TECHNOLOGY + PEOPLE = SUCCESS

It is hard to imagine any business that can survive without technology. But not all technology projects are successful. I believe that for these projects to succeed it is essential to bring the people and the technology together from the time of making the original decision to implement and roll out the new technology in the company. And it is essential to keep people involved until the end of the project when the technology becomes part of the business as usual activities.

As my passion is software rollout projects I will discuss this topic from the perspective of these technology projects. I have found that one of the key success factors of these projects is continuous bi-directional communication between the team responsible for the software project and the target audience and stakeholders.

I see that as the only way to ensure that the various views of the company’s employees are considered and as a result the decision to implement and roll out the new software is based on accurate data and is therefore a good decision for the company. Therefore that is also the way to ensure that this decision will bring to life the intended business results. This is because the various views and knowledge of people working in the company can be considered if you continuously involve these people in the project.

At the same time if you involve people in the project from the beginning and until the end they will be more committed to do the required actions for a software rollout when required to because they will know that their requirements have been considered and that the solution is being implemented based on their input.

And don’t think though that there won’t be any challenges. Be prepared and prepare the target audience and stakeholders that it is likely that there will be smaller or larger compromises that people will need to commit to and that this is normal. Also, it is natural when we are implementing one common solution for many people with various views and requirements that this occurs. So to address this issue you should explain it to the target audience and stakeholders throughout the whole project so they become comfortable with the concept.

To your software rollout success!