Brandee Fantini – Principal and Strategy Activator In a system implementation, your role as end user is arguably the most important. If and how you choose to use the system and adopt new business processes will make or break a successful Go Live. A great deal of time and resources are dedicated to ensuring you understand why the change is happening, what’s expected of you at Go Live, and how to use the system on Day 1 (and beyond).
Change management is your champion—they are your advocate in all things, and they often act as the voice of the end user to the project team, sponsors, and business stakeholders. The number one task of the change team is to ensure you have everything you need to be successful, that barriers you encounter on the journey to adoption are identified and removed, and that the system and associated processes don’t put an undue burden on any individual or role.
That doesn’t mean change will be easy or that some roles/individuals won’t have more system clicks or different responsibilities than before. But it does mean having a team dedicated to your success every step of the way. Tensions between system and people readiness are inevitable and healthy. It helps to have balanced priorities. Great people with a positive mindset can often make a bad system work, but rarely will people make a system work when they don’t want it to work.
Your role in driving change is to keep your mind open and actively engage in learning about the new system, processes, and associated changes. Read communication, attend meetings, ask for practice sessions, go to training, ask questions, and speak up if needed. When learning about the system, think not only of your role, but how your actions and system transactions affect others up and downstream. Have a solid grasp on what parts of your work can and cannot be done in the system, and what parts must be completed outside the system.
Pay special attention to changes that require communicating to other functions, departments, or roles—you might need to build new relationships with people you’ve never had to worked with before, which is actually one of the more challenging aspects of a system implementation.
Lean in. Get your hands on the system every chance you get prior to Go Live. You can impact how the system is designed (at least to some extent), what processes will exist, and how you will be prepared and trained. The more engaged you are and the earlier you get engaged, the more successful you will be at Go Live and beyond.
In addition to your role as End User, there are several key roles in the project team AND the change management team for driving change and systems adoption. To learn more, check out our insights on:
If you’d like to connect with our team to learn more about driving systems adoption, give us a call at 859-415-1000 or reach out through the form below.