Implementing a New Information System

It is an article about the implementation of a complex IS within a company. Such a project usually entails a lot of problems that must be solved and a lot of barriers to be crossed, so it presents an interesting and challenging road towards the completion.

So, let us begin with the most dull and a million times heard universal truth that goes something like this: “Don’t repeat mistakes other have made and don’t solve problems that have already been solved!” Yeah, right… We all know that, but have gone down the road of repetition nevertheless.

But this time, be prepared for something completely different!

Introduction

Are you a CIO or IT expert or just a regular employee in an IT sector working on a new project that involves the implementation of a new BIS (ERP, CRM….) within a company?

Getting a new “IS” is a strategic decision, where functionality, applicability and adaptability play the main role.

I am going to write about USERS, as they are there and are the reason for a project to succeed or fail.

Looking for a new solution

We all know that choosing a new product can be very tough. According to sellers and promoters:

• theirIT solutions are the best and the only real solutions to our problems,
• they can do anything and there are no limits,
• “we can do it and yes it works as you want it…”,
• “all other solutions are just not as good as ours…”.

Sounds Familiar?

How to choose?

The answer is not a simple one. It depends on what we want and how big our company is, on our knowledge basis, on how many IT experts we have and, finally, on how much money we want to spend on a new solution.

What do we want?

The best practice is to predefine what we want to achieve with a new SW. Of course it is hard to see all the aspects. But try to look ahead.

Try to Avoid Thinking Like:

We want a new system that will work in exactly the same way as the previous one!

This is the worst way to start a new project. In this case you do not need a new IS at all.

Of course you have to do a snap shot of business processes, but it is meant to be only a guideline, do a snapshot only to see how the processes are working.

When changing the IS,use the opportunityto review your current business process and try to make some improvements, modify them, make them better and try to get as much out of the system as possible. There are always opportunities for improvements – read about Kaizen.

Make the IS Implementation Project Work for You

After selecting a solution, you pay to a supplier a part of the final price that usually includes also some consulting. Use it as an added value to your organization; they know the product they are selling, therefore they can best foresee the best practice and solutions for your company. Do not waste those valuable work hours just listening to things that you already know.

Start with Questions:

• “How can we improve things?”
• “Where is added value for us?”
• “How can we reduce time needed for specific processes?”
• “How can this help our users?”
• …

You must agree that the main reason for trying to introduce something new is to make things work better, faster, and to get new and better results.

Sharing news that there are going to be some changes

Get Prepared for Typical Responses from Users:

• “Why do we need a new solution or new SW?”
• “The old one is good enough.”
• “We will have more work now.”
• “This is stupid.”.
• …

If you are a beginner in implementing a new project, it is going to be a very good experience, just do not give up!

Power Users

For a project to succeed, it is useful to involve some power users from a sector where those changes are to occur! After a while you will have a reliable person working with you on a project and directly involved in the process he/she is responsible for. You will also gain a valuable support inside an organizational unit (OU), and users will have someone from their own to ask the first question!

Implementing

So if you are already at this stage, it is time to do some serious work. This is a critical situation when all your fears and nightmares can come out from the dark.

How Well are You Doing?

• How well prepared and planned was your project?
• Did you thing about everything?
• Is everything going to work OK?
• Does your HW really meet the minimum requirements (although you specifically ask for a HW requirement and probably have bought the latest model of a high performance family server……)?

Remember

• The first 80% of the questions are “big” problems and can solved by reading the manual (RTFM)
• Prepare good, simple and readable manuals
• Use wiki-like tools to enable users to add their own descriptions and manuals for their work processes. .
• Let users know that they are important and that their comments are welcome and appreciated. .
• Use project management
• Keep all your correspondence with all partners involved in the project
• Use e-mail or regular mail for correspondence, avoid telephone arrangements, even if they are made during a telephone conversation, write them down and forward them to all involved parties

User’s Point of View

Users play a very important part in this kind of projects.

Please remember that we need satisfied users if we want to talk about success.

In practice, we know that there are different types of users and we can group them according to their assumed roles with in a company.

Types of End-users

Positive

• Innovators: These users look forward to new things, new solutions. They know that the new implementation can bring them some profit. They are not afraid of new thing. They are willing to work a little bit more and expect some public recognition and sometimes also financial reward in return. They want to be at least a month in front of your project work.
• Good workers: They are good at what they do, can accept new things, expect clear and simple orders and are quick learners.
• Hard workers: They do know they have problems with new applications, but are willing to learn. They need good user manuals, some more help from the IT staff, but will learn in few weeks. Usually they do not ask many questions.

Use these three types of end-users to promote your work and your project, and keep them satisfied with the results of the implementation. Be sure you take time to listen to their comments and suggestions. Usually, their comments have some value.

Negative

• Regular workers: From 8 to16 is their timing; they do not want to think a minute more. It does not mean that they are not good workers. It just means that they do not want to spend any extra time thinking about their job.
• Complainers: They just need to complain; they think this is the way to get important. But in many cases it is only to distress the IT staff, because by complaining these users only want to hide their own problems, incompetence, unfinished work or plans… These users are quick with complains but are not wiling to read manuals or search the web.

These two types of users can be “a hand break” for a project. They do not want to invest any of their time to learn, they just need to complain. In the case such users also have some power influence over their superiors, this is definitely not a good combination. Don’t give up!

Kindness

No matter what type of users you have to deal with, please remember:

Always Be Friendly to a User

Reality

There is always a lot of work and effort involved in a project like this – from all the involved parties. Usually there are also high expectations and short deadlines.

What Should We Know or Be Aware of?

• Vendors would like to close a deal as soon as possible
• We would like to have a perfect solution for our business
• There is a lot of pressure involved from all involved parties
• User trainings are usually short and reduced to few full days (1-2)
• There is a lot of remodelling during the implementation

How to Deal with That?

It depends on a business process that we are dealing with. It also depends on the IS solution we are trying to implement.

But let us suppose that you are implementing your IS step by step in a single OU in a company.

• Take your time to prepare a good implementation plan. .
• Involve “power user” from the OU from the very beginning. In that way you can have quality feedback.

After months of work you are definitely prepared for the new product, new look, new way of operation etc…

Are Your Users Prepared for That as Well?

Let us assume that you have spent the last 14 days working on a data export-import or any other transformation that was needed. In reality, no user actually cares about that, it is not their job to think about that.

The following day you and your users have to start working with a new programme. This is probably the most stressful part of a project and it lasts for about the first 10 working days. The pressure is still going to rise and the job is not done yet…

Facing short deadlines is something usual, so this is not the real problem.

I think people like short and sometimes too short deadlines on a project work. In this way, there is always a bit of a pressure and no time to relax. I am not going to discuss here if this is good or not, but let me just say that normal, realistic deadlines are better for a project and better for all involved partners.

Some could say that short deadlines and fast implementation can reduce your initial costs.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking and it is true in some cases – when you have prepared your project, as it should be.

But if you are implementing something that is not out of a box product and needs many adaptations, then it is much better to do your job well, professionally and fast but not too fast just to finish the first part of the project in due time.

You may ask,why.

The answer is simple. Because you will have higher cost of support later on, after the first step of the implementation is over.

How to Work with Users

Users can find an overnight change of their usual application very stressful.

Sometimes they are given just a few hours of prior training, probably carried out weeks too early.

Be patient, even if you think that the first day is the worst day, it is not.

Example of Good Practice:

After starting with a new programme, there was a lot of grumbling among the users, and there were complaints. Therefore, we decided that the OU that was the first to adopt the new system would receive daily training,every morningfor at least an hour. Every day we went trough the same procedure as the previous day and at the end, I added something new. This drill lasted for ten consecutive working days. It sounds a lot or even too much but the participants were our employees, our users who will have to work on a new system for the next few years, every single working day.

It was worth doing it! The users gained confidence in their work and skills, and were no longer afraid of new procedures they had to deal with.

There were some comments about the application, how nothing was like it should have been etc.

I would say those are almost regular and typical comments in such situations.

The first few days I was repeating myself, but in the next days things slowly changed to better.

The progress was significant and the users started to work more and more without help.

I planned to give them as much time as they needed. They knew they could ask someone if there was a problem and they knew they were not left alone. Normal working processes were a little bit slower at the beginning, users needed more time for a routine work then before, but that is normal and expected.

{There are always some users who think that they do not need this. Those users are troublemakers and you have to be very strict with them. Fighting with them is a waste of time. It is much better to make a working process better for others who will later on force the troublemakers to apply the new system.}

First Cold Shower:

I had the very first big confrontation with a manager of this OU after the first month of the implementation.

His/her comments were such as:

• Nothing is working as planned,
• we cannot work like this,
• this is a big step back,
• we want to work as we did before,
• we want all our data back in the way it was before…

This kind of a decision cannot be made only by one person, since the project is more strategic.

I tried to get out of those complaints as much information as I could. I told them to be patient and that a final decision was to be made after a month on a review meeting.

The first reaction was to interview all employees who were involved in a working process within that OU. As I suspected, there were no real complaints form their side, except some technical problems and some bug reports. But their work was going on normally and it was getting better every day.

I stated looking for a reason for such a negative attitude at the morning’s meeting. I found out that (I could have realized earlier) there were users who did not want to work with the new application and were trying to manipulate their superiors because they were late with their own work (Human resources is another topic).

First Success

After a week there was the first big success. A user who had been looking for a solution for his work process for a long time told me he was really happy because the whole new system that covered business processes of the entire OU ended up helping him to reduce the time spent on his own work. We are talking about time reduction by 40%.

I could write some more examples, but after that first period of training, things have improved.

• Now the users find the application useful,
• it helps them organize their work,
• it speeds up some of the processes,
• they have better control over their work, and, finally,
• it has helped them to automate some working processes so there is less typing and less mistakes and,
• there is also a financial benefit; KPI shows production growth by 30%!

Conclusion

• Plan your project work;
• Spend extra time on teaching;
• Never loose your temper, remember that if this kind a project is stressful for you, try imagine how stressful is for end-users;
• More or less it’s all about how you present a new project;
• Remember, it is worth being cooperative with users and open for their questions and problems related to a new project!