A frictionless software implementation process matters to your team, your customers, and your business.
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Whether you are running a hardscape business, manufacturing operation, retail company, or an entirely different organization, technology is foundational component of your workflows. With that in mind, maintaining a competitive edge means you need modern, scalable, and robust systems to support your company’s long-term growth. At some point, virtually every business will face the prospect of a software implementation.
Requiring careful planning and diligence, a software implementation is a strategic framework for implementing and introducing new technologies, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. The level of difficulty varies depending on the complexity of the software, the size of your organization, and your specific business requirements. It encompasses planning, configuration, customization, testing, training, and eventual rollout
Typically, you’ll work with your solutions provider on a requirement analysis, system design, data migration, integration, and post-implementation training for end-users. One thing remains constant: whether you’re replacing an existing application or starting from scratch, a successful implementation should leave customers feeling confident and supported.
A seamless implementation delivers several key advantages:
When done successfully, software implementation processes streamline operations, boost efficiency, and significantly reduce your risk of delays and missed deadlines.
Perhaps most important, a well-run software implementation mobilizes end-users early and often, using change management techniques while encouraging everyone to embrace the new system. In return, you’ll enjoy reduced time to value and improved ROI, both of which are critical during high-stakes technology projects.
Before you begin scheduling demonstrations or speaking to vendors, you must define your company’s “why.” Start by making a list of pointed questions, including:
Meet with organizational decision-makers to go over these questions together. It’s important to avoid generic responses and generalizations—for example, you shouldn’t pursue a particular upgrade or solution simply because it is “designed for your industry.” Instead, work together to come up with measurable ways the new system can transform your business processes and impact your bottom line. After you’ve answered these questions, develop a mission statement for your software implementation project. Make it high-level but specific enough to keep the team focused during the planning and solution design processes.
Once you know what’s motivating your new technology investment, you can follow these software implementation steps to continue your seamless rollout:
First and foremost, perform an honest analysis of your organization with a focus on its tech suite. Make a list of technologies that adequately meet the requirements of the business while also identifying any lackluster tools that may be holding it back or limiting its overall competitiveness.
From there, you can determine what your company needs most from a new solution. Some capabilities to consider include:
Don’t stop here, though—it’s important to tie each need to a specific business use case and benefit. Specify what you could achieve or the kinds of improvements the company would enjoy with the addition of each “required” feature. For instance, you could use financial automation capabilities to streamline administrative processes and improve efficiency during accounts payable and receivable operations.
From there, work with your vendor to define the scope of the project and establish a concrete timeline. While they should be willing to accommodate a wide range of implementation goals, the process should be collaborative—meaning any potential vendor should also be honest with you about what is or is not realistic.
At the same time, you should set clear expectations and be upfront about your non-negotiables—defining these from the outset will keep everyone in alignment throughout the project.
Far too many businesses encounter serious struggles during their software implementation because they lack change management skills. Remember, rolling out a new technology platform isn’t just hard on the business in question. It can initially seem unsettling and burdensome to your employees as well.
With that in mind, make an effort to get your team members involved early in the process. As soon as organizational leadership decides to explore new software options, notify your staff and be transparent about your goals. Identify team leaders, like supervisors or managerial staff, to spearhead various phases of the project.
Additionally, if it’s practical, loop mid-level management personnel from across the organization into your planning process. Each department head can provide a unique perspective into the company’s needs and project requirements. Proactively addressing change management challenges can mitigate resistance and promote better buy-in across the company.
Next, begin working with your line-level employees and mid-level managers to create two different feature lists. The first should identify non-negotiable capabilities, such as cloud-based technologies.
The second can focus on “nice-to-haves,” i.e., things that would add value to the organization but don’t have to be included in the initial rollout.
On that note, it’s important to find a modular solution so that you can add features later after your core needs are met.
At this point, it’s time to start exploring vendors; use your list of non-negotiables to eliminate any products that aren’t a good fit for your business. If you still have a long list of prospective partners, narrow your search even further by looking for vendors who do the following:
To be fair, a vendor isn’t “bad” just because they don’t offer all of these perks. Nevertheless, the best partners will be confident enough in their products to offer things like free demos and modular technologies.
We also recommend reading reviews and testimonials to help ensure that companies you are considering have experience working with clients in your industry.
Don’t wait until the go-live date to start training your team. Begin creating educational assets early and develop a cohesive training schedule weeks in advance. A good vendor will provide you with quality educational resources to help bring your team up to speed.
Focus on role-specific training, taking care to avoid inundating employees with too much information. It’s important to include some cross-training, though, so employees can step in and fill other roles during times of high demand.
Even if your team is confident in the training they have received, implementation day is still going to be challenging. Let your employees know you appreciate their willingness to explore something new, and be honest about the fact that there will be a few hurdles along the way. Consider bringing in extra IT staff to help out as well.
After the dust has settled, do something to show your team that they are valued—plan a company-wide lunch or host a celebratory BBQ. These efforts go a long way in boosting morale and encouraging your staff to embrace change with a sense of adventure and collaboration.
Before going live, it’s important to customize your software to suit your organization’s unique needs. Implement any integrations so your solution can share information with your other tech tools. Set up dashboards, reporting criteria, and other features specific to your business. Make sure to collaborate with your vendor during this step—top-level technology partners should offer personalized support and assistance with data migration, so you can make the most of your new investment.
Data migration is one of the most daunting tasks in the software implementation process, consisting of moving all the information from your old platform to the new environment. You cannot simply transfer the data from the old solution to the modern one, as simple as that may sound—doing so will create an implementation nightmare. Instead, you must first clean your data. This involves deleting duplicate records, correcting inaccurate files, and making other adjustments to help provide a fresh start on the new platform. Outsource this if you don’t have the IT bandwidth to handle these tasks internally—although this may initially create an added expense, it will also make the rollout of your new software go much more smoothly.
It’s also important to conduct rigorous testing to identify and any issues, helping ensure the software meets performance and reliability standards. While you don’t want to push back any rollout deadlines, you also should be confident that all bugs have been resolved before transitioning to the next phase of the implementation. Don’t view a glitch or bug as “negligible;” instead, stick to your standards and do everything possible to get the software performing as designed. Remember, seemingly small problems become monumental ones at scale. Coordinating these fixes with your vendor expedites the troubleshooting process. Chances are, they have standard procedures for resolving common bugs—they are your best resources during this critical point with new software.
Collect feedback from your team. Encourage them to be honest about what they liked, what could have been improved. If necessary, make the feedback collection process anonymous to encourage greater transparency.
Wherever possible, apply this feedback from your team to streamline processes. Consider reconfiguring some of the custom features if necessary. Share your staff’s insights with the vendor so they can make the product better for everyone.
Finally, it’s vital to monitor both software and company performance. If you aren’t realizing the benefits you identified in your pre-planning stages, you need to find out why. On the flip side, if you achieve significant efficiency and productivity gains, build on those successes by tapping into additional software features and investing in other modules.
Epicor provides a wide range of technological solutions for our customers, including business intelligence software, manufacturing ERP platforms, and more. As your technology experts, we can help you create seamless software implementation process flows and a frictionless rollout of your new tech tools.
To learn more or schedule a demo of our solutions, contact us today for a personalized consultation.
