Billy McCarter, senior vice president of delivery, MajescoMastek
Often a decision to bring in new a software system is transformational and involves change. For any transformational initiative to be successful, it is essential various parts of the organization—including the users and business—have bought into the value of this transformation.
Some immediate internal challenges faced include:
· Change underlying business processes so as to not waste the capabilities of the new software being bought.
· Sort and prioritize the software capabilities in order to create an integrated change process, rather than a series of independent projects.
· Identify your best resources and free them to ensure the initiative is in capable hands.
· Carefully meter and manage the change to ensure some early wins to build momentum.
· Manage two parallel tracks: business change management along with software deployment and training.
Donald M. MacFarland, CastleBay Consulting
There are many issues that must be considered when implementing new software. Some of the biggest internal issues are:
- Control of the scope of the project to ensure the system goes live in a reasonable time frame.
- Development of a phased plan that satisfies the business drivers without disenfranchising any of the other important stakeholders.
- Effective and efficient conversion of data from the legacy system(s) to the new system.
- Ensure the new system is thoroughly tested before it is deployed.
This list is by no means even close to exhaustive; however, working though these specific areas will get a carrier off to a great start.