Investing in new technology can streamline processes and boost productivity at every level of your organization. But when implemented incorrectly, even the shiniest, most feature-rich tech stack additions can quickly turn into a challenge. That’s because even a good change is still a significant change for your team.
After helping firms implement AgilLink, we have identified the key ingredients needed to successfully adopt any SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. We break down the recommendations and strategies you need to get the most out of your technology investment.
Recommended implementation approach and process:
- Identify
- Communicate
- Plan
- Execute
- Ongoing operations
In the Identify stage you should begin by assigning critical roles for your team. The most critical role to identify in a successful adoption is the Executive Sponsor. They are responsible for defining the vision and goals for how the technology will positively impact the firm. They will also act as a critical decision maker in the implementation process.
Next, choose a Champion to be the “doer” in your implementation. They are the point person for the technology vendor responsible for identifying timelines, dependencies, setup tasks and training. A System Administrator must be trusted to create users, handle lockouts and reset passwords, and act as your Internal expert for first questions that are unique to firm processes and procedures. Finally, you will choose a Knowledge Manager to implement a “train the trainer” model, and to teach your firm's best practices and procedures on an ongoing basis, once your initial implementation is complete.
In the Communicate stage, the goal is to get buy-in from the employees who will be using the solution. You want them to feel comfortable giving input about how the new technology works, and how to make improvements. Keep in mind that change can be challenging; the team may resist, and many may wonder if they’ll even have a job once the implementation is complete.
To ease this transition, focus on reassuring your employees, being transparent, and involving them deeply in the process by communicating often about what you are trying to achieve. For successful adoption, start with top-down communication, explaining why the new technology is necessary, who will be involved in the deployment, and, most importantly, the impact the new solution is projected to have on the organization. Leadership should ensure that everyone on their team understands what’s coming next before it gets there.
Meetings should anticipate the following questions:
- Does your team understand the technology’s value to the overall workflow?
- Will their jobs change? If so, how?
- What are their new responsibilities, if any?
- How soon can they expect to see results?
In the Plan stage you are deciding how you will actually roll out the new technology. Specifically, you need to decide what clients/teams will be impacted and in what order, when to set up training for admins and users, how you will assign user permissions and plan for how to handle data in your environment. This is also a great time to develop measurable success factors and performance metrics
When you are ready to Execute your plan, decide how you will go live. If you are a small firm, you may want to go live all at once. If you are a medium or larger sized firm, consider going live in cycles or waves to ensure a smooth transition for employees and clients. Launching in waves is an effective way to catch and fix any issues early before they have a negative impact.
In the Ongoing operations phase, you are in a maintenance mode of ongoing support, monitoring and optimization. This is where successful firms focus on identifying important insights into what is working well and what may need to be adapted. This is also when you should go back to the measurable goals and metrics you identified in earlier stages to assess and evaluate your adoption.
When implementing new technology – if you want to be successful you need to plan for, identify and address implementation challenges early, and gain the buy-in and commitment for technology – driving engagement, enhancing efficiencies and improving user adoption – enabling you to maximize your return on investment. Otherwise, your technology is just an expensive tool that no one uses effectively.
By integrating these phases into your adoption and implementation strategy, you’ll start seeing tangible returns on your technology investments, as well as a happier, more productive team.
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