Onboarding Process

Our onboarding process consists of four phases, Initiation, Discovery & Configuration, GoLive & Training, and Refinement.

For more information on the Data Migration process, please see related articles below.

Initiation

The first stage of the onboarding process with LegalServer is the initiation stage.  You will execute a contract with LegalServer and receive a welcome email from IV Ashton.   We will ask that you submit an Accountability Matrix before attending our monthly kickoff call.  Both the survey and the matrix will help us get to know your program better and frame your onboarding. We will also set up a Google Drive and Google Group for your team.  Please note, you do not need a Google account to access the Google Drive or receive emails for the Google Group. 

Kickoff Call & Initial Discovery

On the monthly kickoff call we will review life cycle of a project, training opportunities for new users and admins and point out resources available to you.  

Attending our Initial Classroom Trainings

After our kick off call, there are three classroom trainings we ask you attend. These cover the basics of what your team will need to know about LegalServer, and should be a starting point for your team to discuss internally what you would like to focus on in your one on one sessions with your LegalServer Onboarding Specialist. 

• Life Cycle of a Case: Demo’s case-related modules  on the second Friday of the month
• The Essential Features Tour: Demo’s non-case related modules on the third Friday of the month
• New Admin Training: Demo’s site administration tools  on the fourth Friday of the month

You'll be invited to our small group builds in the second month of your onboarding.

Discovery Documentation

We  ask that you collect and upload reports that you routinely run and use for case management and funding.  This is done in our Future Reports Tool.  

If you have intake forms, or other documentation, such as our grants data sheet (used for the individual grant/program data sheet records fields that are unique to a particular project or grant) we will discuss these during the configuration process. 

Future Reports

At the very beginning of our project together, clients will gather critical reports to be built in LegalServer. These reports may be used to verify initial data import, to provide information to funders, to help manage staff's case load and to check for data quality issues. In one of our first one on one meetings, we'll demonstrate the “Future Reports” tool where you will list the reports you need.  This will serve as a mutual 'to do' list for the reports that we expect to see on your site. We'll discuss which reports our team will build out, and which ones your team will be responsible to create. Typically, agencies select two staff members to become skilled in creating custom base reports in LegalServer. Those people should attend our free additional trainings and read through our Report Manual.  You'll have a chance to review and verify any reports built out by LegalServer staff.  We also have a library of sample reports both on your demo site, and on our help site. 

Demo, Data & Project Planning

Shortly before or after the kickoff call, our team will create your self-guided demo site, which is  where you will upload your data for mapping.  We will enable any additional modules on your demo site as well.   Once you have access to your demo site, you will see a set of tabs at the bottom of your homepage.  These contain your standing meeting information, your project plan and tentative meeting schedule as well as a list of our platform wide training schedule.  We will update and refer to your project plan and meeting schedule throughout the onboarding process, and will review it in depth after data mapping (if applicable).

Discovery and Configuration

During this phase, your team will meet each week with your Onboarding Specialist to discuss how your team will implement the various components of LegalServer. This is your time to ask questions, discuss changes and think through how best to implement LegalServer.

Project Plan

Together we create a project plan with meeting topics in the first few calls, revisiting the plan throughout the process. This tool will be available on the homepage of your demo site. Depending on the scope of your contract you will have a set number of hours to meet with us, and we’ll create your plan with this in mind.

Standing Calls

Each week we will meet to review key features of LegalServer and discuss progress of the implementation. We will focus on the front and the back end of each module. Calls are at a regular time and we typically cannot reschedule. Admins should be on every weekly meeting call.

• We build on what you see us show each week, review various functions and discuss how your site will implement specific desired features of LegalServer.
• We will make changes on the call with you and at the end of each call we will have a list of changes each team will make.
  • We will track these changes on the demo site and in a configuration log embedded on your demo site.
• Once these changes are complete, you will have the opportunity to test each module and any new development to confirm it meets your needs.

Internal Meeting

We strongly encourage your LegalServer Implementation Team meet internally to discuss what was demoed, desired configurations and any questions.

GoLive

Congrats if your GoLive is around the corner!  If you don't feel like celebrating quite yet, no worries - it's totally normal to be nervous.  Hopefully, some information about how this will all go down will help.

The actual GoLive phase is typically a week or so, preceded by our GoLive planning session, where we'll plan your trainings and go over the timeline, ending with your staff actually getting into your new LegalServer live site and putting in new data.  

Training

Generally, user training is done the week of golive. Typically this is 1 to 2 days of remote or in person training during final data migration.  More information on the training topics and process can be found on our help pages. You may have also requested follow up admin or user training post-GoLive.  We will work together both pre and post GoLive to schedule and plan these trainings. 

TimeLine

If you are migrating data, we need 2.5 business days from the time you get us your data to the time a live site is available to your admins.  Typically we are also conducting your GoLive training during this time, although your training schedule is completely up to you.  

During this time our team is creating your production (live) LegalServer site, locking the demo site to non-administrators (unless we are conducting your GoLive training during this time), running final conversion scripts and conducting our own initial functionality testing.  We will send an email to your admin team once your live site is ready.  Typically, most of the additional modules are available on your site when we send the email, unless we've discussed an alternative. 

Client GoLive Cleanup Tasks

Once we provide the log on to your live site, we will ask you to first do some data validation testing.  Your team should then focus on ensuring your intake and other processes  function properly.  You will also want to take review closely and ensure that they are populated correctly.  The most critical lookups are typically on intake, timekeeping and your closing form.  Once the critical lookups are cleaned up, you will want to merge non-critical lookups on your site. 

Go-Live!

It is ultimately up to your team when you allow users to start utilizing the site and any initial limitations on the use you want to place.  We will let you know if there are any reasons (such as outstanding data migration tickets) that may impact when you provide access to your staff. 

Refinement

Refinement generally runs about 30 days from GoLive, and we focus in on any final changes to your live system as your users are in and utilizing the platform.

Post GoLive Planning

After your GoLive we will continue to work together to refine your live site. We may use a Google spreadsheet to coordinate this work.

Verification Testing

We ask you to verify the reports on your site, the processes and forms we have created, as well as your data (if applicable) during the refinement period.

If you have migrated data into the site, all data issues should be logged as tickets for LS to triage. Prioritization will be coordinated over email and during standing meetings during refinement.

Follow-up training (User or Admin or Q&A)

If there is any followup training hours in your contract, please schedule them prior to our final meeting together.

Final Acceptance

All site components should be validated before our final standing meeting together. This means that each of the modules were set up per our discussions during onboarding, and that any additional modules mentioned in the contract or added during onboarding are enabled. We will send you a final wrap up email confirming this at the end of the refinement period.

Helpful Links

• Accountability Matrix (Download- please email to your LegalServer contact)
• GoLive Checklist (Download)