It starts with teamwork.
While the first step to any successful implementation starts with purchasing the right CTRM software, the true secret to a successful CTRM implementation lies with your team. With the right support and motivation, your implementation will be seamless, painless, and in budget.
Before you implement any new software, make sure the software has strong support from your executive team, senior business users, and super users. Adopting new software, especially if you have had the old system for a long time, can be challenging, frustrating, and even intimidating. You often meet resistance from users who are comfortable with their current routine.
Having the highest levels of an organization proactively promoting the new system helps reduce resistance and reenforces the importance of the new system to the company. If leaders share the reasons why the system will benefit the users – how the new software will help them in their day-to-day challenges – they will be less resistant to the change. Include users in the evaluation process, make sure their reservations are addressed, and make sure leaders show their enthusiasm and faith in the new system.
Before you even purchase a new CTRM system, your entire team needs to align on the goals of implementing a new system and the features you need to support your business. Evaluate how the new software will achieve the goals everyone has agreed on. Address concerns before you choose the new software and make sure everyone feels comfortable with the choice, especially if compromises are made. Before the implementation begins, remind everyone of objectives of the project.
When possible, choose software with more out-of-the-box features and minimize customizations. When you start to add custom features, you increase the length of the implementation and can quickly lose control of the project. Meeting deadlines becomes difficult if you start adding features mid-implementation, and budgets can explode.
Make sure you have a clear, realistic plan for the implementation. Everyone wants fast implementations, but too fast is not always the best course. A recent video by Third Stage Consulting Group highlights an SAP ERP implementation at Hershey that went horribly wrong because the implementation was rushed. The new system was incapable of processing hundreds of millions of dollars in Hershey Kiss and Jolly Rancher orders after go-live.
Don’t create timelines that set you up for failure. You may want the new system today, but you need a solution that works. Make sure you share the timeline with the entire team and confirm that it works for everyone. Create a clear process for data migration from your old systems and provide enough time to test the new system and ensure it meets all your needs.
A successful implementation requires good software and good teamwork. Focus on both and your entire team will be happy with the results.
iRely’s Business Process Review (BPR) was developed to ensure your team gets exactly what they need from our software. During our BPR, we thoroughly evaluate your current business processes with senior business users and your management team. We review and map current business processes into the iRely system to develop new, updated process flows.
New process flows are clearly defined with the series of steps outlined so everyone can visualize processes from beginning to end. Everything is clearly reviewed and approved before the implementation begins. All document prints and reports – reports, invoices, statements, etc. – are reviewed and agreed upon. Any customizations required are clearly defined and documented, so everyone knows exactly what the project entails.