Software Implementation Archives

We’re so dependent on technology and software to power our businesses that it is almost impossible to imagine a time when this was common. But for all the time and money spent on the R&D, there often remains a gap between the capabilities of the application deployed versus the value generated from it.

Think about this, for example.

17% of the major IT implementations go so wrong that they put the existence of the company at risk.*

For instance, In 2001, Nike spent $400 million updating their ERP and overall supply chain. The goal was to reduce the manufacturing cycle to match the increasing demands on time. They launched a new demand-planning solution with minimal testing and consequently, the solution failed miserably in the real environment.

It cost them $400 million on its software failure with an additional $100 million in revenue and another 5 years to get the implementation right.

A successful software implementation plan begins with getting a granular understanding of how you define success. It is possible by identifying the challenges that could put the projects at risk and then deciding where the business wants to go with the implementation. These factors will not only help the organization to avert risks but also determine the success of the overall business.

What is Software Implementation?

Software implementation is a process of adopting and integrating software or an application into a business process.

It enables organizations to optimize their existing processes, enhance user experience and achieve higher efficiency levels. Regardless of how big or small the software implementation, it will have a significant impact on the bottom line.

It is wise to acknowledge that most implementations are challenging but they can also significantly fuel the growth of the organization. At first, it could look daunting but successful implementation will enable you to reap the benefits – both from a people and a financial standpoint.

5 Software Implementation Challenges

Misaligned expectations
Data Maintenance
Lack of readiness
Internal resistance
Improper post-deployment planning

1. Misaligned expectations

When planning software implementation, the organization needs to assemble a project team that involves a variety of stakeholders who will drive the software deployment in the right direction.

The team usually consists of product managers, project heads, team leads, business analysts and subject matter experts. This team coordinates with the vendors, service partners, implementation experts, consultants, and developers.

Each implementation is different and, in some cases, the software cannot be customized to your specific business needs. In this case, service partners should provide a realistic assessment that ties back to the organization being encouraging transparency so that all stakeholders can be informed about the limitations of the project.

With any software implementation, not all expected functionalities can be realized. Be it internal or external stakeholders, clear communication is a must during the planning and implementation phase. Investing in effective cross-team communication helps set the right expectations from the project.

2. Data Maintenance

Poor data could cripple any business. To put this seemingly obvious phrase in perspective, consider this – On average, organizations lose $15 million per year because of poor data quality.

This will prove to be worse when businesses implement multiple software simultaneously, which will only add to the complexity. Companies that operate in multiple geos stand the risk of facing severe data quality issues.

Ensuring data integrity and maintaining it throughout the process will be crucial for success. It is important to know what kind of data can be passed through the system and what cannot.

This will help you to not only map the system correctly but will also ensure that no data loss occurs during the process and it is secure at all times.

Another problem that stands in the way is forgetting to map data that is necessary for the business. Just imagine during the migration process if the organization forgets to fetch data of a potential customer! This could potentially cost the company millions of dollars, if not more.

3. Lack of readiness

Every member of the implementation team must understand their role and should represent their respective department or team and create a plan that puts the best interest of their team and that of the organization.

It is also important to define when and how support from the vendor would be provided. The team should focus on identifying the gaps and issues that users might face, post the software deployment. It can be achieved by having a robust communication plan which should include several channels to reinstate the information.

All this will help you to overcome user adoption challenges and ensure software implementation success.

Pro tip: Apty comes with an in-built announcement feature that not only informs your employees about the changes within the software but also guides them from there on how to complete their tasks within that software.

4. Internal resistance

New software brings an environment of uncertainty with it. It could make your employees uncomfortable about the change because they don’t know what to expect.

It is critical to clearly demonstrate well in advance the advantages of using the new software. This helps with easing them onto the new software and getting their buy-in, allowing the organization to have addressed any issues that come up, in advance. It also helps them to understand and experience for themselves how the software will empower them to do their job efficiently.

5. Improper post-deployment planning

Typically, organizations use a variety of tools and frameworks to support software implementation and increase the chances of success.

It starts with planning the onboarding and then a training program to ensure software implementation success. While this approach is correct, the journey towards a successful implementation will be short-lived, unless a software adoption strategy is in place.

A Digital Adoption Platform helps you to plan onboarding, training, and software adoption which will help in making the overall software implementation a success, even after the deployment phase.

5 Steps to Creating a Successful Software Implementation Plan

Define the scope of the project
Define roles and ownership for the process
Test the software
Stitch a structured training program
Focus on software adoption

i. Define the scope of the project

The first problem is that enterprise software is decorated with a lot of features and can entice leaders to use all of it to maximize the impact. But this can also potentially derail the original vision and you might find yourself trapped in feature hell.

Another problem is customization. Some businesses have complicated and unique processes. The focus should be to optimize the processes and keep them as simple as possible, as there are several technical difficulties involved in revamping an application.

To counter all these issues, it is a must to centralize all the documents and provide vendors with a clear picture of what the organization wants to achieve. This will help the vendors to give their honest opinion of the scope of the project.

The documentation mentions the primary goals and in a way, freezes them so there are no distractions. Isolate the original vision from the new ideas as mixing it could cause scope creep. Add these new ideas in another document and consider them during the subsequent iterations.

It enables the project team to focus on the project at hand. It pays to invest in a project management tool that will help to achieve your goals in the shortest period and keep a track of all the changes made during the process. This type of approach keeps the software implementation on track.

ii. Define roles and ownership for the process

Having the right team will determine the success of your entire implementation. Start by analyzing the number of departments or business units that will end up using the new software. Then, chalk out the specific requirements of each team within that unit.

With this, the organization will know the number of people who will be affected by the implementation. Involve at least one stakeholder from each department who will act as a representative of their business unit and the business case of their respective group. They can also be the core team if the implementation is not in line with their department requirements.

Apart from these representatives, the project team must include:

Project Owner: They are the departmental heads who can also be a group of executives. The job of representative and project owner is taken care of by business unit managers or heads.
Project Manager: They handle the budget and systematically organize the whole implementation process.
System admin: This could be one person or a group of people depending entirely on the scale of the project. Their job is to create, organize and manage the technical setup.
Delivery owner: The person who acts as a communication channel between the project team and vendors.

Having the right mix of people will help in gaining different perspectives but remember the saying “too many cooks can spoil the broth”? It’s true even with this. You can assign more than one role to the same person – the only criterion is that they are equipped with all the skills required and understand the importance of the implementation.

iii. Test the software

Conduct a thorough software testing by considering every business scenario possible and checking its efficacy.

During this phase, involve the project team as well as the end-users and maintain a checklist that the deployment should pass on.

If some issues are uncovered during the testing phase, then a complete software configuration before the go-live is a must.

In previous steps, check the system readiness in a control group as it will help you to immediately track back the source of the problem.

iv. Stitch a structured training program

Training and onboarding programs are the hidden forces that ensure a successful software implementation.

These programs must be created before even deploying the software. It is advisable that you work in tandem with the L&D team to stitch a customized training and onboarding program for every business unit.

Each department has specific needs and their learning material should cater to those exact needs, without being generic. They need to be trained on how to navigate through the software in a way that helps them accomplish their specific tasks on time.

A customized program enhances the employee experience and will help them to get up to speed in record time.

The program should also focus on reducing the load on the support team by deploying tools like a Digital Adoption Platform. A DAP sits right inside the application and acts as a repository of information containing videos, pdfs, knowledge base links, and walkthroughs. It guides the employees at the point of need, without being intrusive.

It also helps the L&D teams to reduce their content creation time as the walkthroughs can easily be created and converted into several other formats with just one click.

v. Focus on software adoption

Enterprise applications are becoming unimaginably intuitive but with increasing business processes, the complexity still prevails. To counter this, organizations must look beyond training and onboarding by creating a cohesive digital adoption strategy.

Irrespective of how great the software is, if it is not used effectively then the whole implementation will prove to have been futile.

It is in the interest of the organization to keep employee engagement at the heart of its software implementation.

The ultimate aim of any software implementation is to achieve business goals in a short period and make the workforce productive.

For example, if the call logs from the sales team are far less than the opportunity entries, then the organization will want to improve the call log process in the CRM system.

But unless you quantify it, measuring the impact is impossible. A Digital Adoption Platform helps you create goals and set a deadline against them.

Let’s say you want all the sales reps to enter that data within 20 days and 50% should complete it by 12 days.

This can be tracked in a DAP, which helps you send a notification to each user segment that is falling behind the deadline. It will help you to ensure the successful adoption of software at a functional level and ultimately, lead to successful software implementation.

A Digital Adoption Platform is the need of the hour for any enterprise, irrespective of where you are in the software implementation journey. From strategizing to guiding users to improving the process, a DAP does it all allowing you to save millions of dollars and man-hours.

How to Design a Successful Software Rollout Plan: 13 Steps

Software rollout is something that every enterprise is familiar with, considering the sheer number of technological solutions companies deploy, year on year. However, simply investing in an application without really having a software rollout plan in place, can be disastrous.

Organizations are having questions like how to rollout new software or what is the ideal software rollout process to follow. Questions like this can only be answered by having a proper software rollout checklist or plan.

Thankfully it is not difficult to have a strategy in place. We at Apty have drafted a well-planned software rollout strategy following which any business can avoid some obvious pitfalls but before delving deep into the strategy lets understand the best practices.

Top 7 Software Rollout Best Practices

Communicate about the changes to every stakeholders
Segment users based on their profile to manage effectively
Be open for suggestion and feedback
Create training program without hampering employee productivity
Provide self-support system
Continuously monitor the progress
Regularly update the process and training content

Software rollout guide to ensure a successful software rollout plan

1. Establish a Clear Objective

Your organization must establish a clear objective before investing in any new software. Having a proper roadmap will empower any organization and all its departments to meet its goals.

You might know and understand why your business needs a new software but your employees might not be on the same page. It is better to discuss and share the vision upfront. Involving employees at this stage will increase pan-organizational buy-in which usually becomes difficult in later stages of the rollout process.

2. Identify Current Business Roadblocks

It is the responsibility of the implementation team to run an audit in collaboration with an external consultant to understand the current state of your business process vis-a-vis your organization’s objectives.

A few things you need to look into are:-

Whether the new software rollout will have any impact on the status quo
How smoothly (or not) previous software deployments took place
Challenges in the current business processes and how these could be solved using the new software?

Answering these questions will identify the gaps in your existing system. It would be ideal to involve stakeholders from respective departments to understand the issues they have faced in the past.

All these insights will help you to overcome the challenges and have a contingency plan in place, to track back if anything goes wrong or goes out of hand.

3. Set a continuous business process improvement strategy

The business world is dynamic as it has to face a lot of challenges because of internal and external factors. Organizations can plan for internal aspects to some extent but preparing for external factors can be a herculean task.

So, it is clear that the preparations must be in place to handle the situation even after a successful software rollout.

When a shift happens then the business process undergoes change for which organizations must invest in tools that can help them uncover the trend and empower their users to immediately adopt it.

During such cases, traditional training is not feasible as it would consume a lot of time. The agenda of the business is to make employees immediately familiar with the processes and make them leverage the new features within the software to the fullest.

The organization can use an application like a Digital Adoption Platform that will help them uncover the user behavior trend within the application. It also helps users to learn new processes and various features of the applications while they are on the job.

It also acts as a tool through which you can communicate the change that happened within the application and guide them throughout the process. It is one of the few tools that determine the post-rollout success of software.

4. Understand User Needs

Prior to designing a software training curriculum for the employees, it is necessary to understand how each user group uses the software.

Modern DAPs have a feature called Application analytics where you get the following insights:

How the user is utilizing the software.
Where they are dropping off.
What are the roadblocks they are facing.
What is their engagement rate.
What is the impact of training over software utilization.
Which user group is struggling in comparison to the other.

The answers to all these questions will guide you to design customized training for each user group and their sub-groups. Also, business processes can be altered based on these insights, if needed.

It will ensure a great user onboarding experience for your employees and in turn higher engagement rate.

Here’s a definitive guide on User Onboarding.

5. Make Software Training a Priority

Just rolling out an incredible software will not ensure success. Having a state-of-the-art technology in place but not being able to utilize the same to its fullest potential will fail the project and, in turn, the investment.

Equip your employees with the right tools and skills to operate the software and find their way through the new process.

The traditional form of training consumes time but is essential to get an overview. However organizing multiple training sessions consumes a lot of man-hours, and resources which could otherwise be put to better use.

Having a contextual training solution like DAP (Digital Adoption Platform) will be useful as it houses all forms of content within the application. It guides the user in real-time and saves valuable time.

Having an in-app guidance solution that houses content in multiple formats at their helm will reinforce your users’ knowledge and boost their productivity.

6. Communicate with Stakeholders

Software rollout is not a one-man show. Key decisions have to be taken by involving relevant stakeholders from each department.

You might wonder why it is essential?

Well, they know their day-to-day job better than the management. Understanding their perspective could open numerous doors of opportunity to improve the implementation process. As eventually, they are the ones who will be using the new software.

Each of these stakeholders understand the end goals that they want to achieve via the new implementation. They know what the solution should look like and where the problems could occur. Their feedback at this stage could make your software-rollout plan smoother and more effective.

Collaborating from this stage will allow you to understand what their expectation is from the new deployment. It will help you to adjust the goals and objectives to be in line with their expectation.

Doing this will also make your employees motivated and their participation increases by many folds.

7. Hire Consultants and Service Partners

Rolling out new software even with a tech-savvy team could be a herculean task. Your organization must hire Consultants and Service Partners to meet the desired goal.

Consultants are the representatives of the organization who are hired for their expertise and Service Partners are third-party companies that enable the deployment of new applications across the organization to achieve the goal efficiently.

Applications like Salesforce, Workday and ServiceNow may take a period of 14-18 months to go live and businesses have to go through a tornado of change in this period.

The expectation of the organization has to be conveyed properly to these Service Partners to realize the company’s goal and this job is done by the Consultant. Moreover, a Consultant is a subject matter expert who helps to design the business processes.

On the other hand, Service Partners understand the product in and out and customize it to the expectation of the organization. They are the ones who develop and deploy the solution.

Collaboration across all fronts is essential to see success out of the deployed solution.

8. Maintain Decision logs and Documentation

While the new software is being customized, designed, and developed to meet the organization’s demand, many decision-makers participate in this process.

As a result, numerous decisions are taken. If the organization wants to solve any issues and wants to track back to the owner of that decision, it would be difficult unless you don’t have a decision log. In this log, you generally enter the name of the owners, the type of decision taken, and the stage of the process.

Documentation is equally important, as most companies prefer customization of the software to match their needs. So, the structure of the software becomes very different from the default ones and the default documentation becomes useless in such cases.

The documentation must be the responsibility of the Consultant which must be created in collaboration with Service Partners.

9. Create Champions

A person must be selected to represent different stakeholders and they must be trained right from the development stage. They must be the Point of Contact between the external stakeholders and internal stakeholders.

They should become the power user by the time the deployment phase begins and can be called ‘Champions’ as most of the heavy-lifting from the organization’s end is done by them.

An internal Champion will ensure the success of the latest deployment as anyone from the organization can reach out to them for any clarifications or training requirements.

They could help the Team Leads and L&D Team to design the training module. Their presence reduces dependencies on external stakeholders.

Few Champions are essential in a company to boost the adoption of the software and safeguard the investment.

10. Test in Control Group

Once the software is designed as per the requirement, it should be deployed within a small group of people. This group of people could be handpicked or selected randomly. The main motive is to check the efficiency of the deployed application in a testing environment.

If the software does not meet the expected standards, it is sent to the development phase. But if it delivers the desired outcome, the software is rolled out in a much bigger group and eventually across the organization.

The main motive of the control group is to identify any bugs in real-time and improve upon it. It saves a lot of time and effort.

11. Seek Feedback

You could have the best analytics system in place, but at the end of the day what matters is how users perceive the deployed software.

New software generally tends to have some flaws in it. It should be the prime duty of the respective Managers to gather feedback and convey the sentiments of their team members to the management

Feedback can be gathered via multiple channels like:

Face-to-Face Conversation:- It is one of the traditional ways to garner feedback. It acts like an evaluation where the Team Leads or Managers interact with their team members to find out how satisfied they are with the new software. It takes time but the results are valuable.
Meetings:- It’s a collaborative approach where the team comes together and discusses the efficiency of the software. Any drawback is discussed in a detailed manner. It gives you an immediate idea of how the team feels about the deployed software.
Survey Questionnaire:- It’s an ideal way to get feedback if you have a lot of members in your team. It may not be as accurate as the in-person meetings, but it gives you the big picture in a short span of time.
Internal Forum:- In this method, the user can present their review of the software and the team that is responsible will act upon it. Here there is no questionnaire posed to the user but rather the user voluntarily gives feedback.

12. Monitor Usage Analytics

To know how the newly rolled out software is performing, business analytic tools like Apty can prove highly beneficial.

It gives you two types of insights:

Application insights
Workflow insights

All these data points will guide you to identify the gaps and improve the training and business processes.

The software has to be updated every now and then to match the industry standards and the organization’s goals. To do it properly, continuous analysis is key.

13. Ensure Business Process Compliance

Business process compliance is a series of steps performed by the users to accomplish a defined goal. Each step has to be completed in a certain way or format and adds up to the bottom line of the organization.

When it comes to using software, organizations want their workforce to use it in an intended manner. So, they create rules and regulations which is known as business process compliance. These processes are the building block for organizational success and any issues could impact the ROI.

So, the organization needs to enable employees to enter the information within the application in the correct format. It will help the business to receive clean data which will intend help to become business process compliant and make crucial business decisions.

Conclusion

Software rollout is not a one-time thing, it is a continuous process. There is no good in doing things hastily. Rather, it pays to be practical and make your decisions wisely, based on data.

Be open for feedback and always test before deploying new software and its updates. You can make most of it if you have a proper strategy, effective communication & collaboration, customized training, and a well-defined roadmap in place.