the new system in a production environment. (Note: Next Step’s conversion methodology enables the institution to implement improvements at go-live conversion; however, to reap the full benefits of the new core system, a full process review is recommended post-conversion.)

Business Planning Assistance
From time to time, our clients see the value of applying Next Step’s unique disciplines, expertise and perspective to the institution’s business planning efforts. We are always happy to provide assistance with our very practical and measurable business planning process. We see this as a specialized service for executive teams who have recently completed a major technology initiative and see the improved business planning and process improvement components as an integral part of their ongoing strategy.

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