---
title: "Implementation"
canonical: "https://ingrid-support.refined.site/space/KB/18219063/Implementation"
format: markdown
---
Your Ingrid implementation runs in five phases, from scoping to go-live. This page explains what happens in each one, who leads it, and what you need in place before you start.

Every phase applies whichever products you bought. What changes per product is the detail, and that lives in the product pages linked at the bottom.

## The five phases

Each phase has a clear lead. That matters more than it sounds: most delays come from both sides assuming the other one owns a decision.

| Phase | Who leads | What happens |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **1. Scoping** | Ingrid | We run kick-off, then a planning workshop with your leads. Your delivery requirements, markets, and carriers get written down, and this journey becomes a dated plan owned by both teams. |
| **2. Configuration** | Joint | You bring your delivery logic; we configure it with you, train your team, and coach them to own it afterward. Most of go-live is configuration, not code. |
| **3. Integration** | You | You integrate through our plugins or APIs. We guide with documentation and our integrations team. |
| **4. Testing** | You | You test across three layers: system integration, carrier logic, and end to end. We help resolve what you find. Nothing goes live until it passes. |
| **5. Go-live** | You | You lead go-live, big bang or phased. We run hypercare alongside you, then hand over to our Customer Success and Support teams. |

Phases overlap in practice. Configuration usually continues while integration work starts, and testing often begins on the first configured market before the rest are done.

## Who you work with

Ingrid staffs every project with an implementation consultant, adding project management and integration support where the scope calls for it. Your implementation consultant runs the project with you from scoping through go-live.

After launch, we run hypercare alongside you. Once hypercare ends, our Customer Success and Support teams become your ongoing contacts.

## What sets your timeline

There is no standard duration, and a number quoted without your specifics would be misleading. Three kinds of work set the date:

- **What you configure** — delivery rules, carriers, and product settings. Joint work, and the bulk of most projects.
- **What you build, if anything** — often minimal or none on a standard platform such as Shopify or Centra. Real engineering appears with a custom or headless storefront, a carrier new to our library, or changes to your wider stack.
- **What you test** — you lead it, because you know your delivery logic, downstream systems, and edge cases.

Beyond that, a handful of project characteristics move the date more than anything else — your platform, your carriers, who holds your carrier credentials, whether your wider stack is changing, how your team is resourced, and how many markets you are launching.

[What shapes your timeline](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/741343233/What+shapes+your+timeline) covers each of these, with the straightforward case and the case that needs more planning.

## Before you start

Two things are worth settling early, because both are common causes of a slipped date.

**Name your team.** The team you name is the single biggest predictor of your go-live date. One person can cover several roles, or an agency can fill them, as long as each role has a clear owner from day one.

[The team you'll need](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/741081090/The+team+you+ll+need) lists the six roles and what each one has to be able to do.

**Release your carrier credentials.** Wherever Ingrid calls a carrier on your behalf, we need credentials. They are often held by your 3PL or logistics team rather than your e-commerce team, so finding out who owns them is an early task, not a late one. For Transport and Returns there is no workaround: nothing can be booked without them.

[Carrier credentials](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/739868692/Carrier+credentials) explains what is needed per product and why.

## Choosing your rollout

You can go live with every market at once, or pilot one market and roll the rest out in waves. Both are valid. The shape follows your resourcing, your risk appetite, and your testing capacity, and you form a view together with your implementation consultant during the planning workshop.

[Big bang or phased](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/740950018/Big+bang+or+phased) compares the two on time to value, resourcing, and risk.

## Your product

The five phases above are the same for every product. What differs is what gets configured, what gets integrated, and what gets tested.

- [Checkout implementation](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/11501718/Checkout+implementation)
- [Tracking implementation](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/14647368/Tracking+implementation)
- [Transport implementation](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/444039173/Transport+implementation)
- [Returns implementation](https://support.ingrid.com/space/KB/741212179/Returns+implementation)