5 Hacks to Make Your Software Implementation a Breeze

There is one thing many companies fail to account for when planning a software implementation: The productivity paradox. A business may adopt new technology for any number of reasons—to automate certain tasks, increase efficiency, improve the quality of work, enable greater collaboration, and so on. Following such an investment, employees expect the new tool to deliver its promised benefits. They expect productivity to rise, but more often than not, it doesn’t. At least not right away.

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Instead, productivity drops. The reason? Employees are unable to use the solution to its maximum capability during the onboarding process. There’s usually a steep learning curve when it comes to integrating new tools into the daily workflow. Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to prevent this.

How to Combat the Productivity Paradox During Software Implementation

Declining productivity in the wake of a software implementation not only threatens your ROI, it can lead to frustration and diminished morale for employees. The volume of help-desk tickets is bound to rise, consuming valuable time and resources in your IT department. However, you can deploy several hacks while implementing a new software to protect your company’s productivity. Here are 5 tips to improve software onboarding before, during, and after implementation.

1. Define specific goals for the software.

Outlining the goals you want a new software to help you achieve should occur long before implementation. Once you’ve articulate the purpose, budget, and workflow for the solution, it’s time to communicate them to the company’s stakeholders and users—the employees. Keep these goals at the forefront during the implementation process, and use them as a way to measure the new tool’s efficacy. Solicit feedback from employees along the way to gain insight about where users run into difficulty. From there, you can course correct.

2. Open a line of communication with the system provider.

There is an entire support team behind the software that your company chooses to implement. Take advantage of these experts! No one knows the solution better or is more equipped to offer guidance during your implementation than the vendor’s customer support team. Don’t hesitate to enlist their help. Establishing solid communication during the implementation process is important for maintaining a good relationship down the road, especially if issues with the technology arise. To ease the software implementation process, make sure you have clarification on documentation, payment policies, and most importantly, tech support. If you are mid-implementation and find yourself unable to ask questions and collaborate with the software provider, you are walking a slippery slope.

3. Document issues as they occur.

Keep a detailed log of the technical issues that arise. If productivity is declining, you can turn to this list to identify which issues may be contributing. From there, you can work with customer support and employees to come up with a solution. During and after the implementation, give priority to the issues that are barriers to you goals. Once identified, continue to check on them through the software training process to ensure they don’t continue to impede productivity. Software implementation demands a group effort. That’s why it’s critical for each team member to understand their role in the process. After establishing the goals you want the software to help you achieve, clarify each person’s individual duties. Who will oversee the implementation process? Who is in charge of creating the training curriculum? What type of training do you think will be most effective? Who is in charge of handling questions?

4. Develop a comprehensive training plan.

Training is integral to software onboarding. Without a thorough employee training plan, you will encounter an endless stream of issues during and after your software implementation. The better software training and education, the stronger the foundation for success. However, many employees are wary of adopting new software, simply because training typically requires them to spend less time doing their jobs.

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With on-screen, contextual guidance, employees can learn to use new tools while continuing to perform their daily tasks. Productivity remains high, and time-to-competency on the new software is drastically reduced.