Open Heart Surgery
The painful yet essential move to Landscape Business Software.
Selecting and deploying a Business Management Software is one of the most significant decisions a management team will make in the life of their business. Making a wrong decision, or failing to include important variables, can have heavy costs – dollars and beyond; but, making the right decision can mean supercharging your systems and your teams to grow larger and healthier than ever before. Here are some of the things we regularly encourage customers to consider in making a great decision.
You! This journey is all about your team. What’s working well and what isn’t? Is this software a match both for now and for where we aim to be in a few years? Do all of the services we provide have features in this software to help? Play to your strengths.
Price versus Value: In general, software solutions with more gaps that require more workarounds by your team will cost you less money but cost more admin and manager time, and software that is more complete and feature-rich is more expensive but drives a bigger return on investment. What processes can you automate, which ones will still require some human intervention, and are there items that should remain manual but simply documented electronically? Include not just the price tag but how much you stand to lose or gain.
Deployment: The deployment of the software should be a large part of the decision when it comes to selecting the software for operating your business. Some software packages offer no in-person or phone support during the deployment process at all – just license keys and YouTube videos and eight hours or less of help. Others are very hands-on with phone, online, and in-person support. What drives the best long-term success for your team?
Ongoing Support: Is support billed by the hour, or is it included (limited or unlimited) free of charge? Is reporting something you run and adjust on your own, or do they require a technical resource to get paid up-front to set it up for you? Uncover the hidden costs.
Solid Advice: You have a vision of where you want your company to go, but the path to get there using technology may be unclear. Business leaders often make a critical mistake in choosing the path to reach their goal but may be unrealistic about where they are starting from. Outside consultants can give you an objective view; peer groups are helpful; and talking to those that have done it before and learning from their mistakes can help. The process doesn’t have to be painful, but it should be challenging and eye-opening.
Team Readiness: Even once you have the software all set up the management of change can add additional challenges to the process. Some staff will jump at the chance to improve, others are impervious, and others actively undermine the process. Envisioning how this will take place and executing it is crucial. Do you “rip off the bandage” and just start? Do you take one group at a time live and work it through slowly? Or is what’s best for your team somewhere in the middle? Managing the human element well in conjunction with technology will achieve the best results.
Be encouraged: The journey is worth it! When this software transition is done well, you will end up in a much better place; technology can quickly advance a company when done correctly.