Topics for Project Discovery

Parts 1, 2, and 3 in the diagram below consist of the discovery topics, which are all critical for project success. Topics are grouped into three parts.  When structuring the workshop, the recommended approach is selecting the topics most relevant to the client's requirements.  

Ecosystem & Integrations

Discovery topics here help to determine information relevant to the current ecosystem and technical integrations.  Includes integrations such as:

• What systems will be integrated  (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe, SAP)
• How many brands the client owns and in what regions do they operate (e.g. Asia-pacific, Europe, Australia only)
• How many order channels are going to be integrated with the Fluent platform (e.g. Amazon, eBay, e-commerce website, point-of-sales system)
• What systems are going to provide product, inventory and location information to the Fluent platform and product, inventory and location information (e.g. A client may have 20 locations: 15 stores, 2 warehouses, and 3 suppliers.
• Expected volume and frequency of information updates (e.g. 1000 inventory positions per minute)
• Other system integrations needed to communicate with the Fluent platform:
  • Customer service systems; logistics/carriers systems for orders that require delivery (e.g. Australia Post, Ship It)
  • Payment integrations (e.g. Afterpay, Paypal)
  • ERP/WMS
  • Systems required for reporting

Having a good background understanding of Products, Locations and Inventory information determined in Part 1 makes the next part (Omnichannel Experiences) much easier to complete.

Omnichannel Experiences

Omnichannel Experiences help to determine how the Fluent platform can help to achieve client-specific objectives and requirements in the domains of Order orchestration, Inventory management, Product availability, and Store fulfilment. 

Business Operations, Project and Change Management

Topics covered in this part help determine who the internal and external stakeholders are (e.g., suppliers) impacted by the change in processes and systems.  A change in systems and processes will require staff training to become familiar with the process and system changes.  

Includes topics such as:

• Planning for system testing after development and a plan for how this will be rolled out.
• Non-functional issues, such as:
  • how many inventory positions are expected to change every day and how frequently;
  • how many orders does the client expect on a regular day vs. Black Friday sale.
• Operational support after rollout:
  • Monitoring systems, systems to alert or escalate issues when they arise after rollout / SLAs for support.