Introduction

This document describes the onboarding phases of an Intershop Commerce Platform project.

Glossary

References

• Concept - Intershop Commerce Platform System Overview
• Reference - Intershop Commerce Platform - Mandatory Prerequisites

Onboarding Phases

The onboarding process is divided into five phases. These are discovery, base setup, connect & test, beta, and live. Details can be found in the sections below.

Discovery Phase

In this phase, customer, partner and Intershop organize and plan the collaboration:

• Perform kickoff meeting 
• Setup documentation & communication space
• Schedule status calls
• Validate requirements
• Services
• Define milestones
• Size the infrastructure
• Checklist open topics

The following required information must be provided by customer and partner: Reference - Intershop Commerce Platform - Mandatory Prerequisites.

Customers and partners must also make sure that the basic roles and responsibilities are known: Reference - Intershop Commerce Platform - Responsibilities Matrix.

As a result of the discovery phase, customer users and implementation partner users are provided with access to a Confluence space containing all essential project-specific information and being used for further collaboration.

Base Setup

In this phase, Intershop sets up and configures the necessary cloud infrastructure according to the booked packages and information provided in the discovery phase:

• Base infrastructure (see Concept - Intershop Commerce Platform System Overview)
• Configuration
• CI/CD (Jenkins, Azure DevOps)
• Domains and certificates
• Transfer server
• IP whitelisting
• Network and VPN
• Documentation
• Monitoring

The base setup phase starts once all mandatory prerequisites are provided by the partner.

When finished, the platform is handed over from Intershop to the partner. This initiates the connect & test / customizing phase. The handover protocol can be found in the shared Confluence space. 

Connect & Test / Customizing

The connect & test / customizing phase is the main implementation phase and is typically the longest phase in the onboarding process. In this phase the partner develops the necessary customizations and 3rd-party integrations.   

• Test connections
• Test deployment jobs
• Connect mail server
• Acceptance declaration

Before entering this phase, it is highly recommended to perform an architecture review of the planned implementation by an Intershop architect. The architecture review is recommended 4 to 6 weeks after project start.

Pre-Go-Live Activities:

About 4 weeks before the go-live date, the project enters a phase of intensified activities to ensure a smooth and successful go-live. Customer, partner and Intershop all have certain tasks to perform. The list of pre-go-live tasks can be found in the shared Confluence space.

As part of the pre-go-live activities also the deployment process changes for ICM: During the connect & test / customizing phase the partner has the permission to perform deployments on the production environment. Two weeks before go-live, this permission is being removed. Intershop will perform at least one code deployment on production before the go-live. The go-live date has to be agreed in advance. 

Another important pre-go-live task is a load test that must be performed by the implementation partner. The load test ensures that no performance bottlenecks exist in customizations or due to integrations with 3rd-party systems. 

Additionally, a code review by an Intershop architect is recommended.

Beta

At the end of the connect & test / customizing phase a soft launch can be performed (optional). A soft launch is a beta release of the commerce solution to a limited audience prior to the general public. 

The beta phase is used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making the commerce solution widely available during the official live phase. It helps to identify performance problems or issues with integrations of 3rd-party systems in production mode. 

The Beta phase ends with the go-live. 

Live

In this phase the commerce solution is widely available to the targeted customer base. The defined service level agreements fully apply.

Intershop operates the system with increased attention in the days before and after the go-live.