Technical Project Resources

Preparing An Organisation For New IT Systems

The information in this guide is intended for general purposes only. For more specific guidance around your organisation’s projects, please get in touch with our team.

In this section, you will find:

Even the small-medium business transitioning to new technologies can bring significant headaches. Scale that task to a large business with thousands of employees, different user requirements and complex team structures and it’s easy to imagine just how much of a process implementing fresh software and systems can be. For many of those reading this, you won’t need to ; you’ve probably experienced this first hand. Digital transformation is simply part of life now for a number of long-established organisations. What that transformation means will vary, but common aspects include migration into the cloud, updating of security, introducing better digital experiences for staff and customers, communication tools, website development, database management, network infrastructure and hardware overhaul.

When your business and people are familiar with a certain set of tools and processes to do their job, there needs to be careful attention paid to introducing something new.Even the most seemingly innocuous changes can have unexpected consequences.

In this guide we’ll provide you things to as your organisation grows and evolves its IT systems.

Managing risks in a project portfolio IQANZ

What challenges is the organisation trying to solve?

Before any new IT systems or processes are introduced into the business, it’s important that there’s a clear understanding of the strategic outcomes that these would enable. Implementation of new systems is usually tied to a number of desired outcomes, including security improvements, creating better operational efficiencies and better user experiences for end customers (or, in the case of government departments, the New Zealand public).

Whilst the specifics around the systems and their requirements will usually come from discovery and research within the business, and the initial need may be identified by a business unit, the decision to proceed with a project or programme to update IT systems needs to be aligned with strategic objectives. This helps to anchor the initiative to priorities that the senior leadership team have agreed upon – useful for later when matters of budget and portfolio priority surface.

Developing a communications strategy to get organisation-wide buy in

One of the biggest roadblocks we observe in the implementation of new technologies in a business are indeed not the system itself but the way in which it was introduced to staff. Communications for new systems should not be a point-in-time check box exercise, but rather part of an ongoing strategy to identify the challenge, invite feedback, provide timelines, give progress updates and of course announce the roll out and how it will affect different teams.

Communication around a big change like new systems is not the sole responsibility of senior management. A more effective strategy is to have tailored communications from broad company-wide announcements through to more specific information from team leaders to their immediate staff around training and process change.

The more preparation a business gives its people for change, the better that change usually is embedded.

Researching the business’ specific requirements of new systems

Once there’s a clear understanding of the organisation’s need for change to its technology stack, a team will need to be assembled to build the business case and then consult with the business to gather the needs of the solution before going out to market. Requirements may include tool functionality, compatibility with other systems and how different users may interact with it. Through this consultation, the business will gain clarity around the potential scale of the programme or project, the timeline and importantly, the stakeholders that will likely need to be involved.

In this part of the process, the governance and structure of the programme and project team will start to be formed, even if the delivery resource has not been put in place (this will usually occur once the project requirements and budget have been fully confirmed).

Doing the homework on vendors and platforms

The nature of engagement with vendors will depend on the IT system and what products are available in the market. In large organisations with integrations and customisation needs, it may be that enterprise solutions are provided and implemented by a vendor. Other situations may involve one provider for the technology itself and another to tailor it and install it within the organisation. There will also be an internal team within the organisation working on the implementation in most cases.

The business will go through a process of researching and shortlisting potential suppliers, along with the formal RFP process and ultimately, procurement. Businesses need to determine if suppliers have good experience with the relevant platforms, and also determine if they have a proven track record in navigating challenges and specific requirements similar to those the organisation will be facing through implementation.

Establishing best practice governance for the programme

Governance is the bedrock of any successful project or programme, but even more so for an IT project that involves the replacement of key business systems and processes. Organisations need to clearly outline the responsibilities for delivery, steering, sign offs and escalation points. A senior leader in the business will ultimately have the remit at an executive level for the delivery of that project.

Governance processes will include the creation of a detailed risk register which should be populated from initial discovery onward. The risks involved in changing systems, especially those that day-t0-day operations rely upon or those that manage sensitive information, need to be actively managed and monitored. Reporting is another pillar of good governance and creates both visibility of progress and a spotlight on issues that need to be addressed. Good governance also determines the management approach of the project (or projects) involved with implementing the new IT system and how day-to-day project delivery will work.

Building a strategy for transition from old to new systems

As part of the project or programme itself, the business will need to develop a strategy to migrate staff and operations onto new systems. In some situations the system only impacts one business unit and a fairly contained set of business functions (such as a new invoicing system), whereas other systems are interacted with and relied upon by everyone (new internal communication and email system).

Regardless of the scale of change, there needs to be a clear, shared plan of moving to the new system. This might include:

  • How data from the old system is going to be backed up.
  • How data is going to be inputted to the new system.
  • How to run both systems in parallel for a period of time.
  • A rollback plan to the old system following rollout in the event of a problem.
  • Communicating and facilitating the move to the new system.
  • Deployment of the new system through the business.
  • Security measures to take during the changeover.
  • Impacts to customers of the organisation resulting from the change.

Piloting and testing systems before full roll out

There aren’t many instances where it makes sense to deploy a new system at scale without any controlled testing/piloting. Doing this can result in issues with the system having widespread impacts on the day-to-day operations, as opposed to being caught by a smaller group working with the system live but alongside the incumbent platform.

Testing the new software or system is a non-negotiable requirement for any business. But it’s not simply to catch bugs with the solution – having the platform used ‘live’ by a pilot team helps to uncover scenarios and situations that haven’t yet been worked through. For example, a new customer relationship management platform may be working functionally with dummy data, but the way in which staff use it with other tools could unearth an integration issue, or process that’s clunky – all things that a project team will want to address before widespread adoption.

Training and onboarding

Much like communication, training and onboarding can mean the difference between acceptance or aversion to a new system. Training for a new system may require a combination of knowledge base/documentation, group sessions and 1-1 training. The more support the team gets to learn the new system, the better.

Questions around parts of the system left unanswered can inadvertently lead staff to believing the old system was preferable and there’s an inherent problem with the new platform. Training individuals on using a new system may take weeks and even months – but good training is crucial to unlocking the efficiencies that the new solution is meant to deliver.

Need guidance on your IT project?

IQANZ provides specialist assurance services for technology projects across the private and public sectors. We apply proven assurance methodologies along with a high level of technical expertise to help guide projects and programmes to success. If you’re interested in getting independent, expert help on your technology project, get in touch with our team.

Where to next?

Read our other technical project resources:

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