By: Lauren Dellarocco
Technology is constantly evolving. With every passing day, innovations arise, new software programs emerge, and new implementation strategies become necessary. If your company wants to gain or maintain a competitive advantage in the market, it’s vital that it stays technologically relevant.
With constant advancement and optimal strategies for implementation, technology can increase a business’s profit, productivity, security, work culture, internal communication among team members, and external communication between an organization and its clients.
- Conducted by a Data-Mania study, 90% of executives polled agree that advanced analytics technologies help their business to be more competitive.
- Spiceworks reports that in 2019, 57% of small businesses were motivated to buy new technologies for the sole reason of growing their business.
- Spiceworks also deduced that 62% of small businesses bought new technologies due to their previous technologies reaching end-of-life.
As new, advanced technologies continue to emerge, old technologies will inevitably reach this end-of-life point. Adapting to new technological advancements is an unavoidable necessity for any company that hopes to remain in business.
Staying on top in the world of technology means staying on top in the competitive market. With a successful implementation, technology can take any business, small or large, to the next level.
Step-By-Step Technology Implementation Guide for Your Business
No matter the size of an organization, large or small-scale, the implementation of new processes, procedures or technologies should be assisted by a straightforward step-by-step guide. Clear deadlines and progress checkpoints should be measured by management, communicated with the team, and enforced by leaders.
Although the specifics for each organization’s steps and requirements will vary by the project, consider these broad steps to ensure details don’t slip through the cracks.
Step 1: Initial Evaluation of Needs and Requirements
The first concern in how to create an implementation plan is whether or not the new technology will be advantageous for your company. If your organization has decided to take on a new technology, it’s likely there was a motivating factor, or multiple factors, driving the change.
Identify your reasonings for implementation; why is your organization adopting a new software or machinery?
Is your organization adopting this technology to:
- Reduce costs?
- Track overall progress?
- Increase productivity and efficiency?
- Replace outdated or end-of-life technology?
- Facilitate communication between team members?
- Accommodate a business transformation to which your current technology no longer caters?
As a leader or manager in charge of implementing new technology in an organization, determining the specific needs for undertaking a new technology can ensure that the team benefits from its absolute potential.
To further develop your need for a new technology, consider:
- What is working in the organization? What aspects are seeing profit or progress?
- What isn’t working at your organization?
- Where is there room for improvement? What pain points are team members experiencing?
- What exactly is going to change with the introduction of a new technology?
- How does your organization plan to measure progress with the software or machinery?
- How will leaders and managers in the organization rank priorities of what features or phases are to be introduced first?
Determining the priority of integral pieces within a new technology is beneficial for the collective workforce to maintain a clear, linear understanding throughout the implementation process. Deciding which elements of the new technology will provide prompt and effective solutions in your organization will help to provide accurate insight on specific priorities. Otherwise, introducing technology into a workforce too expeditiously or with too many moving parts at once could leave your team overwhelmed with information.
Discuss your team’s pain points and encourage honest feedback and suggestions from employees, leaders, and managers in each department. Points of frustration that one department experiences may be entirely different than the challenges another department faces.
When you observe what isn’t working, you’re able to identify holes or inconsistencies in the process. These holes help you determine the gaps that need to be filled, which indicates the specific technologies that could be most effective in benefiting the organization.
Step 2: Develop a Calendar for the Implementation of your New Technology
A project management calendar is an excellent tool for a company to ensure that its processes stay organized, especially when introducing new software or technology. Establishing checkpoints and progress points with a visual representation can keep employees, leaders and managers on the same page, progressing on the same timeline.
When determining how to create an implementation plan, consider separating the implementation process into numerous phases with regular review meetings to gauge how comfortable employees and managers are with each step. Establish a beginning and end date of each phase to keep your team on track, and to encourage accountability.
Step 3: Offer support for employees while implementing new technology.
It’s important to offer a support system for employees while they’re undergoing the transition to new technologies. Without the proper training, a team won’t understand how to realize the full potential or possibility for improvement with new software or machinery.
An implementation training program with a mentoring system can help employees to grasp the newly-introduced procedures and operations associated with the technology. Consider a comprehensive training for select leaders and managers to pass on their knowledge to employees. Once the designated mentors have extensive training with the new technology or software under their belt, they’ll have an authentic, first-hand understanding of how to convey that information effectively to other employees.
New training implementation technology is ideal for cultivating an effective and efficient training process. Instead of using paper manuals or monotonous lectures to train employees, use a program or software to keep employees engaged and attentive. Opt for interactive training programs that prompt employees to engage themselves with their training sessions.
Software training programs are optimal for providing solutions and real-time help for employees throughout the process. Employees may have questions or encounter challenges while learning the features of a new technology. Programs, such as communication journeys, can help to guide employees through the training process, educating them on strategic initiatives with custom communication campaigns.
Step 4: Wait until you know you have the right technology before introducing it to the team.
With new technologies emerging by the day, it’s tough for businesses not to feel pressured to adopt a new technology, but it’s important to avoid rushing into the decision to take on a new, promising software or program. If your organization is seeing a downturn in profits, new client acquisition or a similarly-defined metric, leaders in your organization may be tempted to make a hasty decision in purchasing and implementing new technology.
When an organization makes a hasty software or machinery implementation, technology may seem overwhelming and discouraging to employees and managers. Take time to identify and work out the kinks, bugs, challenges and best training techniques before introducing a new technology to the workforce. If the new technology you introduce turns out to be the wrong technology for your organization, invaluable time and resources that could’ve been spent implementing the right technology were wasted.
Step 5: Plan for roadblocks.
Finally, plan for roadblocks during this process of implementation. Technology, especially recently-advanced technology, can be finicky. The initial project managing calendar that you created in Step 2 will likely require some adjustment or additional room between deadlines to factor in roadblocks. Plan for this ahead of time by scheduling a few days of trial and error or days of added training into the timeline. With major initiatives like a new implementation of technology, an employee communication software can keep employees engaged and involved through customized, strategic communication journeys.
The business world and the technological world must evolve parallel to each other. No matter your organization’s industry, implementing new technology in an organization is vital for staying competitive in the dynamic market.
Take a step-by-step approach to integrate new technologies with your organization to ensure a successful implementation that leads to reduced costs, improved productivity and increased profits.
