Recently I read an article in a national magazine about the struggles with development of a system and shook my head in sorrow. The magazine relayed a tale of a company that required a highly visible technology solution. It hired a legion of contractors to develop the system at a very high cost and gave the hired workers what seemed to be enough time to build and implement the solution. Then they crossed their fingers and hoped they had placed their trust well. Unfortunately, the contractors were not successful: the site could not be used by more than handful of people at a time, the functionality was ill-conceived and did not meet the requirements and the project leaders couldn’t get straight answers on the detail and enormity of the issues so they could make a plan to resolve them. At that point, they had to determine how much money, time and resources they were willing to invest to fix it or if they would just have to scrap it and start over.
I was struck by how similar this story is for many companies that are trying to implement HR software. Clients hire vendors to implement software, and although the vendor may know the software market, they may not fully understand the client or understand the client’s business well enough to envision the end game. And, unfortunately, when the software goes live, successfully or unsuccessfully, vendor support could be lacking. Some clients find it difficult to get information and answers that they can understand….if answers are forthcoming. And, similar to the government roll-out, a difficult decision sometimes has to be made on whether extra help can be brought in (at a higher cost) to try to fix it, or if the project should be scrapped and started over.
That situation can be alleviated with help from a group such as ours. We can translate the client environment and HR business processes into technology requirements that the vendors can understand and execute. During the implementation project, we can see where stumbling blocks are and can make recommendations to resolve the issues. We walk side by side with the client through implementation and during the roll-out. If additional issues arise, we can help target were the source is, collaborate with the vendor and client to resolve the issues and provide support so that pitching the solution and starting over does not even have to be considered.
Sometimes it’s necessary to kick-start a project to ensure success and we’re still waiting for the happy ending of the US government’s tale five months after the roll-out. Our practice stands ready to help companies avoid the same fate.