Someone Is In Charge.
I once sent an email with a list of options essentially passing the ball over to a client who needed to make a decision on the direction we had to go. 3 weeks passed until I had to send another email reminding the client that the succeeding weeks marked the end of my consulting arrangement. This lit a fire under their behinds resulting in a long to – do list suddenly keeping me busy doing tasks I could have done at a relaxed pace if they had answered the first email I sent weeks ago.
Eventually the CEO decided to put a manager on top of it, quickly resolving a lot of the niggling issues. As it turned out each person cc:d were of equal rank and therefore were either passing the buck or waiting on each other to respond, none of whom felt adequate or willing to take charge. Of course someone could have just taken a hold of the reins or at least tried to meet amongst themselves to decide who would be the lead person, but often that is expecting too much from decidedly rank and file employees. Without assigning someone in charge however, the project would have failed to move forward in a timely fashion.
The Top Guy Is All For It.
Groupware is application software often introduced in large organizations that promise great productivity if used effectively. A couple of popular examples of these are Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange. I use these as examples because either can cost up to several millions of pesos to install and apply although many websites and other software projects can become money pits too.
As many companies realize however, installation and commissioning is one thing. Actually making people use them is something else altogether.
Often the key in making people use them is having a boss ‘force’ them to use it, but in an elegant and positive manner resulting in better productivity (as opposed to being mandated to do so which may end up in employee resentment).
And the key to THAT, is the boss not only knowing how to use it, but relying on it, evangelizing it and relying on the staff to use it. It is like email in the early years when there was resistance, but since the bosses liked it and made everyone use it, everyone started to realize its benefits and evangelized it further until it became an integral part of every company’s way of doing business.
This is so important that I would go as far as saying that without the bosses’ cooperation there is little to zero chance of something as enterprise wide in scope as groupware or an e-commerce website of succeeding.
Management Understands You Can’t Just Throw Money At A Problem.
The phrase ‘Throwing Money At The Problem’ is a metaphor for preferring to buy something instead of investing thought or effort into solving it. This is why advertisements that offer ‘instant weight loss’ or ‘more time for your family’ are so popular. If faced with the option to just pay for it some would rather dole out cash than do what is needed to resolve issues.
Many companies adopt such expectations to software solutions of every kind, from enterprise websites to accounting software to CRM, and the fact that their advertisements often over promise doesn’t help. But just like weight loss promises, in reality nothing can really stand up to that big a deliverable.
This holds most true when trying to apply software that has department or enterprise wide implications. Managers must understand that software is merely a tool, and buying and installing the tool is just part of the process. If it involves people outside of the IT department it needs to be promoted and marketed to them just as much as it was to those who signed the check.
Also, honing and customizing software is a process separate onto itself. Not all organizations are equal and if an application is to have that large an effect it will most likely involve a lot of fine tuning that, again, will involve the cooperation of people outside of the IT department, some of whom will not necessarily be on board especially if it affects their work or even their job.
Whatever the case may be, the success of large scale software adoptions often involve far more than just technical details. The promise of software improving efficiency and performance is a lofty and worthwhile investment but if it involves people and jobs, managers need to think farther and deeper than just buying and installing it.
