Logo Rob Buckley – Freelance Journalist and Editor

Touching the void

Touching the void

Obtaining end-user 'buy-in' to critical IT project rollouts can be the difference between success and failure. What's the secret?

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Almost everyone in IT can name a technology project they have been personally involved with that never lived up to its original promise. But no matter how carefully scoped and crafted the project, it has often been the way the organisation has rolled out the system - resulting in a lack of end-user enthusiasm or a downright refusal to use it - that has been the problem, rather than the technology itself.

With three-quarters of big IT projects classed as failing to meet their original goals, according to analysts at the Standish Group, and many billions of pounds wasted, organisations need to look at the way they apply IT and how it impacts users if they are to reverse the trend and establish a clearer pattern of success. In other words, they must achieve user 'buy-in'.

Any project means change in processes, and change is never universally welcomed. "People tend to be afraid at the beginning [of an implementation]," says Keith New, vice president of the mobile business unit at workforce management company Aspective. "They're uncomfortable and distrustful of the motives of management: is it Big Brother in disguise or do they plan to get rid of 20% of us?" In common with many organisations implementing systems, he finds most end users are initially resistant to new technology.

"I've seen businesses where they deal with email by having the secretary print out each email, have the exec scribble out a response on each, which the secretary will then respond with," recalls Khalid Aziz, chairman of communications specialist the Aziz Corp. "It's hugely resource wasteful and not a very edifying use of a trained secretary's time."

But, says Aziz, most end users are not actually technophobic or resistant to technology. "This is very much an area where people feel very insecure. When we brought in electronic diaries six years ago, we found that people did not believe them, trust them or rely on them, not because they weren't working, but because they hadn't had experience of using them." The company decided that to cushion the impact of the implementation, it would initially run a parallel, paper-based system, until employees were comfortable using the new system.

"If you only look at the cash cost and say, 'My God, we've spent all this money on computerisation, we ought now be able to ditch this antiquated stuff', then you will throw the baby out with the bathwater because you will actually disaffect the people you need to work the system. What you have to do is let individuals feel their way and gently nudge them."

For big projects, the best way to get employees to use a new system is to get them involved in its design from the outset.

"What we've found is that if you get people involved in the nuts and bolts of the project early and involve them all the way through, you get buy-in," maintains Mark Williamson, client services director at change management consultancy Partners for Change. Design workshops and interviews with users to identify who is critical to an implementation's success are both good ways to introduce end users to the reasons why the organisation wants to implement the system, while giving end users the chance to voice their opinions and shape the project so they benefit. This can even invigorate systems that have already failed and are lying unused, although many organisations are rightfully wary of throwing good money after bad.

"In any rollout, there has to be something in it for the users, otherwise you will never carry them along with you," says Kevin Jones from TEC International, a mentoring organisation for chief executives and managing directors. "You can tell a salesman to put orders into a customer relationship management (CRM) system, but I think you'll get far more willingness if, as a consequence, they can also get information on prospects and customers. It's much better to give them a benefit than argue that it's their job and they should just key it in." Involving users at an early stage, consulting them regularly on progress and problems (but without overloading them with technical information) and even engineering into the system new features that will give users rather than the organisation added benefits, will likely lead to greater end-user take-up of the system.

While it is impossible, of course, to involve all users at this stage, opinion-formers among the target users can be brought on board. They in turn can help explain to their colleagues the benefits of the systems - something that carries greater weight than the coercion of management if these champions are well respected.

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