Online project management, collaboration software, chat, to-do list app, calendar do you have them all? Is your organization getting the full benefit from them? Is it adding value to your business? Quite many software implementations do not perform as well as expected. There are many reasons. If your collaboration happens around those softwares it might reduce the overall performance of your team. Let’s have a closer look at end-user adoption, app overload and how the common pitfalls could be avoided by keeping everything simple.
User adoption: what does it tell us?
Software user adoption is a critical factor in software implementation projects. Companies often use significant amounts of money and resources to implement new software. Also smaller companies, who may be spending less money, need to allocate time and personnel to the project. The digitalisation has taken data and communication to different software applications. These investments should bring money back in some way at some point.
There are many different factors that affect user adoption. These make the implementation challenges. For example, the user's age, earlier experiences, performance expectancy and surrounding social influences make a difference. There are people who will adopt early and some who will resist the change.
Younger generations tend to adopt new technologies faster than older ones. The fact that you have scrolled an iPad while potty training makes a difference. If you represent the older generations, you have managed the same situation with books (with actual paper). Also, you have already worked and managed your business successfully with less smart and digital tools. Understandably, there might be some hesitancy towards change; whether this all is really necessary.
App overload
It is not unheard of that companies have internal news in the intranet, internal social media, instant messenger, e-mail, project management software, task management, and the list goes on and on.. New software rollout projects start before the previous ones have been truly adopted.
Overlapping communication applications and complex management software can in the worst case cause stress in the organisation. Employees can be heavily pushed to use new apps. Then they feel overwhelmed and insufficient. This can lead to a situation where they avoid the problem (the new app). The outcome can influence productivity and employee engagement.
You have probably seen the adoption curvee and read all about the 10 steps your software implementation should have. These all are relevant points and will help to reach the project goals. It is the fundamentals of project management and change leadership.
Thanks for reading this far, now you have reached the point where we will introduce a new way to organise your stuff and manage your business (in a software). Yes, it is an opportunity, don’t freak out just yet.
The Hailer Way
We love to keep stuff simple. It doesn’t matter whether it is task management, project management, team communication or data management. One of the problems in the app overload situation is that all the different apps function differently. The user needs to figure out to manage each app. Swiching between the apps interups the work.
Whatever platform you are implementing keep the start simple. Train the users to the level that they are familiar and confident in the new environment. Use the help of early adopters and change ambassadors, so that you have a good support network among the end-users. Remember to give them good reasons and a purpose, why are we changing the way we work? Setting goals, giving acknowledgements and rewarding are also something to keep in mind. Some words about team engagement.
And what happens when you get Hailer? You have one place for your documents, data and communication. The organisation uses one service for internal communication and does not need to switch from app to app to get the information they need. The intuitive user interface helps users to get familiar with the app. Functionalities are the same for project management, task management and any other stuff you need to manage.
The backbone of Hailer is a process modelling engine, where you can model any workflow. It can be a simple to-do list or a full lead to the payment process. When your team member creates a new task or a new lead the interface looks the same. Communication apps like Slack and task management softwares like Trello work for those purposes and little by little knowledge, communication and data becomes fragmented. Hailer combines communication and processes into one. Users need to learn only one app instead of many.
One app approach will help the end-users to focus on what is important to them: taking the project forward, schedule planning, team task management, to-do lists, calendar. You can read more about the benefits of an online collaboration tool here.
If you come across with a part of a process that does not suit you. You can easily modify it to reflect real life. You don’t need to modify your workflows or processes to suit a system. This helps to keep the team happy and it is much easier to understand the software.
There are many others out there too. Hailer is not the only one (it’s the best and you should definitely give it a go). It matters how you take it into use.
