Is your cutover ready for go-live? Get a free cutover health check

For CIOs, IT Directors and Programme Directors with a dated go-live on SAP S/4HANA, Workday, EPR or another core system.

Most programmes find the cutover gaps late, when they cost the most 

Cutover is the most critical and most misunderstood phase of a deployment. It often sits with the project manager as a side task, and the gaps show up close to go-live: durations that were assumed instead of measured, a plan that IT and the business have not built together, rehearsals that do not match production. See how a cutover manager differs from a project manager.

The free cutover health check gives you an expert view of where your programme stands, while there is still time to change the route. It is a conversation with a senior cutover manager who has run cutovers for a living, not a sales demo.

 

What we review

Cutover scope and approach

What is in the cutover, what is not, and whether the approach is clear enough for everyone from engineers to the steering board: freezes, milestones, rollback criteria, communication and escalation.

The detailed plan

Whether tasks have an owner, a start time and a duration, whether descriptions can be understood by someone other than the expert, and whether durations come from rehearsal or from assumption.

Data migration and freezes

The data strategy, the freeze plan, and how migrated data will be reconciled and signed off, often the largest and riskiest part of a cutover.

Rehearsals and go/no-go

How many dress rehearsals are planned, how close they are to production, and which go/no-go criteria will decide the go-live.

Organisation and engagement

Whether the business owns its part of the cutover, who is available on the go-live weekend, and where single points of failure sit.

Risks and practical next steps

The main risks to your go-live date and what to do about each, in plain language you can take to your steering group.

How it works

1. Book your free cutover health check

Choose a time that suits you. There is no cost and no obligation.

2. Share your programme documents

Under an NDA, you share the documents you already have, such as the programme roadmap, solution architecture and any cutover approach or plan. We use them for a free pre-analysis, so the call is spent on your programme and not on introductions.

3. Talk it through with a senior cutover manager

We assess your programme’s cutover together and tell you plainly what looks solid, what looks exposed and what we would do first.

4. Decide what happens next

You can take the advice and run with it. If you want more help, we can discuss a 10-day fixed-price discovery sprint, end-to-end cutover delivery, or cutover rescue when go-live is less than 6 months away.

Who the cutover health check is for

It suits programme leaders who own a go-live date and want an independent view of the cutover:

  • CIOs, IT Directors, Programme and Transformation Directors and PMO leads.
  • Programmes moving to SAP S/4HANA, rolling out Workday or payroll platforms, or taking an EPR live in a hospital, as well as other enterprise systems.
  • Programmes where the project manager is running the cutover alongside everything else, and nobody has yet tested whether that will hold.
  • Programmes that are already in testing, or closer to go-live than planned. Late is common, and we work with it.

Running your first cutover? If you are a project or programme manager who has not run one before, the health check shows how ready your cutover really is and where the risks are. You get a plain view of what looks solid, what looks exposed and what to do first, in language you can take to your steering group.

On a large programme we recommend engaging a cutover manager 6 to 9 months before go-live. If you are inside that window, the check is still worth doing: the earlier the gaps are visible, the cheaper they are to close.

Questions about the free cutover health check

What is a cutover health check?
A review of how your programme will move from the current state to the new one in production: the cutover approach, the detailed plan, data migration, rehearsals, go/no-go criteria, organisation and risks. It ends with practical advice on what to fix first.
Is it really free?
Yes. The consultation and the pre-analysis of your documents are free. There is no obligation to hire us afterwards.
What do I need to prepare?
Nothing beyond your existing programme documents. If you have a programme roadmap, a solution architecture document, a project organisation chart or a draft cutover approach, share them under NDA. If you have none of these, tell us and we will start from the conversation.
Our project manager is running the cutover. Why would we need a cutover manager?
Cutover is a discipline of its own, not a sub-role of project management. A project manager running it on the side rarely has the time or the method to design a safe route to go-live. The health check shows you whether that is a risk on your programme or not.
When should we bring in a cutover manager?
On a large programme, 6 to 9 months before go-live. In practice many organisations call us later, and we can help then too, including through our rescue model when go-live is less than 6 months away.
Which technologies and sectors do you cover?
SAP (including S/4HANA Finance), Workday HCM, payroll platforms and EPR systems, across retail, healthcare, energy and industrial gases, online classifieds and finance.
What happens after the health check?
That is your decision. Our engagement models are a fixed-price 10-day discovery sprint for the early phase, end-to-end delivery for a programme in flight, and rescue when go-live is less than 6 months away.

De-risk your next go-live

Book your free cutover health check and speak to a senior cutover manager about your programme.