The coffee bar was packed and I glanced around looking for somewhere to sit. I finally perched on a chair next to a lady slurping her skinny mocha, frappe, latte, vanilla, double shot, tall coffee (why are coffees so complicated these days?). She looked up and smiled and we exchanged pleasantries. As the awkward silence subsided I asked her, “So, are you here on business?” She replied, “Yeah, unfortunately I am here on a training course. In our infinite wisdom we have bought a new finance package and we all have to be trained.” The line was delivered in such a way that I guessed the training hadn’t gone too well. “It’s very complex; I am not sure why we are changing, as the old system was ok and this new one seems so complex – I am worried I won’t be able to cope with all the new functionality,” she continued.

And then it hit me; I work for a service company that specializes in delivering software that can transform a service company, thus allowing them to drive revenues, reduce costs and drive up a company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). How many ‘end users’ going through a transition with our software, feel alienated and wonder why we are changing their system…

I counsel companies going through transformation by imploring them to get the people that will use the system to help with the solution. Service companies have typically struggled to get investments in new systems so the probability is it’s been a long time since any system changes have been introduced; it can be frightening. Imagine being a service engineer working with paper today, and tomorrow having an iPad thrust in your hands and told, “This is the future so embrace it!”

In my experience you manage great implementations by encouraging people to be involved in big system changes, to counsel peoples views, by asking people to join the program so they can sculpt what the system does; they feel part of what will be a big cultural change. Most importantly they spread the word within their peer groups that they are part of the solution design that in the long term will benefit everyone and there is nothing to fear.

Get this right and adoption will be high and the ROI will be realized much quicker with people being engaged in the roll out and understanding the bigger picture. After all it can’t be more complex than ordering a tall, skinny, frappe, mocha, vanilla, double shot, iced…