10 questions to ask when implementing a new IT solution

In this blog we will present some questions you should ask– of yourself, your leadership team, and your users – to ensure that the adoption of new tools is succinct, proficiency is prioritized, and your meaningful work can resume, but better.

What to ask before a new system implementation

There are many considerations for the CIO, their team, and the C-suite when choosing a vendor, defining the scope of a tool, and defining what ‘value’ means when implementing a new ERP system.

Here are some questions you should have clear answers to before undergoing a new system implementation plan.

1. What outcome does your organization need?

Implementation is pointless without a pre-defined goal. Perhaps you are trying to turn around disengagement, meet new compliance measures, or seek to find more mature financial planning processes. 

Moreover, it’s hard to get teams and executives to adopt a new tool without a desired outcome you can define, this could be less time spent on manual data tasks, higher employee engagement scores, or an improved user experience.

2. What is the cost of doing nothing?

Understanding the cost of ‘doing nothing’, and being able to measure how much your current process is costing you, in terms of productivity as well as money, is vital to defining the value of changing a process. 

By defining the consequences of continuing to use legacy systems, the case for implementing a new system becomes clear. For example, with 30 FTEs working an average of 38 hours a month, at $37,000 per employee, a 25% efficiency improvement will result in $63,000 savings per year, saving employees 10 hours a month.

3. What is the scope of the new system?

Stakeholders, users, and the teams implementing the new system will all want to know what the scope of implementation is. Will this just affect a single team? Will onboarding be organization-wide? How many processes will be affected?

Teams want to know not just why a new system is needed but also what implementation might look like, how long it could take, and whether it will align with value.

Click to read Increasing Excellence in IT with ERP Gated

4. Is the senior leadership team on board? 

The executives of your organization need to be onboard. Stakeholders, partners, and the C-suite need to understand the use case, the onboarding approach, and the value of the new system. 

Leadership needs to understand how your onboarding strategy will affect budgets, and where and when return on investment can be found. This all needs to be outlined in a clear project plan.

5. Is your IT team on board?

To successfully implement a new IT system, the IT team needs to be onboarded themselves. It’s much easier to communicate your onboarding plans to an IT team when the outcomes of implementation and use case are clear.

If your team is implementing something they don’t fully understand or see the use of, the implementation process won’t be airtight. Poor implementation will cost money and lead to poor adoption, so ensure your IT team is onboard first.

6. What resources are required for successful implementation?

One of the most common reasons implementations fails is a lack of appropriate resources. Without defining the implementation process, you won’t get the required resources for succinct and successful implementation. Whether that is allocated budget, training, personnel, or even collaboration with HR, this must be predefined.

7. Who will own the implementation process? 

It’s important to know who takes responsibility for the implementation process. In the vendor selection stage, it can be useful to understand whether the third-party vendor will have a hand in implementation. If this isn’t the case, you must be clear with senior leadership that the success of implementation will fall on your organization.

8. Is the end user onboard?

System implementation will always fail if the end user isn’t onboard. The end user must be briefed on the tools’ value, how onboarding will look, how their goals may change, and the expected adoption level. It’s important to understand whether the end user wants or needs a tool before trying to implement one.

Notably, AI is a pertinent example as many end users of an AI tool can be hesitant to adopt these tools without a transparent implementation plan that is communicated clearly. It is important that users understand how to use the tool effectively and do not open up the organization to legal issues when AI is misused.

9. Has your implementation plan been communicated?

Most tools need implementation for adoption and proficiency, but if this need isn’t communicated then the tool won’t be adopted. Implementation shouldn’t be a surprise, but a clear and predefined responsibility outlined within a change management strategy.

The CIO/IT team should work together to clearly articulate value and what is expected of users and when so that uniformed users don’t derail onboarding goals

10. How will you measure success?

To measure success, you must first have clear outcomes you wish to achieve, but without a proper plan or method to measure this success the true effects of implementation will be hard to monitor.

For example, if you wish to boost employee engagement, how will you measure that? Will you use pre-defined engagement scoring? Or perhaps compare the number of responses to an internal survey to previous years?

How Unit4 can provide a smooth onboarding experience

Unit4 is in business for people, and we work with clients in people-centric sectors like professional services, nonprofits, and the public sector. Our approach to software design puts people first.

At Unit4, we call this approach the People Experience. It aims to make work easy and intuitive so that your people are engaged and productive, and your organization achieves its goals. We shape software around the way users want to work and hope to provide your organization with an industry-leading user experience.

People Experience extends to how we run implementation projects. We work very closely with clients, involving them in decisions and empowering the implementation process. We transfer our knowledge to you so you can manage the software in the future and adapt it to changing circumstances internally.

Our clients have rated their implementation experience on the independent peer review site, Raven Intel, and Unit4 consistently scores higher than the industry average.

Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) for project implementation is 8.3 versus an average of 7.1 for the industry. We also deliver 25 percent more projects on time compared to the sector, and our consultants are rated an impressive 4.2 out of 5.

To learn how Unit4’s ERP suite, fit with Financials, HCM, FP&A, and Procurement solutions, can help you realize the outcomes you need, just talk to sales, today.