FAQs

• Yes — we have successfully delivered large-scale, high-stakes transformations in regulated and time-critical sectors, including retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and energy.

  • Worked with Fortune 500/FTSE 350 companies such as Kingfisher, Adevinta, Asda, NHS, Air Liquide.

  • Delivered a phased cutover for a FTSE 100 European retailer, deploying to 100+ stores in a compressed timeframe with zero critical incidents and no trading disruption.

  • Known for strategic thinking: challenging experts, connecting the dots, and adapting rapidly to each client’s environment.

  • Proven ability to coordinate across business, technology, and third parties, ensuring seamless post-deployment verification and stability in live environments.

We have deep ERP cutover experience across SAP S/4HANA, Workday, and other platforms, in retail, healthcare, energy, and financial services.

• Examples:

  • Kingfisher – SAP rollout across 9 countries, 1,900+ stores, 23 distribution centres.

  • Asda – SAP S/4HANA Finance greenfield build during IT separation from Walmart.

  • Air Liquide – Workday rollout to 30 countries.

  • Ramsay Health Care – EPR big-bang rollout to 20 hospitals.

  • Alder Hey NHS Trust – Meditech Expanse EPR go-live.

• Delivered both greenfield and complex legacy-to-cloud migrations with zero business downtime.

• Anticipated late-cycle challenges (e.g., data validation issues) and re-sequenced activities to protect go-live quality.

We define cutover success through clear operational, stakeholder, and financial outcomes agreed upfront with programme sponsors. Success isn’t just technical completion—it’s business continuity, user impact, and cost control.

Our success criteria include:

• Stakeholder buy-in: 100% of cutover actors understand the big picture through “Walk The Wall” sessions or cutover surveys
• Smooth go-live: Minimal disruption with <10% incidents out of total cutover tasks and <20% execution time delays
• Minimal downtime: Zero downtime where feasible; shortest possible windows when necessary
• Data integrity: Accurate, verified migration with reconciliation results within business-agreed thresholds
• Timely delivery: On-track go-live to unlock business benefits and contain programme costs
• Cost efficiency: Clear resource planning, elimination of unnecessary downtime, avoidance of unplanned overruns

We take a systematic, proactive approach to cutover risk management, focusing on early identification, detailed analysis, and predefined mitigation plans.

• Keep the big picture: Switch between high-level and detailed planning to spot dependencies.

• Risk categories & examples:

  • People & Resource Risks – key personnel unavailable; mitigated with backups and shift planning.

  • Technical Risks – interface failures; mitigated via rehearsals and real-time monitoring.

  • Data Risks – migration rejections; mitigated through multiple trial runs and reconciliation.

  • Decision-Making Risks – unclear ownership; mitigated with pre-agreed decision paths.

  • Business Continuity Risks – critical processes safeguarded with readiness checks.

  • Timeline Risks – delays cascaded; mitigated by front-loading activities and adding buffers.

• Mitigation tools: Rollback plans, fix-forward processes, escalation paths, and scenario rehearsals.

We embed cutover governance into your existing programme structures, ensuring audit readiness, compliance, and accountability.

• Integrated governance model: Align with existing forums, adding cutover-specific structures for preparation and execution phases.

• Traceability & controls: Log all steps, enforce sign-offs, maintain auditable data reconciliations.

• Clear roles & escalation: Predefined decision rights and escalation paths avoid delays.

• Always comply with the client’s documentation and business process requirements.

We prepare extensively for the unexpected with rigorous rehearsals, predefined recovery plans, and rapid escalation routes.

5 Key Principles to De-risk Go-Live:

1. Dress Rehearsal: Real pre-production environment testing to stress-test communication and escalation procedures
2. Success in Details: Breaking down each step to avoid misinterpretation and implicit tasks forgotten under pressure
3. Backup Resource Plan: Every task owner has an assigned backup resource to avoid single points of failure
4. Rollback/Fix Forward Plans: Meticulously planned with clear criteria and detailed, rehearsed processes
5. On-call Support: Securing teams needed during cutover weekend for rapid response to unexpected issues

Crisis Management Structure:

• Predefined fallback scenarios with clear decision criteria and assigned authorisation roles
• Tiered escalation model engaging the right people based on issue severity
• Real-time dashboards surfacing problems early
• Immediate access to business and technical leadership for rapid decisions
• Critical presence of technical leads, business SMEs, and data specialists
• Scenario-based planning with predefined responses for critical failure points

You’ll have a dedicated Client Engagement Lead as your main contact for alignment and coordination, plus a Primary Cutover Manager leading execution.

• Client Engagement Lead: Your main point of contact for all communications and coordination, ensuring consistent dialogue and expectation alignment of the contract. 
• Senior Cutover Manager: 10+ years in project and cutover management, leading the deployment strategy and operational execution

For multiple concurrent streams, a senior cutover lead coordinates efforts, ensuring seamless integration across teams. Both roles bring significant experience in complex, high-stakes transformations within regulated, time-critical industries.

• Our team structure provides expert leadership and efficient execution, scaled to programme complexity:

  • Cutover Lead: 15+ years experience overseeing large programmes with multiple projects, providing strategic direction and high-level stakeholder engagement
  • Cutover Manager: 5-10 years experience leading individual project cutovers, coordinating detailed planning, execution, and risk mitigation
  • Cutover PMO: Cost-effective junior resource handling administrative tasks, documentation, and routine coordination

  This structure ensures senior expertise focuses on critical decision-making whilst maintaining cost efficiency through appropriate resource allocation.

We’ve built a culture where consultants see your cutover as a reputation stake, not just a gig. When people take pride in their impact, they stay committed.

Our continuity approach:

• Front-loaded commitment: Core team operates like a task force selected for mission fit
• Contractual lock-in: Project-duration clauses with clear deliverables and phased milestones, including hot-swap processes with pre-vetted backups
• Redundancy without overstaffing: Each critical function has overlap—cloud failover for people
• Culture of ownership: Team members are motivated through clear goals, open communication, and recognition

We manage workloads carefully to prevent burnout whilst maintaining the high-performance culture that drives results.

Our methodology follows a structured three-phase approach ensuring clarity, control, and successful execution:

Phase Structure:

• Initialisation: Stakeholder mapping, engagement kickoff, cutover strategy definition, risk assessments, and high-level planning
• Preparation: Detailed cutover plan development, responsibility assignment, dress rehearsals, and issue validation
• Execution: Real-time monitoring, issue resolution, stakeholder communications, and smooth transition management

For comprehensive details, visit: https://cutovermanager.com/cutover-framework/

Ideally from programme initiation — but no later than the start of Data Migration and Testing.

Early engagement benefits:

• Data Migration Integration: Capturing detailed steps, best practices, logs, durations, and dependencies to define freeze periods and downtime strategies
• Testing Alignment: Understanding critical scenarios, defining go-live-specific tests, and involving testing teams in dress rehearsals
• Stakeholder Education: Time to train business stakeholders ensuring consistency between non-production and production environments
• Risk Mitigation: Identifying dependencies, shaping programmes for smoother go-lives, and ensuring sufficient time for detailed planning and rehearsals

Early planning prevents last-minute chaos and significantly improves coordination between business and IT teams.

Business and IT coordination starts from cutover planning and continues through execution with structured, purposeful engagement.

Our coordination approach:

• Shared Understanding: Building glossaries and mapping tables between IT activities/areas and business activities/impacts
• Targeted Workshops: Small group sessions walking teams through cutover sections to achieve alignment
• Integrated Planning: Cutover plans balance both technical and business considerations within overall strategy
• Focused Sessions: Dedicated topic-specific meetings allowing each group to engage where their expertise adds most value
• Communication Testing: Dress rehearsals stress-test communication flows to identify bottlenecks or misinterpretations

This promotes effective collaboration whilst respecting stakeholders’ time and ensuring alignment across all functions.

Visit our case studies: https://cutovermanager.com/cutover-case-studies/

Where permissible, we arrange conversations with clients who can share firsthand experience of our ability to maintain control, adapt quickly, and deliver results during high-pressure crisis scenarios. Our track record demonstrates effective management of issues arising under intense time and business pressure.

Clients consistently tell us our cutovers feel exceptionally smooth and under control—even when the stakes are highest. They describe experiences as:

• Calm and well-orchestrated despite high-pressure situations
• Remarkably structured, with everyone aligned on actions
• Effortless execution—not because it’s simple, but because we make complexity manageable

Common feedback includes that we “bring order to chaos” and create cutovers that feel seamless for stakeholders, regardless of behind-the-scenes complexity.

See our testimonial section on the homepage https://cutovermanager.com/.

Yes — We have multiple examples of successfully managing unexpected challenges whilst delivering business objectives.

Example recovery: Data migration encountered issues requiring extended resolution time. Through flexible planning, close stakeholder collaboration, and disciplined governance, we re-sequenced tasks, maintained momentum, and avoided go-live impact.

Our structured approach includes contingency buffers, predefined escalation paths, and “what-if” scenario planning enabling quick, effective reactions without compromising delivery quality.

Specific case study: https://cutovermanager.com/cutover-case-studies/alder-hey-nhs-trust-epr-go-live-meditech-expanse/

We typically operate on a time-and-materials basis, with a transparent daily rate structure aligned to the roles required. Our rate card includes:

• Senior Cutover Manager or Cutover Lead – for large, multi-stream programmes
• Cutover Manager – for managing individual projects or streams
• Cutover PMO – a cost-effective support profile for planning and coordination tasks

Daily rates are influenced by factors such as location (on-site vs remote), industry domain, and technology landscape. We ensure these rates are clearly defined and aligned with the complexity and demands of the engagement.

We demonstrate ROI through measurable outcomes, business-aligned metrics, and transparent reporting throughout engagement.

Value Tracking Approach:

• Early success definition tied to business metrics: operational continuity, reduced downtime, cost avoidance, adoption velocity
• Live impact board from day one mapping deliverables to tangible outcomes
• Executive-ready reporting delivering insights, not just activities—speaking business language, not just PMO
• Mid-course corrections with no sunk cost bias—challenging teams early and protecting investment real-time

Key Success Metrics:

• Go-live on time enabling planned benefit realisation and stopping programme running costs on schedule
• Minimal business disruption through proactive risk management and controlled execution
• Smooth stakeholder experience ensuring alignment, clarity, and readiness at all levels
• Evidence-based value with benchmarks from similar high-stakes deployments

We apply a structured yet flexible approach to integrate changes without losing control.

Our scope management approach:

• Structured change control integrating with client governance for formal impact assessment covering timeline, cost, risk, and stakeholder implications
• Cutover impact analysis assessing every change for potential effects on timeline, dependencies, critical path, and business continuity
• Transparent communication facilitating clear conversations about trade-offs and priorities with full visibility
• Flexible planning allowing controlled adjustments without compromising control or business outcomes

Every adjustment follows clear decision paths preventing uncontrolled scope creep whilst ensuring flexibility without chaos—protecting timeline, resources, and go-live integrity.

We provide tailored post-go-live support managing hypercare as natural cutover continuation, typically ranging from one week to three months based on project scale and complexity.

• Manage issue resolution and escalation during hypercare.

• On-site or remote resources available as needed.

• Smooth transition to BAU, with regular updates and proactive communication.

• Recommendation: keep cutover teams in hypercare for rapid response, as they know exactly what was deployed.

We ensure your teams are fully capable of sustaining improvements long-term.

• Early involvement of support teams.

• Tailored training, workshops, and one-to-one coaching.

• Comprehensive documentation of processes, tools, governance, and lessons learned.

• Structured handover to BAU with clear accountability.

• Continuous improvement through post-cutover reviews.