If you are on a project team working on a new system, or a major systems change, there are lots of issues to keep you up at night. Will the system integrate with other systems? Do we have the best processes in place? Have we defined requirements appropriately? Will we have the resources we need to train users? These are all important questions. But there is another question that is often either overlooked or postponed until far too late in the implementation. That is, are we doing all that we can right now to build readiness for this new technology?
The importance of building readiness should not be overlooked, no matter what type of software is being implemented, whether it’s
SAP, Oracle, Bain, or any other kind of packaged or proprietary technology. The critical questions are how much work disruption will be caused by the new technology and associated business process changes, and how many people will be impacted in a major way?
Here are some tips for speeding technology adoption for your next system change:
Tip #1: Start Early
Too many project teams wait far too long in the
implementation lifecycle to develop a plan for building readiness. They focus on all the technology and business process issues, but wait until very close to project launch to start to think about readiness. As a result, the seeds of resistance to the technology have all the ingredients in place to flourish and grow. Start to build a readiness strategy that is incorporated into your implementation plan very early on.
Tip #2: Don’t Just Rely on a Communications Plan
One of the most common mistakes we see is an over-reliance on a beautiful website, an exciting launch meeting or a weekly e-mail campaign as the single source for building readiness. All of these communications delivery methods are useful, but will not drive readiness unless there is a built-in means for gathering feedback from the recipients. The feedback is critical for you to uncover, even if it is negative, because it’s the best way for you to identify the likely sources of
resistance to your technology change.
Tip #3: Make Generating Sponsorship Your Number One Priority
Most project teams are confronted with the grim reality of having too few resources to meet the expected timeline. When you are forced to prioritize where you are going to be able to apply your efforts, focus first on
generating Sponsorship across the organizational areas that will be impacted by the new technology. Sponsorship is a very active condition that requires business leaders to express their commitment to the new system by demonstrating the importance of the project through their own behavior change, and by applying appropriate rewards and penalties for system optimization, not installation.
Understand that you will need “Reinforcing” Sponsors in every area where people will be using the new system, and it is this network of Sponsors that will have the most impact on the speed and durability of user acceptance. For this reason, the responsibility for creating readiness must be transferred from IT executives to business sponsors as the implementation progresses from Design to Implementation Planning.
By following these three tips, you will position your technology change for implementation success: a system that is delivered on time, on budget, with all business, technical and human objectives met.
