As you may recall, Project Horizon was billed as the crucial final step toward full integration of Portfolio and NAE/NWAN. Due to the all-encompassing, complex scope of Horizon, the determination was made to separate some key deliverables to release prior to Project Horizon’s full integration. This provides Portfolio the opportunity to roll out programs, products and technology — independent of one another — in a more fluid manner. Below is an update on the progress the teams have made thus far regarding specific Project Horizon initiatives.

  • A production code freeze began on March 7 and will end after we go live. The aim of the freeze is to minimize disruption in development efforts and avoid repetition in the testing efforts. During this period, there will be no functional changes to the current code in Vander or OAMS. In support of this messaging, the project team created guidelines on how to handle incoming software requests from our external agent and dealer base.
  • The Change Management team translated Project Horizon’s Associate Training curriculum into a Training Development plan, which will be used to coordinate and track the development of the training materials. The content development and QA efforts will run over 12 weeks, in three cycles, from April to June. To support the business unit trainers, the Change Management team will conduct business unit-specific check-ins and offer optional office hours.
  • The Project Horizon team continues to work through User Story Testing, in parallel with the planning and setup of the four-phase End-to-End Testing Strategy: Planning, Execution, Bugs/Defect Resolution and System Readiness. This strategy will establish the foundation for the successful execution of End-to-End Testing, which will be performed by business testers and coordinated by the project technical team and West Monroe in preparation for Phase 1 go-live.
  • Over the past few weeks, the team has developed an Agent & Dealer Training curriculum, assigned content development owners, and started solidifying the content development approach. The next major milestones for this team include kicking off training development efforts with key stakeholders and scheduling agent webinar sessions.

Do you have additional questions to ask regarding Project Horizon? Submit your inquiries and our Leadership Team will be sure to provide the answers you need!