Mike Roberts at LNS Research has posted a blog 11 Tips for Stimulating Enterprise Software Adoption. Many, if not all, of these tips have been written about before. This is a useful compilation of them in one place. Reading between the lines, I wonder if he’s talking about putting in one of those huge, monolithic software solutions that, in reality, have a spotty record of installation and adoption. Even so, these are more important than ever.
I’ll summarize a few here. Head over to the blog to catch them all along with their
- Ensure Executive Sponsorship and Buy-In for the Project
Executive sponsorship is key to getting budget approval for an enterprise software investment, but the role of leadership has to extend beyond that. One aspect that may facilitate executive buy-in and use is evaluating solutions with robust executive dashboards and reporting capabilities early on.
- Include Users in the Solution Selection Process Upfront
It’s important to not alienate the professionals who will actually use the solution from the processes of developing user requirements, selection, and coming up with a deployment plan.
- Put Together a Deployment Team to Support the Project over Its Lifecycle
Because every company has a unique set of IT resources and user requirements, it’s feasible to forecast on-the-fly adjustments will be required during the deployment to create a better user experience or to troubleshoot a system issue.
- Execute a Pilot Deployment before Transitioning Enterprise-Wide
It’s common for companies to initiate a deployment with a single module or two to attain early user feedback and get the process down.
- Identify & Empower “System Champions” to Support and Drive Adoption
Just like there are early adopters on the technology adoption lifecycle for consumer products, the same can be said in the business world.
- Invest in Change Management that Ensures Long-Term Adoption
Although leadership should anticipate some resistance, they should also have a plan for overcoming it.
