by Gary Mintchell | Feb 3, 2015 | Operations Management, Software
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.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 14, 2015 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Software
One of my prognostications from my last post on 2015 prognostications riffing off Jim Pinto’s post, dealt with analytics. I think this will not only be big, it will be essential to making you and your manufacturing enterprise competitive.
Mark Davidson of LNS Research, just wrote about the subject, Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) software, on the LNS blog site.
He asks, “1) What are the business results that manufacturing/production companies are achieving utilizing these software capabilities? And 2) What should you and your company be doing in regard to the opportunities presented by these technologies?”
He correctly addresses the core capability—operational and business performance dashboards that provide timely information to different users and roles.
Are people using these now? “61% of companies in the LNS Research Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) survey of over 550 professionals indicated that their companies either currently have EMI dashboards or are planning to install them in the next year.”
Here’s why this is important. “The joint LNS Research and MESA ‘Metrics That Matter’ survey uncovered a significant difference in average annual improvements in the costs of producing a unit of goods. Current users of EMI software recorded 24.1% average annual improvements in Total Cost per Unit Excluding Materials versus the 13.1% overall improvement of all respondents.” And, “Companies that have implemented EMI software solutions are experiencing 7.2% higher OEE performance than those who have not. The average OEE for those who have EMI solutions in place was 74, versus 69 for those who do not.”
Make sure your stars are aligned
And, his last thought, “It is imperative that you not only focus on these supporting new technologies, it’s important to also align your organization’s key resources: people and processes, along with your technology strategy.”
Check out Mark’s complete article. Then check out potential partners for implementing EMI applications. Let me know how you’re doing.
