Why user adoption is so important to company success
Every software project starts out with great expectations. Processes will be optimized, costs will sink and sales will grow. In actual fact, however, there is rarely a happy ending. The majority of implementation projects fail because the people in charge underestimate one of the most important success factors — user adoption.
Haribo, Lidl, Otto, Deutsche Bank and BER — the list of IT projects that have suffered major mishaps in Germany is a long one. And these are just the famous tip of a big iceberg. You can look at any survey conducted in recent years, they will all tell you the same thing — only a shockingly low proportion of new software roll-outs are completed successfully.
Groundhog Day
It would seem that every second PLM project fails in its initial stages. The figures for introducing ERP solutions are even worse — according to a Gartner study, an incredible 75 percent of these projects go wrong. Many reasons for this are cited, including the budget and schedule getting completely out of hand without achieving the goals, or because business performance goes downhill so rapidly that the ripcord has to be pulled to stop the rot.
There’s no disputing that every implementation project brings a certain amount of inherent risk, whether it involves rolling out CRM, PLM, ERP or a core banking system. There are stumbling blocks, trapdoors and pitfalls at every turn, and there seems to be a never-ending litany of unanticipated questions that nobody had on their list of priorities and nobody has an answer to — over and over again, like Groundhog Day. Defined goals disappear, and new ones start clamoring for attention. As soon as you turn your attention to one burning issue, two more spring up behind you. On the other hand, this is not unusual. After all, everyone involved expects performance to dip slightly shortly before and after the roll-out of the new system, if not earlier. All the same, you can’t help asking yourself whether there might be a way to successfully overcome or even avoid the expected drop.
Stumbling block number one — lack of acceptance
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this issue. Every company is unique in the way digital projects are managed successfully or fall flat. In some, a software roll-out fails because of insufficient planning and a lack of leeway in the budget or schedule. In others, it is due to a creeping loss of control through excessive customization, escalating demands and overloaded teams — the dreaded “scope creep”. Of course, there are also plenty of cases where the technology is at fault — a bug, an unresolvable interface problem, improper data cleansing during the integration of IT silos or the new tool proves to be an utterly terrible idea.
By a long way, however, it is something else entirely that causes implementation to fail — according to a recent guideline from Deloitte on introducing ERP software, five of the ten greatest obstacles can be directly linked to poor change management or a lack of user adoption. The consequences of these failures range from a lack of support on the part of the specialist departments involved, staff, and users all the way to an outright boycott. What is particularly fatal in this context is that — on the whole — a dismissive attitude can generally not be turned around even when everything runs smoothly from a technical point of view. In such cases, you might say the operation was a success, but the patient is still dead.
Establish user adoption as early as possible
No IT project can be successful if the employees affected and future users in particular fail to accept the change and reject the new technology. After all, even the best software cannot achieve its full potential if it is only used with a degree of unwillingness in the company, some of its functions are never used or operating errors turn the dream of a “single source of truth” into a nightmare shortly after the go-live.
One of the most frequent reasons for a new technology not meeting the expected level of acceptance is that managers made the decision without consulting the people who would actually go on to use it. In all this, it is essential to involve all internal stakeholders in the change at the earliest possible stage.
User adoption is key in this, for several reasons.
- It starts from where the users are currently at and provides them with a deep understanding of the reasons and aims behind the planned innovations.
- Employees can recognize the added value of the new solution for the company and for individuals.
- This increases the probability of staff accepting the new software and the associated changes to processes, working methods and roles.
- Users can efficiently utilize the full extent of all relevant tool functions.
- Team satisfaction and motivation increase, while the risk of staff leaving in the course of the project decreases.
- Fewer operating errors prevent dips in performance and bad investments in structures that are ultimately not used, while the ROI grows.
- There is less strain on the IT team because there are fewer support requests from staff.
