To properly frame an initiative for clients, several sections need to be completed to provide clarity. This article walks you through setting up and managing multiple sections required to complete an initiative.

1. Setting Up and Scheduling Initiatives
   1. Creating Initiatives
   2. Managing Initiative Details
   3. Populating the Initiative from a template
2. Working with Initiative templates
   1. Customizing and Managing Initiative Templates
      1. Creating custom templates
      2. Steps to create a custom template:
      3. Applying templates to an existing initiative:
3. Budgeting for Initiatives
4. Creating PSA Tickets
   1. PSA Tickets Directly from Initiatives
5. Integrating Assets into Initiatives

Setting Up and Scheduling Initiatives

Creating Initiatives

When creating Initiatives using the New Initiative button, these initiatives are set as unscheduled on the Roadmap. Initiatives can be scheduled for completion during one quarter.

When the Schedule on Roadmap button is highlighted blue, the Initiative is unscheduled.

1. Click the No Schedule button.
2. Select the quarter for the Initiative to be completed - All assets and budgets are managed in one quarter. Roadmaps can be generated up to 5 years in the future, so the available scheduling options reflect that.

Managing Initiative Details

1. Status - Set the status of the Initiative. (e.g., Open, Proposed, Approved, In Progress, Completed, On Hold, and Declined).
2. Initiative priority - Prioritize Initiatives to communicate urgency. When you create an initiative, you can set the initiative's priority to show your client the urgency of this initiative.
3. Schedule - Set a target quarter to show your client when you intend to take action on this initiative.
4. Point of Contact - Assign a Point of Contact who will manage communications and actions related to the Initiative. By default, the Initiative's point of contact is whoever created the Initiative in 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.
5. Templates - Use custom templates to clarify the purpose and importance of the Initiative to the client.
6. Deleting initiative - Click to remove all assets and delete this initiative.

Populating the Initiative from a template

Templates in Lifecycle Manager simplify the creation process by pre-filling sections like the Initiative title and Executive Summary with best-practice content. They help translate IT investments into easy-to-understand language, aiding client comprehension and buy-in.

• Automatic Content Generation: When you select a template, certain sections such as budget items and executive summaries are auto-populated based on common scenarios like hardware modernization or warranty renewals.

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

• Customization: While templates provide a foundation, they are fully customizable for the specific needs of each client or Initiative.

Modifying auto-populated initiative details - All Initiative sections that are auto-populated are designed to reduce the time required to create an initiative from an Insight, however, manual edits can be made on each section. All edits are automatically saved in the draft Initiative but not the template itself.

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.

Customizing and Managing Initiative Templates

Creating custom templates

To avoid redundancy and maintain consistency, you can create custom Initiative templates based on existing ones or from scratch.

Steps to create a custom 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.

When applying templates to an initiative, custom templates are always listed under the Your saved templates section.

Applying templates 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.

Initiative data overwritten - Custom templates can be applied to any open Initiative, updating its content (title, executive summary, and budget) but preserving any specific asset inclusions already made.

Delete and Managing Initiative templates

Deleting Custom Templates:

Over time, as needs change, you might find some templates redundant or outdated. These can be removed from your saved templates to keep your system streamlined.

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.

Budgeting for Initiatives

Effective financial planning is essential for the success of initiatives, especially when addressing client concerns about costs related to replacements and renewals. The "Budgeting" for maximum Initiative success article outlines budgeting approaches within Initiatives to help communicate costs, manage client expectations, and facilitate smoother approval and implementation of IT initiatives.

Creating PSA Tickets

For partners utilizing ConnectWise Manage alongside Lifecycle Manager, you can directly create corresponding tickets in ConnectWise Manage. 

See the ConnectWise Tickets - API Permission Requirements article for permission requirements needed for Lifecycle Manager to access and create tickets in CW Manage.

PSA Tickets Directly from Initiatives

Lifecycle Manager enables you to create PSA tickets (ConnectWise Manage) directly from within an initiative. This feature ensures you can seamlessly track the work required to complete the initiative and monitor progress without switching between systems. Here’s how it helps:

• Seamless Integration - By integrating PSA ticket creation within Lifecycle Manager, you can avoid the redundancy of entering the same information twice, allowing you to focus more on executing the initiative rather than managing administrative tasks.
• Enhancing Coordination - Account managers and vCIOs can quickly generate tickets, assign tasks to the appropriate team members, and set deadlines without leaving the platform. This reduces the risk of miscommunication and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a PSA ticket from an initiative in Lifecycle Manager:

1. Initiate Ticket Creation:

   • Open the specific initiative in Lifecycle Manager that you want to create a ticket for.
   • Click on the Create PSA Ticket button.
   • See Step 2: Fill out the PSA Ticket Form in the Creating CW Manage PSA Tickets from Action Items: A Step-by-Step Guide article. 

Integrating Assets into Initiatives

Adding and Managing Assets

• Default settings include all assets identified in an Insight within the Initiative. However, you can manually add or remove assets to tailor the Initiative more closely to the client’s needs.
• This flexibility ensures that each Initiative remains relevant and focused on the client’s current infrastructure challenges.

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

• Creating CW Manage PSA Tickets from Action Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

• Approving and sharing initiatives