Transitions

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I started writing something on Literature and finally, I ended up with transition experience. Most of the people are not aware of the transition and on-site difference. Incase of transition, the business is acquired from the off-shore in the project for which the Knowledge Transfer (KT) is done. The Analysts or the people with the specific skill sets are sent on-shore to understand the entire projects and procedures. They are known as KT team members. They are required to Document the knowledge gained in the MS Word format & Simpro (Simulation Production – It is an System Application developed by IBM). This Desk-Top Procedures DTP’s (Documents) are later signed-off by the Managers of both the parties and the Trainers and Trainees. Once, they are back to home town, they have to set-up the entire system by cascade the knowledge gained among other team members. The analysts are practically required to lead by example with the demonstration of the process. In this entire procedure of cascading the information, there are chances of knowledge gap which would be later filled up with the Conference calls or Net meetings. Few of the procedures or minor processes would not have been downloaded to the KT team which is termed as Knowledge Gap.

General Hindrances of successful KT –

Certain Project Managerial Hindrances,

Project planning with out adequate knowledge of the Cost Project,

Inadequate Project Appraisal Analysis ,

Lack of vision to minute details of the project (at the processing level) on part of Project Manager or Business Service Manager,

Inadequate analysis of the required man-power during KT and after KT (Ramp-up team),

Inadequate Transition experience of the Assistant Manager (AM) &/or Operations Manager (OM),

Lack of Project Management and People Management skills on part of AM’s & OM’s,

Wrong selection of KT members in terms of Competency mapping with project profile,

Lack of Technical knowledge (System Applications or ERP) and the Project Conceptual & Fundamental of Principles (Accounts, Finance, Banking, Coding, Testing etc.)

Lack of Delegations of Authority among AM’s and OM’s / Too much interference on day to day activities,

Lack of System Developmental skills and Data-Ware housing skills (Shared Network System for Data storage).

Other hindrances including post-go live,

Knowledge gap in terms of knowledge download to the KT members at the time of Transition,

Lack of knowledge on inter-department Communications on different modules within same project. (Communication between AR/AP/GL etc in Finance & Accounts)

Lack of motivation to KT members during busy hectic schedules or Go-Live

Inadequate or improper review and analysis of the KT Documentation,

Lack of proper communication to KT members on Do’s and Don’ts at the time of transitions,

Lack of team-spirit among the KT – Ramp-up team and also the Trainer-Trainee Mapping,

Un-timely or too much of Reporting structure (Multiple Data Updations at processing level)

Lack of awareness of meaning of Escalation, Channels of communication, Sense of Responsibility and Ownership in case of Fresher,

Ineffective Cost Cutting plan which would affect the Quality and Accuracy of day to day activities. (Six Sigma is trade between Cost & Accuracy/Quality.)

But incase of On-Site, the project is completed by sending a team of Analysts at the client’s Business place. This is mainly due to lack of availability of the required skill sets. These on-sites are mainly for long-term durations like 8 months to 2 years or more. In this case, the employees are supposed to sign Bond with their Companies. The employees may or may not be allowed to take their family members during On-site period (Transition happens for shorter durations like 6 to 16 weeks and so the company does not reimburse the travel expenditure of the family members)

The last case is of On-site Transitions (A combination of On-site & Transitions)

I was talking to one of my online friend who had used perfect terms to portray the meaning of H1 Visa for onsite jobs. misued by IT companies to ship cheap labour to US, body shoppers. These two terms were more than sufficient for me to reject one such onsite offer. I always used to wonder why Dad was against people going US for Jobs. He always used to tell me, India has got freedom but still Indians wants to be laborers. The lucrative part of on-site is traveling and greater exposure to different Cultures and Lifestyles but at the cost of? Life is only one but the decision must be judicious in all terms.