|
Smooth System Implementation Clarify Scope, Complexity and Required Resources
September, 2007
By Fritz Schindelbeck and Brian Masterson
As the real estate business continues to become more reliant upon technology, an ever incresing amount of data that is managed using software. Today's latest technology solutions have provided a level of automation and integration far surpassing that which was imagined even five years ago. Because of the complexity of these comprehensive systems, it is vitally important that any organization approach implementation in a comprehensive manner.
The amount of change and disruption to an organization that comes with any major system implementation can be very unsettling for the employees of the company. Demonstrating that the executive leadership of the company is committed to the project success is key to getting buy-in and participation from the business users.
Senior leadership should have an active role in communicating to the rest of the company why the project was undertaken and why the success of the implementation is important to the company. Employees should understand that the time they spend helping make the implementation successful is recognized and appreciated by senior management. Executives should demonstrate their commitment to the project through regular participation in project steering committee meetings and frequent communications to the rest of the company on the status of the project.
PROJECT PLANNING & MANAGEMENT
The success or failure of any system implementation can often be directly linked to the amount of effort and energy that went into the initial planning of the project. Successful project planning will result in the translation of the executive leadership's goals and objectives for the project into a detailed roadmap for the project team to follow that will guide them through the steps necessary to achieve those objectives.
Effective project planning should result in the following:
* A clearly understood project objective and project goals against which success can be measured.
* A clearly defined project scope.
* A documented and agreed upon approach to all major project activities including; training, testing, data conversion, documentation, report design and development, custom programming design and development, issue tracking and resolution, approval of changes in scope, and post-implementation support.
* A detailed project plan that details project tasks, timing, responsible parties and deliverables.
* A clear understanding of the resources that will be required to successfully complete the project. The plan should document the number of hours of effort by role and by major task that will be required to complete the tasks on the plan.
This will give the business users, it resources, vendor employees and consultants a clear understanding of when and how much of their time is required.
Effective on-going project management is a critical element to the success of any implementation. It is critical that someone has day-to-day responsibility for overseeing the execution of the project plan that was developed. The project manager is responsible for identifying and communicating to the executive leadership of the company any risks or issues that have the potential to delay the project or put achieving any of the project goals or objectives in jeopardy.
PARTICIPATION OF BUSINESS USERS
Systems designed and implemented predominantly by the IT department, their consultants and vendors are not nearly as likely to be as successful as systems designed, built, tested and rolled out with significant participation of the business users. Their participation is important not only because they are the people with the most knowledge of how the system can best support the business requirements of the company but also because their participation will help ensure:
* They feel some ownership of the project and are vested in the implementations success.
* They become advocates of the system in their respective departments.
* They become more knowledgeable of the system earlier on and can assist with training and change management for the rest of the organization.
PHASED APPROACHED
Trying to roll out all the potential system and process improvements enabled by the new system at one time can put the success of the project at risk. Breaking the project into phases or waves of implementations can help ensure project success by:
* Enabling a portion of the benefits of the new system to be realized sooner rather than later.
* Demonstrating some early success that will help sustain enthusiasm and commitment to the project.
* Eliminating the risk that rolling out everything at once will be too overwhelming for the organization from a training and change management perspective.
* Enabling subsequent phases or waves to benefit from the lessons learned of the first phase of the project.
* Eliminating the risk that over the extended time period required to roll out everything at once the organizations will lose its' enthusiasm for and commitment to the project.
CONTROL PROJECT SCOPE
It is critical to establish the project scope during project planning. During the course of an implementation there may be a valid reason to change the scope of the project.
It is essential that a process for evaluating, prioritizing and approving potential scope changes be established with executive leadership. This process should ensure that the executive leadership of the company be involved in any decision to alter the project scope and they understand and have signed off on the impact on project timing, project cost and project resource requirements that result from that change.
Customization of software adds complexity and expense to a project, and should be limited as much as possible. A process should be established to evaluate, prioritize and approve proposed customizations with executive leadership to ensure they understand the impact the customizations may have on project timing, cost and resources. Where possible, business processes should be changed to conform to the system functionality except in cases where the business users believe a particular business process gives them a competitive advantage or is otherwise critical to their success.
Ultimately, the success of any system implementation is dependent on the ability of the end users to use the system effectively. Effective, role based training, tailored to the functionality required for each user community is essential to project success.
Fritz Schindelbeck and Brian Masterson are with Yardi Systems, Inc. a global leader in the design, development and support of integrated asset and property management software for the real estate industry. For more information, see the web site at www.yardi.com
|