Implementation is an end-to-end project that includes the initial onboarding process with more hands-on guidance, build-out, and training from the ManoByte team.
Implementing Sales, Marketing, or Service Hub is more than simply setting up the basic features. An implementation project offers strategic guidance and builds the HubSpot portal to work with your business process, including pipelines, templates, and data transfer.
During an implementation project, there are seven basic phases:
- Strategy
- System Design
- HubSpot Configuration
- Third-Party Integration
- Setup & Data Migration
- Testing
- Rollout
Some of the activities within these phases can happen simultaneously, but each stage will need to be completed before moving on to the next one to ensure the quality of the implementation.
Implementation projects vary in length depending on their complexity, but a standard implementation time frame is 12-15 weeks.
Implementing one or more HubSpot hubs will leverage these roles on our team of HubSpot experts:
- Client Success Manager: Your project manager and point of contact
- Solutions Architect: Your strategist
- Digital Marketing Specialist: Implementation support
- Developer: Technical development and support
Strategy
To start the strategy phase, we’ll host a kickoff call to introduce our team and define your goals for the project before we dig into mapping and strategy development. After the call, you’ll be given our onboarding survey to provide us with as many relevant details about your needs and goals. You’ll have a week to complete the survey, and you can stop and start as many times as needed and save your progress.
Once we have your onboarding survey, we’ll dive into the strategy development, which includes:
- Requirements Gathering: Receive and confirm access to your HubSpot portal and any other access, such as other third-party applications like Salesforce.
- Process Mapping: Document your current sales, marketing, and/or service processes.
- Strategy Development: Use the process map to develop a strategy for establishing and implementing HubSpot.
- Reporting Requirements: Determine the metrics needed to report progress toward your goals.
When we’ve completed our strategy development, we’ll present the complete strategy to you and ensure everything’s accounted for at the 30-day check-in meeting.
Estimated time to complete the strategy phase: 4-5 weeks
System Design
The strategy design phase is where we define A and B, and the system design phase is where we create the steps to get from A to B. Here, we’ll define the technical aspects and create a technical implementation roadmap that the development and support team will use to put everything in motion.
The system design phase can vary in length and complexity based on how many Hubs are being implemented, the complexity of your business processes, and whether or not any custom integration development is needed. Here are the standard activities we complete at this stage:
- Define technical specifications and requirements.
- Design a process flow to visualize how HubSpot and other applications will work together.
- Define HubSpot objects and properties to be used, leveraging the standard options within HubSpot first before adding custom ones.*
- Create a complete data map that shows how data will be migrated from the current system, how data will flow between Hubs, and/or how data will flow between HubSpot and other integrated applications.
The data map is absolutely critical. It defines exactly what data is moving between applications and in what directions. You will be involved throughout the creation of the data map and will review and approve the final data map.
Estimated time to complete this phase: 4-5 weeks
*A note about properties and objects: Where integrations are needed, using the standard HubSpot properties and objects is preferred as the integration setup will be less complex and less likely to need a custom solution.
HubSpot Configuration
Your initial HubSpot configuration is the foundation of your implementation. Configuration needs to be done completely and correctly to ensure the platform will work properly with the data map we’ve developed and accomplish what you need it to do. When the platform is configured correctly to start, it’ll also be easier for your team to learn and use down the road, leading to higher adoption.
During configuration, we complete the following basic setup tasks in your HubSpot portal:
- Setup account defaults and tracking codes
- Connect domains and external accounts
- Setup IP filtering and privacy settings
- Configure basic settings and dashboards
With a solid foundation, we can start working on implementations, data cleanup, and data migration.
Estimated time to complete this phase: 3-5 business days
Third-Party Integration
Integrations with HubSpot to your other applications break down data and communication silos across departments. They also create greater functionality and automation so your team can spend more time doing the things only humans can do.
These are some of the common application integrations we see:
- Gmail and Outlook
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Integration with your CMS and website, if not using HubSpot CMS Hub
- Middleware integrations, such as tray.io and Zapier
However, thousands of app integrations on the HubSpot Marketplace connect different business applications and platforms. If the integration for your tools does not exist, or the integration available cannot perform the action your business needs, our development team can create a custom solution. Whether or not a custom integration is needed is decided during our initial conversations with you, and development beings once the data map is finalized.
Integration time can vary, but using pre-developed and verified solutions generally takes less time to implement than creating custom solutions.
Estimated time to complete this phase: 4-10 weeks
Setup & Data Migration
Now we can start pulling everything together in HubSpot and fine-tuning the process. We’ll take our data map and connect all the dots to pull data to the right places in HubSpot. We’ll also set up any custom objects and properties at this stage and begin personalizing HubSpot for your business.
This phase is a lot of heads-down work; unless issues arise, we may not need to meet with you weekly. Our team will be working on completing the following:
- Account setup and configuration
- Custom objects and properties setup
- Configure Company and Contact tools
- Setup email tools
- Third-party data migration
- Data file uploads
- Operations Hub setup, if needed
Estimated time to complete this phase: 5-7 weeks
Testing
No implementation project is complete without thorough testing. We’ll dive into all the properties and aspects of your HubSpot portal and any integrations to make sure everything is working as intended and fixing any bugs.
Testing is a critical component. While we want to believe that everything will work like it’s supposed to right away, that’s often not the case, and we uncover those issues or missed connections during testing. For the same reason you may have rechecked your answers on a test during school, we run several types of tests on your HubSpot portal before we handoff to train your team.
These are the types of tests we run:
- Internal testing
- Data quality testing
- Process testing
- Acceptance testing
- Break/fix testing
Estimated time to complete this phase: 2-4 weeks
Explore our complete testing process.
Rollout
When we reach rollout, we’re almost to the finish line. Everything will be moved from testing into the live environment, and automations and workflows will be turned on. We’ll add all the users and set their permission levels, and we’ll develop a communication plan and documentation to ensure you have the resources you need for questions or concerns.
Before we hand off your portal to you and your team, we’ll take time to train everyone who will need to use the platform, like your sales and service teams. We’ll also train you on using administrative features and how to make changes, like adding and removing users or updating user permissions.
The training sessions we conduct will be recorded and made available to you so you can leverage them to train new employees down the road or offer refresher resources.
One of the biggest issues we find our clients have is getting and retaining team adoption of a new process or system, which is why previous solutions may have failed in the past. Change is difficult, and we understand. Our training process is there to help you and your team get a feel for new tools, processes, and resources before they become a part of your work and to understand how they’ll improve their daily workflow. We encourage you and your team to ask questions and try things out during training.
After training, it’s launch time, and you and your team are ready to accomplish your business growth goals with HubSpot!
Estimated time to complete this phase: 3 weeks