Problems Implementing New Business Software
Implementing new software can often be riddled with a variety of setbacks or change management issues. This can result from an assortment of different sources, but many times can be traced back to faulty business processes.
A business analyst is the link between the developers and those employees performing the process in the business. The first step for the business analyst is to map all business processes affected by the new software. The problem is that once this is done a review session with all employees using the new software to identify and correct existing gaps, issues or conflicts that occur using the manual process is not conducted.
New systems may correct a few of these issues, but in most cases the problems experienced only become exaggerated with the implementation of the new system.
A second consideration are conditions. When business conditions change so do the required processes. Can the software flexibly address these changes? How often do they occur? Can they be quickly recognized?
When the business analyst makes all needed improvements to the process before implementing the system a variety of potential change management problems are eliminated.
When the analyst then documents the job methods used by each position interacting with the new system, the job methods can be edited to include the new activities required to support the new software. These changes can be listed in red text to allow each employee to easily see the changes to their daily routine. By taking this approach instead of distributing the vendor guide for using the new software the user learns only the needed changes to their routine, which makes the transition much easier and in a fraction of the time.
What other experiences have you encountered when attempting to implement a new system while minimize any change management issues?
Joseph Pfeiffer, you keyed some of the main/mission critical points of implementing accounting, business management software, and custom software. I find having a "conference room pilot" or a location where users can test drive the new system prior to Go-Live is always valuable as this process gets there buy-in and mind-share of potential GAPS in processes. I have used this methodology to also train-the-trainers initializing the transformation of ownership to the client for the solution and to accomplish the desired outcomes, while minimizing fallout. Based of your credentials and experience, you are well aware that any system or application is only as good as the people using it. Thank you for writing this article. - Leighton @spmsalescorp #PeakPERFORMANCE