Technology accelerates business operations and streamlines processes. Regardless of company size, a new information technology system will provide benefits by improving work efficiency, productivity, and accuracy.
If you’re a business owner, you’d certainly want to make the most out of your technology investments. Correct implementation of a new IT system guarantees maximum utilization of features in your operations. To secure proper implementation of your IT system, here are essential steps for a successful rollout:
1. Check Your User Requirements
If you’re yet to invest in IT systems, you first need a complete guide to IT procurement. But, if you’ve procured one already, then you’ve likely documented your user requirements during the process of procurement.
User requirements are collected information from stakeholders, which include the list of end-users and the functionalities they need. This document is shared with your solutions provider and serves as the basis of the system design. An effective user requirement document specifies the scope of the system and the essential features the client needs.
In properly implementing your IT system, you must check the user requirements. This way, you and your provider can see which critical points must be prioritized for pilot testing. Moreover, with a list of requirements at your disposal, you can keep the provider accountable for completing all the necessary features you negotiated with them
2. Create A Team To Handle The Implementation
To keep your company moving forward, your employees must be adaptable to changes in the system. However, as much as you have a dynamic workplace, there’ll be people who may resist the changes. Opposition to a new IT system may be caused by the habitual practice of the old system or the fear of loss of skills. That’s why you need a set of people who can champion your innovation.
Build a team that you can tap for training and implementation. Create your implementation plan and set your deadlines. Define the roles and responsibilities of each member according to plan. Remember, your team members don’t need to be technical people.
For example, you may set your supervisors as ambassadors of the new system. By allowing them to integrate their workflows into your new system, your supervisors can effectively show the benefits of using your IT tools and encourage the rest of your employees to do the same.
3. Back-Up Copies When Migrating Your Data
Data migration is a necessary step in any technology adoption. You need to prepare your data and transfer them to another system. However, issues may stem from less successful data migration. For example, you may have inaccurate data, unreadable files, and redundancies. If your data are flawed from the start, this error can be compounded into the new system.
Before proceeding with your migration, you must ensure that you have backup copies of your files. Data is too valuable to be lost if the implementation of your new system doesn’t go as planned. It’s always better to be sure than to be sorry.
4. Conduct Specific Training For Different Stakeholders
Having new technology in the workplace means you need to upgrade the skills of your employees as well. Training and tutorials are effective strategies in aligning your employees’ knowledge and abilities with the organization’s environment.
To run the new system, your team may require system-specific training. Since you have various stakeholders, you may consider personalizing training sessions according to their use case. Additionally, you can have user support and an in-house help desk for those regular users of the system.
If you have a variety of training options, you can set different schedules. This way, your business can still have employees running the operations while some are undergoing the training.
5. Evaluate The System
Evaluating the system guarantees that your technology solution works. You can test for possible bugs and ensure that the data is processed correctly. You can also conduct a test if the tools you have worked seamlessly with other technologies. For instance, if you have customer management software that outputs reports, you’ll want to check if the system works with different printers.
Moreover, you can define metrics and align them with your organizational objectives. The metrics may include actual benefits, such as time and labor savings or the number of transactions done per day since the implementation of the new IT technology.
Key Takeaway
Successful implementation of a new information technology takes collaborative efforts among stakeholders, vendors, and executives. Communication is, without doubt, a vital tool in this collaborative undertaking. You can share the steps outlined above with your team and start your implementation of new IT technology without hesitation.
