Taking Ownership of Your New System
By Sheila Dooley, Business Analyst, ASAP Automation &
Kelly Wittman, Senior Consultant, Tompkins Associates
Challenges
Having the right resources to become the internal experts
It can be a challenge to identify the people who will be the system experts. The best individuals are those who have an interest in learning the new system, who understand the new system and who can readily communicate and explain to other employees the ins and outs of the new system. Being able to simply troubleshoot isn’t enough, the system expert needs to be able to communicate well with end users as well as with the system supplier support team.
Freeing up the system expert from day to day activities to learn the new system
Plan to have these system expert employees heavily involved in the system testing and training. It can be difficult to learn everything about the new system while still handling 100% of current day to day activities, so plan to reduce the current workload of your system experts, giving them time to participate and learn the new system.
Management support
The project is approved and the contract is signed but is management actively involved with the new system? It is critical that management takes an active role during the entire process of installing a new system. Employees aren’t going to buy into the changes and new processes if their bosses and managers don’t.
Accepting change
One of the biggest challenges with installing a new system is getting employees to embrace and prepare for the changes. Communication is key and employees never seem to say they have had too much communication about a new system. Encourage employees to ask questions. Consider posting a question/suggestion box for employees to anonymously ask questions they may be afraid to ask otherwise. One of the biggest fears employees have of a new system is the impact to their job. Consider writing up new job descriptions to clearly explain to employees what their job is today and what it will be with the new system.
The learning curve
You hear it over and over again about how important training is for a new system yet time and time again it is cut short. It is important to realize that not all employees are going to immediately grasp the new processes within a short time. Be realistic in your expectations and understand that it took years to get to the rates and levels you are today and a new system can initially make a negative impact as employees come to terms with operating with new processes at true daily volume levels rather than limited training levels.
Take Ownership? Why Bother?
Vendor, integrators and consultants can’t be onsite forever to handle day to day issues. It’s important to keep these outside resources on site if there are problems or additional training and assistance needed, otherwise send them on their way and avoid the additional costs that may be associated with keeping them longer than planned.
When you teach supervisors how to handle exceptions and troubleshoot problems early on, they gain confidence in the new system and their ability to support it and are less likely to express opposition to the new system, as well as encourage others in use of the system.
Taking ownership of your new system from the start will help you in getting faster and more useful assistance from vendors, integrators and consultants. The more you know and can readily communicate about a problem or question you have about your system the easier it is for those outside resources to quickly provide help.
