The importance of business change readiness assessments

BACK 02-01-2021

Still today the business change readiness assessment is not completed in advance of the design and rollout of a software product, application or platform.


In the absence of conducting a suitable business change readiness assessment the following examples can occur: 


1.    A company has selected a new supplier to deliver a new piece of software that will connect teams or provide a platform to support a core business need. But are the business teams aware that they need this new piece of software? This is a typical example of what happens in the real world when the users and beneficiaries of the software are not involved in the process.

2.    As a technical product or developer you will normally talk in features what the product or software can do or how it behaves with customer interaction. This can make it even more challenging to gain the right level of support and buy-in from the intended user group and beneficiaries of the product. A business change assessment will review the benefits of a product against the requirements whilst overlaying the current processes of the organisation to determine the readiness of the business and also the best timing for the introduction of the new product. 

3.    The technology supplier spends weeks sometimes months designing or customising a product based on certain individuals requirements to find when it’s time to rollout the actual users of the system do not feel the system meets their needs or are very comfortable working the way they currently work for various other reasons that have not considered. A whole technology roadmap has been created based on high level requirements captured a long period of time ago and the user group of the product do not understand how to make it work for them as new requirements and processes have arisen.


How can A plan solutions help?


If you do find you identify with any of these scenarios the first thing is transparency with your colleagues and partners. Decisions can be made lightly without detailed impact assessments just because it seemed like type right thing to do at the time.  At A plan solutions we use readiness trackers provide a clear view of all things to consider as part of the product rollout and indicating the businesses readiness level to accept the new product.
•    Clear communication what the situation is, what is going to happen next and how does this impact or benefit the users and customers 
•    Understanding how the business operates currently, what would need to change to successfully embed the new products into the organisation to ensure it is used and can be measured. 
•    Reviewing of roles and responsibilities within the team(s) who will be impacted 
•    Provision of training to the stakeholders impacted by the introduction of a new product, ensuring the stakeholders are clear of how they would need to interface with the product as part of their role in the organisation. Also what may be changing for the customer and or client as a result of this.
Based on the analysis findings, A plan solutions may also recommend to adjust the delivery timing of the product and features to ensure that the business can prepare the relevant processes or amendments in their existing systems to enable the new product to work effectively once it is rolled out. 
 

Contact us A Plan Solutions to discuss how we can help