Implementing a new solution – what NOT to do

Picture the scene. You’re in your office staring at your computer screen. Your co-workers are gathered round and you’re all shrugging your shoulders in bewilderment. Then someone says what you’re all thinking: “I thought this was supposed to make life easier?”

It’s a scenario everyone has experienced. You invest in a new system that you’re told will solve all your problems. And then it doesn’t. Instead, you spend the next six months getting to grips with it and – finally – you get something that almost delivers what you need. Almost, but not quite.

It’s a scenario both the client and the supplier in any IT implementation project wants to avoid. Howard Hunter, Director of Sales and Account Management at Concur partner, UNIGLOBE, sums it up perfectly when he says: “Most organisations are moving from a place of relative discomfort and the last thing you want to do is move them to a place of relative discomfort.”

Howard recognises that the secret to avoiding this scenario is taking the time to get the end-to-end implementation right. It’s a belief we share here at Concur.

So, if you’re about to embark on an IT project of your own, how do you make sure you get the implementation right? What do you need to be thinking about from your end? What do you need to look for in your choice of supplier?

Here’s our take on it. It’s gleaned from our own experiences and the experiences of our clients when they’ve worked with us.

Dedicate resources to the project

You’ll need someone at your end who will manage the project from start to finish. It may be something they can do on top of their day job or it may be their full-time job for the duration of the project. Either way, you need someone who will lead it from your end.

When it comes to your supplier, make sure you’ve got at least one named contact who’ll be with you throughout the journey and who understands your organisation and its aims in relation to this project.

Take a collaborative approach

A successful IT project involves having a complete understanding of your process as it is now and a complete understanding of how you’d like it to look afterwards. Getting there will involve discovery calls, documentation and time. Don’t skimp on these – some things may seem trivial or unimportant but they could make all the difference. Remember too that a new process might look different to your current process but could still deliver you the required end result, so don’t get too hung up on replicating the finer details of old process in a new system if they don’t really matter in the bigger picture.

Think about change management and training 

If you want the new system to work well, you need to get everyone who’ll be using it on board. Think about how you’re going to manage change and think about how you’ll manage training. Crucially you will need to plan for the roll out from the very beginning of the project. All too often we see companies concern themselves purely on the technicalities, forgetting about how the solution will be successfully rolled out. This can result in poor adoption and ultimately the flop of what is a good solution.

Work with your supplier on this – make sure they’ve got a comprehensive set of training tools you can draw on so you’re not making extra work for yourself.

Commit to the long-term

Once a new system goes live, it isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning. Assign someone the task of championing the system in-house and ensuring you’re making the most of it. You need commitment from your supplier too – an account manager who’ll be your first point of contact and will work with you to make sure the system is helping you deliver your goals.

The take away message

In essence, two truisms sum up the process perfectly. It’s 80% preparation, 20% perspiration. And fail to plan, plan to fail. Use the first as your motto for any solution implementation project. And heed the second as a warning.