Essential Problems at Key Stages of Information System Implementation and How to Resolve Them

In this article, I’m going to share how to receive a return on your software investment as fast as possible through examples of others’ mistakes. One stage – one mistake.

If you are planning on implementing an information system on your own, you need to understand that your problems only start with the payment for your newly acquired software.

Project Initiation

Mistake One. Not Initiating Implementation Officially

At Company X, a special work group was created to choose the suitable information system. It was a very tight-knit team who chose to implement the system on the company’s server after only four weeks of discussions, and then assigned the project to the implementation team.

And chaos ensued: the second group challenged everything that had been agreed and approved by the first one. They were seemingly against the changes, but, in reality, they just didn’t have the necessary information. Just imagine: the IT specialist setting up the system didn’t know that, in case of local installation, he would also need to set up the system. In the end, the works were delayed for 3 weeks, and everyone was on edge.

How to avoid this problem:

• When you have the work group and the responsible parties are defined, notify your employees that a new system is being introduced: conduct a jump start meeting or online briefing and answer all questions, so that even remote employees were in the know.
• Issue an order on the project initiation, send it to all employees to read, because, otherwise, people who weren’t notified, can be distrustful of the project, have their concerns or even attempt to stonewall it.
• If your implementation team is not the team that has chosen the software, it’s important to provide them with all the information gathered at the previous stage.

Assigning and Training Administrator

Mistake Two. Not Assigning or Training System Administrators

Company Y bought a cloud service. All the negotiations were conducted by the Head of Contracts who initiated the project because it was important to her to arrange for transparent contractual relations. During the meeting, she said that the company had the IT specialist who would set up the system, but he was not aware of this and told his colleague: “It’s your system – you set it up.”

The company opted out of the vendor’s setup, and the project initiator had to do everything by herself: study references and work with no-code applications. Just imagine how disappointed the client felt! Fortunately, everything worked out fine.

Every piece of software should have an employee responsible for it since an empty system will be useless and a bad setup will irritate everyone with inaccurate rules. Besides, the system should grow continuously and change along with the company. Ideally, you should have the following roles filled:

• The system owner who will make decisions on the system growth and changes,
• Process owners. These are heads of the departments whose processes are automated by the system. They must keep them updated and provide improvement suggestions,
• System administrator (for the local installation option) who will be responsible for the software installation, updates and troubleshooting,
• Analyst who will set up new processes and update the existing ones.

For small companies, one or two persons can assume several positions.

How to avoid this problem:

• Assign an analyst who will be trained in the system setup, and, for local installation, additionally, system administrators – in the system setup and maintenance,
• Relieve the administrators from their ongoing job duties while they are taking the courses,
• Provide the administrators with all the information on the corporate structure, types of documents and chains of approvals.

Software Installation

Mistake Three. Forgetting to Estimate Your Resources for Local Installation

If you choose cloud deployment, skip this stage: the system will be installed by the supplier’s specialists without your involvement and they will simply give you access details.

At Company Z, for the local installation, one of the customers said that their admin would manage the installation on the server by himself, and it will be us, the supplier, who would set up the system. After the installation software delivery, we waited for the IT specialist’s go-ahead to start with our part of the job. It was one week, then another, and another…

The CEO started to ask us why the system wasn’t ready. It turned out that their IT specialist was busy with his regular job duties and didn’t have the time to read the software instructions and dragged without informing the manager. Four working days more – and we were tasked with the installation. We could finally get moving.

How to avoid this problem:

• It’s important that you discuss the IT specialist’s competences and workload with him. If it becomes clear that the process will be time-consuming, you should order the installation from the vendor. The more the system sits on the shelf, the higher the probability that it will stay on this shelf forever.
• It’s best to include the system administrator into the work group from the start, so that he understood what he is going to deal with,
• Check that the communications between the IT Department and the vendor’s manager are up and running,
• Study technical server requirements and installation instructions provided by the vendor. Based on them, you can agree upon the deadlines for studying the documentation and for the installation itself.
• If a lot of time has passed after the system was delivered to you and it’s still not installed, ask the supplier for the latest version of the software.

Business Process Design

Mistake Four. Tasking an Inexperienced Employee with Business Process Design

One of our clients was planning on deploying a system on their own server. An employee with a 2-month experience at the company was assigned as the project manager. Probably, the management assumed that the new employee didn’t have too many tasks and that she was capable enough based on her CV. But in reality, she had trouble answering the questions about the company’s processes, corporate pain points, its hardware and resources. When it was time for structuring business processes and filling in the initial setup questionnaire, the project deadlines were at risk.

The employee was not familiar with the colleagues responsible for the processes, couldn’t approach them with questions regarding the rules, and was afraid to insist that this information was critical. At the same time, she didn’t ask for help from the management to not seem incompetent. In the end, it took 2 months to just fill in the questionnaire. Of course, the company’s CEO ran out of patience, and the employee was on the brink of dismissal. But the reality was that she was initially tasked with a mission too complicated for a new employee.

How to avoid this problem:

• Assign an experienced employee who knows the company and the colleagues to be the project manager responsible for the analysis and information gathering. It will take far less time and will be far less stressful.
• Make it an official order for the employees to assist the project manager.
• After the questionnaire is completed, have all the information necessary for the system setup approved by experienced employees.

By the way, it’s important to study the information gathered and assess your processes at this stage. You will probably catch some odd stages. For example, currently, your contracts are approved successively, going from one employee to another, and, with your system in place, you will be able to have it approved in parallel to save time.

System Setup

Mistake Five. Delaying Setup for Months

Design studio X purchased a cloud service. The customer insisted that they would set up the system immediately but a busy season started. There was a lot of work, and the priorities changed. As a result, the system wasn’t launched even 3.5 months later. Since the cloud service was paid annually and the customer used the system less than 9 months instead of 12, the company lost money.

How to avoid this problem:

• Some administrators don’t start the setup because they are afraid to make a mistake, damage business processes, or raise the ire of the colleagues. As a matter of fact, modern systems are very flexible, and you can correct any error quite promptly.

• Begin preparing the system and gathering information right from the start, when you are still choosing the suitable system.

• Enlist your manager’s support and ask them to allot a certain time specifically for the setup.

  
  

Remember that delaying the implementation is a complete waste of resources and loss of profits due to suboptimal processes.

Training Your Employees

Mistake Six. Forgetting to Manage User Training

Company Z had 56 employees. The customer said that they would train one administrator who would then give lessons to all other employees divided into three groups. Good choice! But the administrator relied on his colleagues’ self-discipline who were tasked with reading reference documents every morning by themselves.

It’s no wonder that the training didn’t go right: after all, the employees had no control, no assistance, no motivation. In the end, they couldn’t understand the system’s logic, didn’t know how to create documents and what to do with them. In private, they complained that the system was too complicated and even started asking to go back to their usual paper-based processes. Thankfully, the CEO took matters in his own hands in time, arranged for the training services and started to refuse to sign paper documents.

Companies often ignore the user training stage but, in reality, if your employees can’t use the system, they will make a lot of mistakes, waste time, and eventually start avoiding it. By the way, it is usually the employees with bad performance who object to the changes because they don’t benefit from transparent processes.

How to avoid this problem:

• Inform the users that their work will change for the better, which routine processes they will get rid of, and what types of work will speed up.
• Purchase a special course for regular users.
• Alternatively, make it obligatory for all employees to study reference documents or video instructions for one hour each day for two weeks. Control this process and motivate the employees.
• Another option is to have a couple of employees well-trained with a course so that they, in turn, could train other groups of users.
• Record your own how-to videos and create instructions with screenshots to make the training easier.
• Stimulate the employees who have started actively using the system, praise them at meetings, mention their work and efforts.
• Actively involve the management in usage of the system.

Test Operation

Mistake Seven. Work Group Doesn’t Test the System

At Company Z, the IT specialist decided to save time and let all the employees use the new system all at once. What a nuisance! The Legal Department started sending urgent documents but there were inconsistencies. For example, lawyers received agreements before they were agreed upon by the counterparties. The company had to immediately cease all electronic operations. After this mishap, the management assigned five employees to check all the agreements against the rules, and they managed to catch all the errors within several days. Two weeks later, all employees resumed their use of the system, with the time needed for document approval decreasing twice.

How to avoid this problem:

• Have the work group use the new system first: they should send tasks, generate assignments, and create various types of documents.
• Enter all faults into a separate document with a full description of the process, so that the administrator could understand what should be adjusted.
• Make use of the hours allotted for consultations to correctly set up the system and take heed of the vendor’s advice.

Pilot Operation and System Development

Mistake Eight. Missing out on Continuous Support and Development of the System

Company Y implemented and was using a system for almost two years. The administrator got trained and was good at maintaining it. During that time, he didn’t turn to the support service once because he was able to resolve all the issues using reference documents. The company continued to grow, and this key employee got transferred to a department in another city. The first branch was left with no administrator who could add new employees, change positions, introduce new document types and approval rules. In the end, the system no longer met current business needs and only stirred resentment. The company had to urgently seek another administrator to save the day.

How to avoid this problem:

• Enter all the involved departments into the system’s reference documents and make other customisations, actively launch processes, sign documents, issue orders. This will help you polish your processes.
• Create a L1 support service consisting of the lead users and the administrator as there will be a lot of similar questions at first.
• Train several administrators to make them interchangeable. Even well-polished processes will require adjustments at some point.
• When possible, record in brief which adjustments were done, so that the new administrator didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

My congratulations! Your system has been successfully implemented! Now comes the most interesting part: working with the new rules and watching how the company changes for the better.