DEPLOYMENT PROJECT AND FORECASTING
SESSION 3: USING PROJECTS
July 7, 2021
Recording and slides will be shared after the call
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To deploy the customer’s entitlement – all of it –
and forecast when each piece will be complete.
It’s not just about the initial deployment for an
offering. Keep going until it’s all deployed.
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USING PROJECTS SCENARIO:
Adele – Cloud and Data Platform CSM
Recently assigned to Wells Fargo, focused on deploying the Cloud Pak for Data Relationship
Has spoken with the IBM sales team members
Had a high-level initial conversation with customer
Has three initial ideas for how the customer could use their CP4D entitlement
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Draft status as this is an
initial PoV and the project
is not yet actively being
worked.
Early idea, have not had
meaningful
conversation with
customer yet
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
Step by Step directions on
how to create a Project:
[Link]
blisher/
gainsight
-user-community/educatio
n/
using-success-plans-to-dri
ve-outcomes#PlansHowT
o
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Plan is actively
being worked on
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
Objectives are added by
applying template and can be
modified as needed.
Objectives and
Tasks are the steps
to take.
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Use Case is being
validated and
positioned with the
customer
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
Date by which you
expect to gain customer
sponsorship and jointly
agree to move forward
with the project.
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Customer is in the
process of planning the
actual deployment of
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome? the project
Sponsor name
needs to be
recorded here
first for it to show
up in the project
sponsor name
search
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The entitlement
instance identifies
available contracting
mechanisms that the
customer is leveraging
to deploy their use
case.
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
The entitlement instance
ID helps CSM’s have
more informed
discussions with sales
counterparts
• Is it an ELA or
Standalone
• Types of parts in the
contract
• When the contract
was originally
signed
[Link]
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OpenShift or Point
Product
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
Date by which you expect the
offering and use case to
be installed and operational in
a production environment.
Date by which you expect
the customer to install the
offering in a non-
production environment
(e.g. development,
sandbox, etc.)
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The Project Risk Objective
is a CTA that will allow a
Risk to be tracked through
completion.
Risk
The Risk Rating is Red,
Yellow or Green and
represents how critical the
risk is.
The Risk Reason explains
the high level risk.
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Timeline is your place within
Gainsight to log information
about your own activity and
customer interactions in a
way that enables you to
gather insights and drive
action.
What is the goal of this project? What is the Idea? Desired outcome?
Update Results and Outcome
fields to communicate the
outcome. Best Practice -
include next steps that will
be taken, such as creating a
new success plan for the next
step in the customer's
journey.
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THE PROJECT IS THE BACKBONE OF DEPLOYMENT WORK IN GAINSIGHT
Project Fun Facts:
The project provides a single, flexible place for CSMs to record all deployment
activity including project stages and forecast dates.
A relationship can have as many projects as needed. You’re doing more than just
initial deployment – keep working to get all the entitlement used!
Key Info: Project Stages
Projects will grow! Start with an idea, then add more Objectives until the project is Identify: The deployment is an early idea before
deployed. meaningful discussion with the customer
Project stages are identical in both Gainsight and Sales Cloud. Deployments are Propose: The deployment is being validated and positioned
tracked in the same way no matter who does the work. with the customer
Sponsored: The customer has agreed to sponsor/fund the
deployment
Planning: The customer is in the process of planning the
actual deployment of the project
Deploying: The customer has installed the products in the
project in a non-production environment (e.g., sandbox,
dev/test, etc.)
Deployed: The deployment is installed and operational in a
production environment
No Plans to Deploy: The customer has no intention of
pursuing this deployment
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So, I really don’t have to
create Milestones
anymore? Nope! The system will
determine the milestone
based on project stage.
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TO DO - MIGRATING EXISTING PLANS
1. Migrate your existing, open growth plans to the new growth plan structure. Target date: July 16th
1. Open old plan in one window
2. Create a new plan in another window
3. Copy and paste relevant information into new plan
4. Fill out new fields as much as possible
5. You do not need to migrate plans that are already Closed.
2. When done, set your old plan to Closed
1. Update Plan Outcome field to “Cancelled – New Plan Required”
2. Update Plan Results to: “Migrated to new project”
3. Change Plan Status to Closed (upper right)
Once a plan is Closed no more updates can be made
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Complete the migration by updating the Plan Outcome to Cancelled and set
MIGRATING EXISTING the Status to Closed
SUCCESS PLANS Update your plan fields before setting status to Closed. A Closed plan can no
longer be updated.
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NEXT STEPS
1. Prepare for next call:
1. Forecasting Effectively, July 12th [Link]
• Deep dive into forecasting
• Effectively using new dashboards
2. Scorecard and Forecasting, July 8th: Manager/Leader-only call
See Gainsight User Community for additional project information.
[Link]
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THE ANATOMY OF A PROJECT
Point of View Plan and Execute project Deployment
Create project Objectives/Tasks Close project as Successful
Describe use case Forecast key dates OR
Provide initial info Project stages
Customer sponsor PoV not realized
Timeline entries Close project as Unsuccessful
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