Populating initiatives

To properly frame an initiative for the client, there are several sections in an initiative that can be completed to provide greater clarity for a client. The following steps outline multiple sections required to fully complete an initiative.

1. Managing the Initiative schedule

   1. Roadmap scheduling options

2. Setting up your Initiative

   1. Initiative header

   2. Initiative options

   3. Populating the Initiative from a template

3. Working with Initiative templates

   1. Create a new custom initiative template

      1. To create a customized template

      2. To apply a template to an existing initiative

      3. How to delete custom Initiative templates

4. Manually adding assets

Managing the Initiative schedule

Roadmap scheduling options

When creating Initiatives from outside the Roadmap, these initiatives, by default, are set as unscheduled on the Roadmap. In the Roadmap options section, there are several options available enabling you to set the upcoming Roadmap schedule.

Schedule on Roadmap

Initiatives can be scheduled for completion during one quarter or across several quarters. Click the Schedule on Roadmap button.

1. Complete in one quarter - All assets and budgets are managed in one quarter. As roadmaps can be generated up to 5 years in the future, the available scheduling options reflect that.
   

   

2. Complete in multiple quarters - Spread assets and budget out over several quarters. Budgets and assets can be allocated across two to eight quarters.
   

   

3. Click Schedule.

4. The Budget line items automatically adjust for the appropriate additional quarters.
   

   

Setting up your Initiative

Initiative header

You can add target quarters and even choose custom templates explaining to the client in simple terms the importance of the initiative you are creating and that they address problematic assets promptly.

1. Status - Set the Approved/Not approved button to change the approval status.

2. Target quarters - Set target quarters to show your client when you intend to take action on this initiative.

3. Initiative priority - When you create an initiative, you can set the initiative's priority to show your client the urgency of this initiative.

4. Templates - Templates are designed to assist with communicating 'the why' behind your recommendations.

Initiative Options

1. Internal description - You can enter internal notes for yourself and your colleagues to reference.

2. Point of Contact - By default, the Initiative's point of contact is whoever created the Initiative in ScalePad Lifecycle Manager. The Initiative owner (point of contact) receives all communication regarding that Initiative.

   1. Transfer of Initiative ownership - Initiatives can be manually re-assigned from within Initiatives by selecting the Point of contact drop-down and selecting a new point of contact. Once the point of contact is changed, all communication regarding the Initiative is sent to the newly assigned point of contact.
      
      Before a member is removed from the platform, the platform prompts you to choose a new point of contact for any Initiatives they were the assigned point of contact.

3. Deleting initiative - Click to remove all assets and delete this initiative.

Populating the Initiative from a template

When selecting a template to create an initiative, Lifecycle Manager automates the workflow as much as possible by auto-populating several sections of the Initiative. The sections that are auto-populated are:

• Initiative title

• Executive Summary

• *Budget items and estimated costs (*only applicable with some templates such as asset replacements or asset protection initiatives).

Working with Initiative templates

When you have created an initiative, the details may not be the right fit you desire for the initiative, you may be unsure of what you should input into the fields, or you remember that you made a custom template for the type of initiative you are creating. At this point, you may want to choose a different template to overwrite the initiative or create a custom template.

To maximize the time you spend taking action to improve your clients' IT environments, templates automatically add best-practices content to your Initiative details.

Translating the benefits of investing in IT into simple language that your clients can understand can be challenging. The templates are designed to assist with communicating 'the why' behind your recommendations.

Create a new custom initiative template

To manually recreate an initiative for every client or make the same adjustments to the Lifecycle Manager templates every time would be inconvenient and time-consuming. When taking the same action with different clients, you will likely want to create very similar initiatives.

You can create new customized templates in one of two ways: 1) Using an existing template as a baseline to customize or 2) creating an initiative with no template and start customizing from scratch.

To create a customized template:

1. Navigate to your client's dashboard

2. Click the Initiatives tab

3. Click the New Initiative button

4. Select from the list of existing templates or choose No template (a template can be manually added later).

5. Once the desired template is selected, click Finish.

6. Make custom changes to either the:

   1. Initiative title

   2. Executive summary

   3. Budget line items

7. Click the Save template button

8. In the Save template dialog, the new template (updated initiative title) is indicated under the Save a new template subheading.

9. Once selected, click Save template.

To apply a template to an existing initiative:

1. Within an open initiative

2. From the Templates section, click the Apply template button.

3. From the Apply a new template dialog, choose a template.

4. Once the template is selected, click Apply template.

How to delete custom Initiative templates

Over time, as additional customized templates are created, unused Initiative templates can accumulate in Your saved templates. To remove unused and unwanted custom templates, follow these steps:

1. Within an open initiative

2. From the Templates section, click either the Save Template or Apply template button.

3. From either the Save a new template dialog or the Apply a new template dialog, click the Delete button beside the custom template to delete.

Can you delete a custom template if that template is currently applied to an initiative?

You can delete a custom template that is currently applied to an initiative. The initiative template will remain applied to the current initiative, but you will be unable to use that template moving forward.

Manually adding assets

When creating an initiative from an insight, all assets in that insight are, by default, included in the Initiative. You can further customize the Initiative by adding or removing assets from the Initiative. See Adding supplemental assets to initiatives for further information.

Additional articles to read

• Understanding Initiative default templates

• Using budgeting in initiatives

• Adding supplemental assets to initiatives

• Approving and sharing initiatives