Have you ever worked at an organization and one day your boss declared, "Hey, folks! Today we're getting XYZ software! There will be a training at the end of the week and I expect everyone to use it!" It came out of the blue, it's unclear how you're supposed to use it, or why, and now it's just another thing you have to do. Ugh.
In many of these situations, a few people have put countless hours into research, discussions, and planning to get the technology get it ready to implement. It should be a success. And yet, software implemented this way is likely to fail because the people using it day in and day out didn't have any say or get a chance to buy in and understand how the software would improve their work.
But companies do this. In fact, I have meetings with new clients, where a person in the first implementation meeting will pipe up and say, "I don't understand why we have to go through all this work. I don't get why we need document management. I can find everything I need just fine." And the firm has already bought the software.
From their perspective, this is a whole new system that will take ages to learn and will disrupt their normal processes for months! And they have every right to be upset this late in the game because they didn't have a voice and an opportunity to understand and buy in to it earlier, before the final decision was made.
This is just one mistake we see many firms make when implementing new technology or software in their business.
Can you answer these questions?
In order to have a success implementation and increase user adoption, you need to make sure you can answer these questions BEFORE you begin:
- How do you know where to begin?
- Who else within your organization should be involved, and when?
- How do you catch mistakes before they go live?
- How do you train employees, and guarantee their success?
- How do you measure success at the end of the project?
For more complex technology, you will likely have an implementation expert from the company help you through the process. However, it's still helpful to have answers for these questions (or have them help you answer).
To learn the best practices to answer these questions and prepare for your technology installation or implementation, we're hosting a down and dirty 30-minute webinar on Thursday, December 15 at 1 pm EST/ 10am PST (presented by yours truly).
According to the 2016 RIA Benchmarking Study produced by Schwab, 25% of firms are heavily focusing on technology investments to increase productivity. If those technology investments aren't implemented using smart processes, that will be a lot of money lost.
You can register for the webinar here, or click below to register. I hope to see you there!
