Implementing new tech successfully: The principles of change management

“On to the next” is a common refrain heard after a project wraps. Despite what one might expect, implementing a new technology is not the end of the project. And, as the end user, you own the vast majority of the project’s success.

Articulate the project’s thesis, explain the intended business results, and validate your objectives with the provider. Success is often measured by adoption rates, accomplished key results, and workflow enhancements over time. To ensure that the investment in project success continues beyond implementation, it's best to separate the project deliverable itself from the ongoing return on investment for the new technology.

Look for a vendor that takes a collaborative approach. Tim Loughrey, Head of Client Success at Canoe says, “As a vendor ourselves, we actively invest in understanding everything we need to know to make the client successful through to value realization during the initial project planning sessions – rather than just jumping in and acting without knowing anything about the client.”

A change management-oriented project recognizes that neither the vendor team nor the client should treat the implementation as “the end” of the project. Rather, think about the project holistically, as noted by Loughrey: “Everything goes into our implementation: the discovery, scoping, resourcing, defining success for the implementation, and identifying and aligning on the intended ROI.”

To undergo a true transformation, be clear about your goals for this project and how they relate to your broader business objectives. With an understanding of your current technology stack and ideal future state, new vendors and their solutions should be highly compatible with your vision. While the project will have more specific goals to accomplish, this comprehensive view acts as your north star, simplifying the planning process and keeping priorities at the forefront. This understanding of primary and broad goals also informs how you’ll want to measure your return on investment later on.

Once a project has started, one of the biggest challenges is properly resourcing for deployment. Without an overview of all that is involved, it’s harder to determine if you’re set up for success.. Before any project work begins, take time to meet with your implementation team and ask the right questions: How many people need to be involved? What type of people will we need to bring in? How long do you expect the project to take? How many hours might be required from each individual?

This also involves auditing existing processes and resources required to complete them, and then creating a new/revised workflow with these details in mind. Explain the historical process and discuss what could be better, taking in the vendor’s recommendations based on their product and their experience with similar clients. Consider how more out-of-the-box suggestions can differentiate your own business model and/or free up capacity for other value-adding activities.

Don’t avoid the challenging questions – Do we need to replicate this workflow? Is this an opportunity to simplify a historical piece of this workflow? Is this the best way to organize our workflow for the team? Then, collaborate to design and document exactly how you’re going to do everything you’re hoping to do with the new solution. “We detail each step of the workflow and who owns it, and then we take the final step in training those stakeholders on each piece,” emphasized Loughrey.

Furthermore, many SaaS providers use a configuration-based approach, where only the technology setup is included, and the training and education processes are completely separate. Ask about the vendor’s approach to implementation, change management, and the post-sale experience rather than assuming anything. Identifying their retention rate is a great way to validate their approach.

During a longer-term project involving multiple stakeholders, delays are common. However, with sufficient consideration for change management, you can have a much better chance of hitting the milestones that you own. “Be diligent in your review of the project scope, and identify any gray areas or misaligned timelines. We encourage our clients to understand what goes into the projects, understand who is going to own it, make sure that person or that group has capacity, and ultimately understand who is going to run the tech over the term,” said Loughrey.

Each individual project and implementation will likely look quite different. If you have limited capacity to support the project, break the implementation into smaller sprints, each with achievable goals that can be built upon in the next sprint. Regardless of your capacity or timeline, commit to only what you know your stakeholders can take on. An excellent vendor will be able to support you in determining what is realistic given your project’s variables.

With an involved partner, you can worry less about crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, focusing instead on driving value through your newly implemented technology. Taking a change management-oriented approach will further help to ensure the project’s impact is palpable and effective, both in the immediate present and the long term.

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