How customized workflows & manuals can increase efficiencies and ROI for Companies Many companies find the 12-months following a new software rollout more turbulent than the rollout itself. Attempts to increase efficiencies and decrease costs can have the opposite effect; a drain of staff resources, decreased efficiencies, staff conflicts and ultimately attrition. Why does this happen? How do we reverse this trend? Let us examine a common real-world scenario: A company decides to transition to new property management software and after performing all of its due diligence, it settles upon Package X. Budgets and timelines are established to accommodate data transfer, upgrades, migration and initial training. The company and its software vendor work closely together to transition to the new software. The software vendor usually has an intimate understanding of its software, but a general understanding of the clients business model. Their software-first approach guides their software set-up recommendations. The company, meanwhile, has an intimate understanding of its business model but a vague understanding of its new software. The company relies heavily on guidance from its software vendor, and follows its recommended software configuration with only minor changes. This assumption on behalf of both the vendor and client creates the first opportunity for future frustration. Software Training is often implemented in phases. The first group to be trained finds that some of the processes the vendor configured do not match their internal processes and need to be modified. The new training manuals will have to be reprinted and new menus will have to be made before the next training classes. The second training is fine. But during the third groups training it is discovered that additional processes will need to be modified. These changes require additional costly manual and software revisions. There are 4 more groups to train. But with limited time and resources the company decides to wait until all groups have been trained before updating the manuals and menus. The end result is seven groups trained to do things differently with improper documentation. As this training process and budget comes to a close, the team receives news of 4 new hires, in different geographic regions, and a possible software update that may require additional training. And so the costly and wearing cycle of inadequate training and constant revisions continues. Reversing the Trend The desired result is to create a tool for the staff that will minimize errors, follow corporate policies, processes and procedures; a vehicle that would enable a newly hired staff member to begin working in the application without sending them through a time and resource-intensive training program. This tool would not be a Package X Software Manual but rather Our Manual for Software Package X. The process begins by revisiting the existing workflows and menu sets, reviewing the responsibilities for each group and modifying the menus to meet their needs thus increasing efficiency by achieving simplicity. The updated, task-based layouts are now designed using common sense and real-world scenarios rather than programming logic. New user manuals are then created with detailed screenshots step by step - for each process and procedure. The result? Support calls reduced by more than 80%. Accounting departments find additional time as the numbers of errors are decreased. Morale is increased since staff feels empowered with the knowledge to perform their tasks correctly. As I have the opportunity to talk to more companies, I find the issue of integrating software into corporate business practices with limited training resources is one of the more frustrating, under-addressed, and systemic challenges our industry faces today. In most Companies, this issue has been relegated to the back-office as a support problem. In reality, it creates an undue financial burden by draining resources from support staff that could be put to better use. Additional effects ripple throughout your organization when an error spreads to your accounting department, audit findings, or Management Reviews. Justification for in-house user manuals is obvious. Increasing efficiency by achieving simplicity makes practical and economic sense and allows you to focus on your clients, quality of service and core business operations.
We would like the opportunity to put our unique knowledge set and experience to work for you. Please feel free to contact us at (954) 298-2441 so we can discuss your situation and how we may best assist your team in developing Your unique custom workflows and manuals.
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