The Secret of Successful Implementations of New Technology Solutions You invested valuable time and effort in new systems, new software and new procedures. You hired expensive consultants, invested in project management software and methodologies, purchased topof-the-line hardware and software. After this, you can be sure that implementation of your new solution(s) will be successful, right? TEXT VANESSA VROLIJK
WRONG! That is, if you haven’t invested in the most crucial element of your success: your people, colleagues, employees or co-workers. The result may very likely be challenges in implementation of your solution, something that can be very painful to witness. This will be the result if you do not dedicate a substantial amount of your resources towards getting your people ready and in a confident state of mind!
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CURAÇAO BUSINESS
| NUMBER 2 | 2016
Whenever you start something new in your organization, it means change. Research shows that humans generally tend to resist change by nature. We don’t like it; and we try our best to avoid it. Usually not even consciously! So what does that mean in our technology driven society, especially our working environment? Times are tough, and as organizations we need to have an edge so we can guarantee our increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Having an edge usually means striving towards more efficiency: leaner back-offices, shorter waiting times, keeping our customers happy enough that they stay loyal to us taking more competition into account. To achieve this, technology offers us a broad range of systems and applications. We research, we weigh the pros and cons carefully, and we select, after an exhaustive process, the best solution for our business. We, then, proceed to invest a substantial amount of money to implement the solution; a process that sometimes takes months or even years. Then, after all this, the project is failing; nobody is using the system. At that point, it’s important to ask why.
