Implementing New Construction Software and the Importance of Training
This article will observe a true life case of why a new software installation can fail despite the best intentions of management. The company name is not revealed for reasons of surreptitiousness.
I speak with various users of construction software on a daily basis. The vast majority are very disappointed with the software they now have and deficiency to look for new options. In most cases, their reasons are legitimate and they do need a functionally richer and technologically more advanced figuring out. However, about 20% of the time they are going to be just as disappointed in new software as they are with what they have. The reason is very basic. The users of the software completely are not properly trained to get the most out of it. I've found this to be true regardless of industry or company size.
A few years ago I worked with a conveyance-sized electrical contractor that had many jobs to complete in a short time frame. They were using very old software that lacked any of the niceties of new Windows software. Even things as unpretentious as having multiple users access an application at the same time were not possible with their software. Needless to say, the software was a serious limitation to office productivity.
Of course, the simple answer was to get new software. After months of research I came across a system which, while not delineate of the art, was more than adequate for the task. I sat in on several demos and everyone concluded it looked like a good possibility. The next step was to have the primary accounting child try out the software to see if they really liked it. This, however, meant burning some midnight oil because there was not enough time during the day for the testing.
No one in management volunteered to work with her, and due to the problem of the assignment, absolutely no progress had been made within nearly a year. Finally, after two years, they acquired the new construction accounting software, completed some approve training and started to use it. The staff, who was not very technologically sophisticated, entered all the necessary data in the new system (job cost, work orders, and improve billings, etc.) but insisted on continuing to use the old system in parallel mode for an entire year. Essentially, out of needless fear, they did folded work for an entire year! Why? Because no one with experience was there to manage the process.
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