Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

“Business change is all about people.”  – We are really big fans of these words from Roger T. Burlton, an internationally recognized leader in business process change. He also expresses that business process changes must be managed holistically. We could not agree more.

Starting first with understanding where you are – what works, what is painful, what is stressful – establishes a baseline for the changes to make. In the discovery process we start exactly there, first understanding the “as is” picture and the people involved. It is important to draw on their wisdom on how things are, and are not, working. And then we work together to create a “to be” picture that involves changing the way some things are done. It is crucial to look at the priorities, and explore – can the organization use the technology already in place, in an improved manner (replacing the existing system is not always the answer)? Or maybe another solution is needed, and we look at how can that solution be integrated with back office systems (i.e. Accounting).

No matter what, as long as it is kept in mind that the change is all about the people (and the processes they use), there is hope for creating solutions that will make life easier for them, and help them focus on accomplishing what they do best.

Managing 3rd-party software implementations, including a new Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system, fundraising system, member management system, or any software that your organization is paying big dollars to a vendor for, is an opportunity for creative tension and creative solutions. You’ll find that the vendor’s implementation schedule provides the activities that they as a vendor need done for the product to be implemented. However, from your organization’s perspective, the system is part of an overall new way of operating as an organization, including redesigning your business processes and changing the way people work for the desired outcomes your organization is expecting for investing in such systems.

You have probably heard the 80/20 rule on these projects:  80% of a project’s success will depend on how effectively staff and key stakeholders adopt the new systems and processes, and 20% depends on the actually technology. Intentional approaches to planning and change-for people and processes-are crucial to the success of any technology project.

Such projects are also an opportunity for organizational development. Changes in behavior, which means changes in the way people think, are required because the way people work is going to change (regardless of how much folks like the change or not). There are a host of implementation activities to plan for and engage people in, including data conversion and validation, integration with other systems, case scenarios, testing (with gumption and friendly accountability), training that incorporates the new system and new processes, and preparing for the transition.

During transition, people might doubt the usefulness of process changes in conjunction with the new system, and there may be some confusion and a tendency to hold on to the former ways of thinking and doing things – old spreadsheets, the previous database, etc. During those first few days (and weeks) of using the new system, help ease the transition by talking about the way things were before, including inefficiencies and stress points, and by emphasizing the benefits of the new processes and systems.

Most importantly, persevere with moving forward to the new way of working and thinking and let go of those side spreadsheets and Access databases. When everyone is sharing responsibility and there is accountability for data integrity, the value of such changes can result in the ROI your organization is seeking – to achieve operational and reporting needs that the organization sought by implementing the new system. Everyone investing in the integrity of the data in the new system means everyone can trust the data, especially when you get that phone call requesting a report and you click a few buttons, have the report and can trust it is correct – such trust becomes priceless.