5 Tips for Successful Software Adoption

Nobody said that pushing for the adoption of that software you’re personally sold to – and which you now hope your company will use – is going to be easy. In fact, you might even encounter a lot of resistance along the way. By nature, people resist what’s new, especially if they are comfortable with the old system.

If it is up to you to lead the way, do so with the following tips in mind:

1. Determine your business goals
Your business goals will determine if what you’re pushing for will ultimately be accepted. It is one thing to be introducing an innovation that will actually be useful. It is another to simply be jumping on the innovation bandwagon without any real benefit to the company. If software adoption works towards the accomplishment of business goals, resistance should be treated as one challenge to overcome, and not a permanent stumbling block.

2. Test before adopting the software
Software adoption will affect the operation of the company and the people in it. Ramming it into everybody’s throat without prior testing is courting big-time trouble. This only adds fuel to the resistance, since nobody is able to defend that the software can work in actual use. This is where the identified company team leaders, the people who are supposed to be frontrunners and won’t usually shy away from new systems, can greatly help.

3. Show actual user experience
If these leaders are able to adopt the software confidently, they will automatically serve as advocates for its use. Of course, their influence and credibility come into play. They will also be able to contribute intelligently in determining what needs to be modified along the way. Resistance is best met by knowledge of solutions and acknowledgment of possible challenges, not by empty promises of a perfect system.

4. Encourage participation from all levels
Software adoption is as much a concern of the people in the mail room as it is of the C-level executives, particularly if everyone in the company, regardless of their positions, is expected to use it. High-level executives may push for the software adoption, but if the people down the organization line won’t adhere to it as they’re expected to, not much progress can be achieved.

5. Implement a change management strategy
People in an organization will react differently with the introduction of change. Software adoption, therefore, necessitates the need to implement a change management strategy. Fred Nickols of Distance Consulting LLC presents four different strategies:

• The Empirical-Rational strategy proposes that people are rational and will follow their self-interest.
• The Normative-Reeducative strategy suggests that people are social beings and will stick to cultural values and norms.
• The Power-Coercive strategy proposes that people are basically obedient and will generally do what they can be made to do.
• The last one, the Environmental Adaptive strategy, suggests that people oppose disruption but can readily acclimatize to new circumstances.

It is rare for a company to use just one change management strategy and will most likely end up using a couple or all of the above strategies. In software adoption, there won’t be one cookie-cut solution for every company. It is up to those who are tasked to introduce the initiative to make the transition acceptable. It would be wise to initially package it as a support to existing procedures rather than a replacement of everything that presently exists. The unknown is simply too scary for most people.

Do you agree with Maricel’s tips for successful software adoption? If you have any questions on this article or want to share your own tips on software adoption please leave a commnent below.

For more informative content on user adoption check out this free eBook ‘PROVE IT! Chapter 1 User Adoption on Internal Systems‘. Download the free eBook now>>

About the author: “Maricel Rivera is a freelance business and technology writer who currently manages content for Comindware, provider of breakthrough enterprise software, such as Comindware Tracker for adaptive BPM and Comindware Project for project planning and execution.”

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