Gaining User Acceptance for New Software

Software is worthless unless people use it, and cultural shifts don’t happen overnight. You need the right strategy and software to mark a clear transition path. Getting employees to accept new software is never easy but if you set the right course, plan ahead and provide them with means of gradually moving to a new system — acceptance will follow.

Solicit input on current business process.Ask the employees that are in the trenches every day, handling the day-to-day functions of purchasing to evaluate the current state of business. Find out from them what works, what needs to be improved, what needs to stay the same, and what they suggest.

Listen to employee suggestions. If you ask for their input, then listen to it. You might not see the details that they see everyday. Trust your employees to provide you with the insight.

Establish an initial user group. Let this group work together to develop a purchase-to-pay strategy, evaluate solutions, select a short list of solutions for further evaluation, and provide management with a final choice. Then have this group develop an implementation plan that will work for each department.

Train. Train. Train. Take the time to train each employee on the new system. Provide a day of hands-on training, a training guide and an in-house expert to answer their questions.

Keep it simple. If you are installing several components at once, try to train on each component separately. Provide job-specific training to groups of employees – don’t make accounting sit in on training for the purchasing department.

Enforce use. Set up business rules and procedures that force employees to use the new system. Discourage old ways of doing business through rules, permissions and approval routing. Provide encouragement and reward to those groups that use the system efficiently and reduce costs in their departments.

How to guarantee user acceptance of new software