Knights HR System Project Management

Knights identified a need for a flexible and functional HR and Payroll system to support their increasing headcount and growth strategy. In 2020, at the height of the first Covid Lockdown, Knights contacted Lights-On Consulting for advice on HR Systems in the legal space. Lights-On helped Knights to identify some suitable vendor solutions, using their knowledge of the market and previous experience of HR system migration projects.

Lights-On provided project management support, backed up by internal knowledge, to assist Knights in the review and mini selection process. Two vendors were shortlisted, and a Proof-of-Concept trial was run with both, enabling Knights to see in action the functionality of the systems and to trial the products in real life. Once the successful system was selected, and in order to help with a swift adoption, Lights-On were retained to provide implementation support. Critically at this point, the resource provided was “Hands on” project management – ensuring not only that the project was being delivered to plan, but also getting involved in some aspects of the setup and data migration. The entire project was run remotely over Teams.

The Lights-On team worked closely with process experts in Knights internal HR team and with the IT team to set up the standard workflows required. In addition, an extensive data cleanse process was required to format the incoming data in such a way that it could be imported and “make sense” in the new system. An agile delivery method was adopted, facilitated by “daily standups” and a collaborative approach with all the key stakeholders to make things happen. Having built on the work already started in the PoC, the “core” HR system went live within 2 months of selection, with additional functionality and features, such as Payroll, then added over the following months. This meant that, although the full system wasn’t available immediately, the HR team saw some benefits much sooner and actively prioritised which features should be released next based on business benefit.