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Discussion Topic
Implementing a new system, or modifying an existing one, can create organizational change. This change can impact how employees work, how information technology teams support the business, and even how customers interact with the organization.
Ensuring users adopt new systems or changes to existing systems is critical, as implementing a system no one will use becomes a wasted investment. User adoption should be considered by the business stakeholders no later than during the design phase. Identify 2 to 4 steps or activities a project team can take that will influence user adoption. Explain how these steps or activities will influence user adoption.
Post your answers to the discussion forum.
Respond to at least three of your peers and consider how user interface-based design and pattern-based design approaches could influence user adoption.
Peer 1
When a company decides to make changes to a system or implement a new system this is highly critical that the users know what to expect. Why? I like to look at the change process, because initially users are resistant to change and like things the way they have been done previously. The program manager needs to have a system in place where the users will buy into the system.
The first step I think a project team needs to do is make a case for the change. As I stated earlier, users normally do not want change and it needs to be know why is it important for this change. This can be backed up by data, surveys, or business goals. If you use data that can be the best way to identify and justify why the change came about.
A second step that will help user influence is to have a training sessions. You must think how to train the users on this new system and what will the requirements be. Will it be a difficult or long training session or will it be easy and short? Often it’s no longer about gathering in a conference room and looking at slides or handouts while a speaker guides the group. There are all kinds of self-paced learning modalities, apps that emphasize gamification in training, and even opportunities for user-generated training content. It is also important to think of not when to do the training but how the training will be accomplished? As an organization do they have the resources to complete the training?
Peer 2
Hello Everyone,
When implementing a new system into the company or modifying a system that is already existing within the company will cause change no matter how small or big the changes are. The changes to any system or introducing a new system to the company is always going to have some effects on the employees and their work. They will need to be training on the system, spend time in the system, and learn where everything is in order to perform their job. There will also be issues with the customer interactions depending on the system and its functions.
New systems are a fact of every business. It is just something that companies, managers, and their employees have to deal with. If the system goes unused then the time, energy, and work putting in something that will die out very quickly is a waste and can cause a hardship for the business. This where user adoption comes into play and why it is critical for a new system structure to be introduced.
The 3 steps that I would recommend for a project team to have a strong influence on user adoption are communication, risk, and the stakeholders.
Communication: Communicate with the company and everyone involved in the system implementation. Send out announcements to the company about the system and give them some references to use for the system functions. Any issues that show up should be directed to the technical support team. manage the communications that come and go revolving around the system.
Risk: By identifying the customer and company needs with what a system should provide is also going to identify several risks that will come with the system. No matter what is presented or brought in, there is a risk to everything out there. Managing the risk is the biggest part of this step. With every risk discovered or anticipated should have a metrics create to identify the severity of the risk, the impact it has, and who will be effected and to what extent. Risk analysis, risk response, and risk monitoring are going to be the biggest tools in this.
Stakeholders: By identifying the stakeholders and all of those impacted by the project, you will know more about what impact it will have on the company and those using it. The end users should be kept in mind for the system with regard to the stakeholders and those impacted by the system implementation. Managing the stakeholders is going to help you identify the ins and outs of the system and what it needed for the company as a whole.
These three steps are going to be the best when promoting user adoption.
Peer 3
Actively involving these end users in the design and testing process is critical for user support. When users feel like their needs and opinions matter, not only will they feel a sense of ownership in the system, but they will pass this on to their fellow employees.
Proper training is also essential for user adoption. It would be nearly impossible to train all the employees at once, unless it is a very small company, so the system should be incrementally implemented in priority order to each department. This way the users get the training and support they need in a small-ish group environment where they can feel comfortable asking questions and get clarification on things they may need help with.
In one of my previous jobs we switched from our old system to SAP. Ours was a very large organization and rolling it out incrementally by department worked very well. We had a group of IT consultants from SAP who stayed for a little over six months training and tweaking the system for each department. There were many of the older employees that were very resistant to the change, and it was difficult to learn in the beginning, because SAP is a massive CRM system. In the end it made our work so much more streamlined.
