Atlas Change Management Process

Our change management process is fully centralised into our Zendesk help center. ALL changes have to be request via a support ticket ([e-mail]) and all communications and coordination will be recorded in the related ticket

Topics in this article

• Some Definitions
• Change Management
• Obligations
• Implementation

Some Definitions

"Authorised Representative” means those directors, partners, members, officers and employees who have full authority to take all decisions about the Services and any persons who are confirmed as so authorised by the Customer.

“Change” means a change to the terms of the Agreement, the Service Order, the Specification and/or any Deliverable.

“Change Authorisation” means a document detailing a Change signed by an Authorised Representative of each party including, but not limited to, details of :

• the date of the request for the Change;
• details of the party requesting the Change;
• reason for the Change and details of the Change;
• any impact of the Change on the rest of the Services;
• the change in ClearPeople’s costs that would result from the Change and the related proposed Fees (including, where applicable, any reduction in the Fees);
• details of any Deliverables that will be produced from the Change, and timetable/plan for implementation of the Change including delivery dates (if relevant)
• any changes to the rest of the Agreement or Service Order resulting from the Change; 
• any other matter reasonably requested by the Customer or which ClearPeople ought reasonably to bring to the attention of the Customer in respect of the Change.

“Change Control Procedure” means the procedure for agreeing and implementing Changes (described below in "Change Management").​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

Change Management

ClearPeople provides a change management system for the creation of Changes.

The system is currently Zendesk and ClearPeople will provide 20 Business Days’ notice to the Customer in the event of a change to the change management system, noting that any change management system provided by ClearPeople will operate an efficient way to process Changes.

​​​​​​​Where a Change is required in relation to any Service Order, the parties shall agree, document and follow a Change Control Procedure and comply with the relevant obligations listed in clauses below.​​​​​​​

 

Obligations

ClearPeople will:

• Provide and maintain the web-based portal change management system on a twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week basis
• Receive and log Change requests (Zendesk)
• Verify the Change requester is an Authorised Representative
• Inform the Customer of all of ClearPeople’s recommended Changes where there is an effect on the Service (e.g. Atlas updates or migrations)
• Control and document all Change Authorisations
• Implement the Changes in an approved Change Authorisation
• Provide an implementation and backout plan where appropriate
• Provide an impact or risk analysis where necessary
• Obtain the agreement of Customer that a change record can be closed
• Reserve the right to recover costs associated with Change failure caused by a customer act or omission
• Produce a summary for all Change requests (Zendesk report) in line with the Customer service management for regular review, or on request

Customer will:

• Ensure that only Authorised Representatives complete Change requests (they need a Zendesk account)
• Submit any additional documentation (via the Zendesk ticket) describing at a reasonable level the detail of the Change request, the rationale for the Change request and the impact the Change request may have on the services supported by ClearPeople
• Ensure any user testing relating to the relevant Change has been successfully completed
• Agree the scheduling of the Change
• Coordinate all Customer resources required for the Change
• Contribute to impact or risk analysis where necessary
• Notify ClearPeople of the failure/success of a Change
• Contribute to impact or risk analysis where necessary for ClearPeople raised Change requests

Implementation

Our whole process is based on capturing, processing and centralizing all information via Zendesk tickets, tagged as "Change Request". 

Our Head of Success is owning the process and our Service Manager is effectively implementing the day to day activities related to change management ensuring all tickets are properly managed. CSAs and Implementation leads (during the project phase) will ensure our clients and ourselves are properly following this process ensuring all information and activities related to a change are fully available in the related ticket.