Getting Started | Implementation Steps

Implementation Steps

Lots of short tasks

The table below lists most of the tasks that are involved in getting DesignSmart ready to go live.  It is based on the idea that one, or possibly two, persons in your firm will be the designated System Administrators (SA) and they will be doing most of the setup. Of course an SA can ask other staff to help with some of these tasks. As you can see, most of these tasks involve watching training videos and having live training, to ensure that the SA and staff fully understand the system.

 

 

Who

Task

Notes

Estimated Time

Firm

Schedule and hold the Onboarding Conference Call

During this call you will learn the onboarding process and what you can expect in terms of getting the system online. For more information click here.

1 hour

Firm

Assign someone to be the the System Administrator (SA)

The SA should be someone who has been with the firm for some time and is familiar with the work flow processes. It is helpful if they feel comfortable working with computers.

 

 

SA

Read the section in the User Guide about how training is conducted.

 

Click here for that information.

There is a sequenced training process that we recommend that all firms follow.

10 min

SA &

maybe a designer

Watch the training videos for Sequenced Training # 1

If the SA is not a designer, we recommend that at least one designer participate in this training as well.

There are 3 videos: User Guide, System Preferences and Item Templates

20 min

SA &

maybe a designer

Have a live training session to review Sequenced Training #1

The videos are helpful, but the live training will help the SA better understand how to set up the system. If the SA is not a designer, we recommend that at least one designer participate in this training as well.

All staff can be included in this training, but they should watch the videos in advance.

30 min

SA

Fill in all the required information in System Preferences

There are many tabs of information that need to be completed, but most of them only have a bit of data that that needs to entered.

20 min

SA

Develop the 2 different sized logos required for DesignSmart and add them to the system

The reports you create in DesignSmart will look much better as soon as you add your logo to the system. Because of the different types of reports in the system, you'll need to create 2 different sizes. Your can read about it here.

30 min

SA and/or

Designers

Set up the Item Templates

These templates can be considered a "work in progress". Do the best you can initially, but know that you can always modify them later.

1 hour

SA

Set up the email settings for sending out email from DesignSmart

The System Administrator needs to indicate in System Preferences if the firm uses Outlook or Gmail, then she/he needs to make sure all DesignSmart users link to their Outlook/Gmail account via Personal Preferences.

30 min

SA

If you have contacts in Excel that you would like imported into DesignSmart, please send them to Support.

This is an optional task. If you don't have any contacts that you want to load into DesignSmart, then you can simply add them individually over time.

 

SA

Watch the training videos for Sequenced Training # 2

There are 2 videos: Address Book and Projects.

20 min

SA

Have a live training session to review Sequenced Training #2

Usually the SA will learn about these two features and then explain them to the other designers.

All staff can be included in this training, but they should watch the videos in advance.

30 min

SA

To prepare for the 3rd sequenced training, you will need to enter at least 5 vendors, 2 clients and a test project into DesignSmart.

If your firm is using the QuickBooks Connector then vendors and clients will be pulled from your QuickBooks file.

20 min

All users

Watch the training videos for Sequenced Training # 3

All staff are encouraged to participate in this training.

There are several videos that should be watched prior to the live training:

Item Detail Overview, Item List Views, Working with Images, Item Detail - Left Panel, Products, Pricing, How Reports Work

30 min

All users

Have a live training session to review Sequenced Training #3

The 3rd sequenced training session is the longest and most important training session. All staff are encouraged to participate in this training. The training will be more effective if everyone has already watched the training videos referenced above.

1.5 hours

 

It that all there is to it?

Yes and no. The table above lists all of the configuration steps that are required. There are additional "non-sequenced" videos that the SA and various staff will need to watch, as well as additional live trainings, depending on a firm's particular work flows. But once your staff completes Sequenced Training #3, they should know enough to go live with the system and learn the other features as they go.

 

What about if our firm uses the QuickBooks Connector?

The QuickBooks Connector has its own set up tasks that are not covered in this section.  All of the setup for the Connector will be done with a Smart Designer staff person via a screen share process.



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