Preparing for implementation

If you’ve been given the green light for your change of system, congratulations.

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You’ve managed to convince people that finance software is an important and worthwhile use of the organisation’s precious money. That can be like trying to pitch a Hollywood blockbuster about intercompany eliminations.

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There’s now just one small detail standing between you and your easier and more efficient way of running a finance department. Implementation.

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The implementation process typically includes:

• Project kick-off – the meetings that delve into how long things will take, what resources both parties will need to commit and what the set-up should look like.
• Design – how your system will be configured and how data and work will flow through it.
• Build – the detailed configuration of your new system and the moving of data into it.  
• Testing and training – the process of ensuring everything is running as it should and that your team is confident at using it.
• Go-live – the plan meets reality as the new system comes online, either in one big bang or sometimes in phases.
• Support – ongoing help with queries and teething problems as everyone starts to get familiar with the system in real life.

You should by now have satisfied yourself that your chosen partner can deliver your system on a timescale and budget that you’re happy with – and that everyone will end up happy. But things can still go awry.

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So before we close, let’s look at how to prepare for a really good implementation. The kind that will leave you reflecting proudly on a project well executed, rather than waking in the night to horrible, sweaty flashbacks about failed API integrations.  

Make sure everyone’s clear

It’s probably taken all your communication skills to get the project to this point. But it’s important to flex those communication muscles a bit more to ensure everyone is clear about what the new system is expected to do.

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“The non-negotiables need to be clearly articulated between client and vendor at the start,” says Russell Frayne, Director of Transformation at Gravita.

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“Going into this without everyone on the same page is a recipe for disaster.”

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Lauren McCluskey, Head of Virtual Finance Function at AAB, says: “I’d advise spending a lot of time with your people who are setting up your system. Make sure they understand your business, make sure they understand your processes. And don’t rush, because that’s when things go wrong.

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“If you've got a complex process in-house that you need to keep, make sure that everyone understands what that process is, why you need it, and what reporting you need out of it. Most mistakes in implementations come from miscommunication.”

Check everyone’s on board

Are you confident that everyone is appropriately bought-in to this project? Really, properly bought-in?

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“You need to make sure that the stakeholders that you need at each point are on board,” says Lauren McCluskey.

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“Make sure people understand how to get the best out of the system, that everyone does the training and that more training is available after the system is implemented – otherwise the ‘super users’ will have a terrible job because they’ll always be helping everyone else.”

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Richard Woolgar, Head of Outsourcing at Armstrong Watson, says: “The main mistake we see is people not getting buy-in from the start – so on training sessions, people are still arguing about how it’s going to work and raising ‘what-ifs?’ that hardly ever happen.”

Commit enough time and attention

But the biggest error you can make at this point is to skimp on your investment of time and energy.

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Paul Sypko, Consultancy Director at Adapta Consulting, who has overseen many systems changes for the nonprofit sector, says: “Sometimes people say their project has gone wrong because they’ve chosen the wrong software. That does happen. But more often than not, the root of the problem is they’ve not invested enough internal time and energy to adopt it to its potential.”

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Russell Frayne, Director of Transformation at Gravita, says: “When implementations don’t go well, I find the most common factor is that people haven’t been upfront about the investment of time required on the client’s side.

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“The client sometimes doesn’t think about the fact that the implementation team will need, say, half a day of the CFO’s time, or that someone will need to sit with the purchase ledger clerk for half a day to understand the client’s processes.”

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Time invested now will pay off – as Louise Zandstra, Finance Director at the National Youth Theatre, notes.

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“It’s a big process and you need to have that in mind when you start – because you want to get it right,” she says.  

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“Otherwise, in three years’ time, another poor finance director is going to come in and say, ‘Why is this such a terrible set of processes?’ And then the whole thing is going to start all over again.”

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Nobody wants that.

What we’ve learned

• You’ve got another project on your hands – implementation.
• You’ll need to keep communicating so everybody’s on the same page.
• It’s important to ensure everyone’s bought in and ready to play their full part.
• It’s vital to commit plenty of time and attention to the process and the training.

Happy implementation!

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