IF ONLY IT IMPLEMENTATIONS WERE JUST THIS EASY

In the days of yore, Ron Popeil, infomercial pioneer, made it look easy.

He invented a kitchen gadget to make our lives easier, and the only direction he gave was ‘set it and forget it’. One step to make a “delicious six lb. chicken!” or “not one but two delicious rotisserie chickens!” How much simpler is that than the way our moms and grandmothers cooked chicken?

If only the rest of life were that easy.

Especially new software systems.

In an ideal world, your IT team would come in, install the new software, and it would be such an great experience they’d just magically sit down and start using not only because it’s easy to use but because they want to use it. This scenario is as likely to fool the seasoned implementation manager about as well as Hair in a Can spray dispelled notions of impending baldness.

So what are you to do when – as typically happens – you introduce a new system, everyone’s excited at launch time and then several weeks (years) later you look at the usage statistics and you’re disappointed. What happened? Looks like you set it and forget it.

But people were trained, you say. We worked for months to convince them this change was a good thing, you insist. They were even kind of excited, you protest. On top of that, they’d had no choice but to use this new system and things still aren’t working out as you’d hoped. Now what?

Fundamentally, IT systems and user adoption are not set it and forget it kind of things.

Typically IT implementations follow a simple formula: go-live and go home. But the users don’t go home and they are what makes -- or breaks -- any IT investment.

In today’s world everyone needs to maximize the ROI of any IT investment, and the only way to realize that ROI is by holistically taking care of the people who use it.

It’s not traditional thinking but after go-live, users need constant care and feeding, no matter the system, no matter the type of implementation, no matter the organization. 

So what do you do? You need to do something, you know this. But what?

1. Assess the situation for your user

2. Develop a plan accordingly

3. Assign someone responsibility for executing that plan

4. Create the infrastructure so that person, and the plan – and your users – will succeed

The fact of the matter is, an IT implementation doesn’t end at go-live, but rather it begins there. The world –inside your organization and with your competitors’-- is constantly changing. People will always need new and different information, there will always be turnover, and you will need specific people focused on getting the value you need from this investment. Only when people use the technology will you get the value you want.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

‘Set it and forget it’ is how implementations used to be delivered. But the world has changed. These days you need to build a flexible, scalable and sustainable user adoption strategy before you implement your system. You need to map out the necessary efforts and actions your organization will take so it can extract the maximum business value from your investment. Comparatively, the technology side is easy; it’s all 1s and 0s and it does what you tell it to do. It’s the human element that complicates matters and requires you to focus more on the people and the organization than on the technology and the tools.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

• How do you do implementations? Do you typically take a holistic approach, or do you set it and forget it? What have you experienced?

• Whose job is it to make sure this happens? Do they have the skills?

• Do you have the organizational capacity and willingness to carry out a sustainable user-focused program?

• Does your internal team have the skills and experience to address these issues?

• Do you have the infrastructure to achieve this in a fast, flexible and affordable way?

• For examples of what to include in a holistic user adoption strategy, go to MyUserAdoptionPlan.com

And if you’re not sure how your project may be affected take the challenge. After all, saying they have no choice but to use it is ultimately counter-productive when you have the choice to be proactively motivating people to use it.

RELATED RESOURCES

• Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project.

• Schedule a demo of Tri Tuns' "My User Adoption Plan" portal to see how it can provide a comprehensive infrastructure for ensuring effective stakeholder engagement & communications over the life of your system.

• Read "How to Sustain High CRM User Adoption" to learn more about how to have successful CRM (or other systems) implementations.

• Read "Does your User Adoption Methodology Remove Organizational Barriers" to learn about the limitations of traditional IT implementation and Organizational Change Management methodologies and how you can overcome these shortfalls.

Was this information helpful?  What did you learn?  We want to hear from you - please add a comment below.

The 787 SHOWS US THAT NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW RISKS 

REPORTED

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been hailed as a revolutionary advance in technology that will provide the greatest advance in air travel since the Concorde.  The Dreamliner uses new materials and technology and promises to cut 15% off its weight, dramatically lowering fuel consumption and costs.  It’s obvious why airlines are salivating to get their hands on it.

However, like all new technologies, great advances come with great risks and lots of “unknowns”.   The Daily Mail cites a recent GAO report that states while the Dreamliner is safe, it has introduced new risks and even the inspectors don’t know how to manage the new technology or how the risks change over time.

“U.S. inspectors said they do not know what to look for when the new composite [plastic wings & fuselage] starts to fail. …The report said it is unclear how the 787 will become damaged over time and it is not known what the damage to the composite will look like.”

– Daily mail, 03NOV11

NEW RISKS & YOUR IT SYSTEM

Can you image what will happen to Boeing if in a few years some problem is discovered with their new materials and/or design results in repeated 787 crashes?  Or if the new composite materials turn out to have a lifespan that is only half of that of traditional materials? Lawsuits could fly and demand could be wiped out overnight.   Do you think Boeing is going to monitor these risks and take action to mitigate them?  You bet they are. 

Just like with the Dreamliner, introducing new technology systems into your organization can provide revolutionary advances in capacity and benefits.  The problem is, it also introduces revolutionary advances in risks as well.  Unfortunately, many organizations get seduced by the potential benefits while ignoring the risks.  And they do so at their peril.  Are you going to make this mistake?

CONSIDER THIS

When implementing new IT systems, many organizations focus on getting the system live, but ignore what happens once it is in production.  The value of your system – and the risks – only get introduced after the system is live.  And they continue over the life of the system.  This means that you need to manage the value creation and risk mitigation over the life system.

• The FAA inspectors said they don’t even know what to look for to identify emerging problems with their technology.  Will your staff know how to identify and manage the new risks (and opportunities) that your new IT system will introduce?  How do you know?

• The report indicated that it is unclear how the 787 will become damaged over time and what it will look like.  If left unattended, do you know all the ways in which new IT systems can damage your organization?

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

• Developed the tools, metrics, and reporting to give you visibility to emerging risks and opportunities.  You need to identify risks and opportunities as early as possible.

• Establish communication processes and tools that allow you to have 2-way communication with all stakeholders.  This allows you to identify issues and respond back to them.

HOW TO DO IT

If your organization is like most, you probably agree that you need to do this, but you are not sure how.  Tri Tuns can help.  

We work with organizations to develop the infrastructure you need to manage risks and maximize the value of your IT systems.

With our new User Adoption Portal, MyUserAdoptionPlan.com, we help you drive effective user and provide you the capabilities you need to respond to emerging risks, needs and opportunities.  And we can do it faster, cheaper, and easier than you probably thought possible.

In addition, with our expert services, we can provide the advanced knowledge and skills your team needs to make sure they identify risks before they become problems. 

Contact us to learn what we can do for you.

FIND OUT IF YOUR PROJECT IS AT RISK

• Want to learn if your project is at risk.  Take our free online assessment.

• Want to stay updated of how you can get the most value from your IT system?  Sign up for our Quick Tips and Insights Newsletter. 

IN THE NEWS

"I could end the deficit in five minutes.  You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.  Yeah, yeah, now you've got the incentives in the right place, right?  (Laughs)” – Source: www.CNBC.com  07 July 2011.

“The campaign against distracted driving has provided another illustration that American drivers are more likely to respond to safety initiatives when they carry the threat of punishment.

...Publicity efforts alone, such as the “Buckle Up for Safety” campaign, were high-profile failures, but the “Click It or Ticket” effort that followed is credited with increasing seat-belt use. The weeping victims of drunken driving who appeared in public presentations and in the media captured widespread attention, but experts say sobriety checkpoints provided stronger motivation for the use of designated drivers.”  - Source: www.WashingtonPost.com  11 July 2011.

OBSERVATION

CONSIDER THIS

• If you want to improve user adoption, you need to make sure you have specified user adoption targets and defined policies that align incentives and rewards (including consequences) with desires behavior.  The rewards and consequences must be strong enough – and meaningful to end users – to actually influence user behavior.

• You need a structured program to measure user adoption against defined targets and then enforce your incentive policies.  This may include setting monthly user adoption metrics and targets, and then providing regular reports to monitor performance.

• You need to formally assign responsibility for implementing your incentive and rewards program.  With “Click It or Ticket”, police officers are responsible for enforcing seatbelt policies.  In your organization, it may fall to team leaders, department managers or directors.  What matters is that everyone is clear on whose job it is to implement your user adoption policies.

• Don’t forget that incentive programs that are heavily focused on driving user commitment  to adopt systems are preferable to programs that only focus on compliance or WIIFM.  Of course, even commitment-centric approaches still require that you have a structured program for monitoring adoption and allocating rewards.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

• Do you currently take a “Buckle Up for Safety” or “Click It or Ticket” approach to user adoption?  Is it effective?

• Are your incentive systems truly aligned to drive desired user behavior?  Do end-users feel meaningful rewards and consequences if they do not use your system?  How are they enforced?

• How do you know if your incentive program is meaningful to end users?  What do you do to validate that the rewards/consequences actually matter to the individuals whose behavior you are trying to change?  Or do you just assume you have the right incentives?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

CONSIDER THIS

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

• Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
• Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
• Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
• Read: “Don’t Sell Employees. Fulfill their needs!”

OBSERVATION

For example:

• Organizations can change performance metrics before the new system goes live to shift employee behavior and reward employees for achieving business goals
• Executives and managers can shift how the lead and motivate staff to focus on new organizational priorities before the system is live.  They can explain specific shifts in employee behavior that are required now and provide a context for understanding how the new system will support further performance improvements once live
• Conflicting organizational priorities – such as focusing employees on getting work done “fast” versus spending a little more time to make sure they get it done “right” can be addressed before the system is live.
• New organizational teams can be established to address cross-department performance issues that will affect user adoption of the system can be established today.  These teams can address critical issues such as when one department does not enter the data that another department needs to perform their job.

CONSIDER THIS

• Since many of the factors that affect user adoption are technology agnostic you will face these issues at some point anyway.  Addressing these issues before go-live can reduce the feeling of “change overload” and make it easier for people to quickly begin using your new system.
• In many instances they can even improve adoption levels of existing technology.  Since many IT projects take several years to complete, increased adoption of existing technology can provide substantial benefits to your organization.
• Any effort to accelerate user adoption before go-live should be set in the context that these efforts are part of preparing the organization for the new system.  This allows people to see the link to the future system and it will further accelerate adoption of the new system once it goes live.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

• Have you identified & do you fully understand all of the organizational and “people” issues that affect user adoption?  If not, how will you identify these issues?
• What user adoption & benefits realization issues can you de-couple from the technology delivery?  What can you do to address these issues before and after go-live?
• How much additional value (benefits realization) can you add to your organization by addressing key organizational and user performance issues before go live?  Since this work is done as part of your system implementation effort, how can you measure and report on this additional value creation to show the early success of your project and further gain executive support for your project?

RELATED RESOURCES

• Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
• Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
• Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
• Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”