Implementation options

How long does implementationtake?

Between two weeks and ten — and it is mostly your choice rather than ours. Your service is configured before this conversation begins, so the timeline turns on how much review your institution wants before go-live, not on how much building is left.

Higher Education
Two to ten weeks

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Configuration here is a console edit, not a release cycle.

Real conversation data arrives within days of launch. So pre-launch workshops do not so much remove risk as encode assumptions. Wherever your institution needs process, we would rather it came after the evidence than before it.

This is a separate choice from how much of your site you start with. Any of the three below works with any scope on the deployment roadmap options.

2weeks

Option oneRecommended

Launch and Learn

For institutions with someone who can approve brand and messaging without convening a committee.

Refresh the crawl, then confirm brand colours, welcome message and allowed domains
Add the script tag to a pilot section of the site
First review at thirty days, against real conversations rather than opinion

Your effort: About four hours, one person. The pacing item is your web team's next release window, not anything at our end.
Trade-off: Little internal socialising before launch, so it needs a decision-maker who can move.

3–4weeks

Option two

Guided Launch

For institutions that want a documented pre-launch review and a formal sign-off.

Work the twelve-point launch checklist together in the console, owners assigned
Your team reviews agent messages, prompts, curated answers, retention and security
You write a question set, we run UAT against it, then accessibility check and sign-off

Your effort: One to two days spread across three weeks, two or three people.
Trade-off: Some of those three weeks go on decisions that thirty days of data would settle better.

6–10weeks

Option three

Governed Programme

For institutions where procurement, data protection and accessibility review must complete before anything goes live.

Requirements and a question inventory, with success measures agreed up front
Configuration against those requirements, plus remediation of content gaps
Formal UAT cycles with a defect log, conformance and privacy review, staged rollout and training

Your effort: Roughly a day a week for the duration, plus a project lead and stakeholders in scheduled reviews.
Trade-off: Highest cost in staff time, and product decisions get made before the evidence exists.

Identical in all three.

Only the sequencing changes.

The same platform

The service you have already seen is the deliverable in every option. None of them builds a different product.

The same launch checklist

Twelve items in your console, each one assigned to us or to you, so nobody has to guess who owes what.

The same security posture

Retention window, allowed origins and access control are settings, and they are reviewed in all three.

The same thirty-day review

Engaged users measured against site-search users. The accountability is the same in every option.

What actually drives the timeline — rarely the configuration.

All four can run in parallel with configuration rather than after it. Starting them the week you nominate a project lead is worth more than any decision on this page.

Procurement

The largest variable, and the one least related to the product.

Data protection review

Our architecture and policy documentation is written for this. Ask for it early.

Accessibility conformance

A review of the widget in the context of your own pages.

Brand and content approval

Whoever signs off the welcome message, tone and escalation wording.

Choose the review you actually need.

If you have a decision-maker who can move, start with Launch and Learn. If procurement and privacy must finish first, we will run those in parallel with configuration.

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