Supporting SaaS Without a “Silver Bullet” Mindset (Part II)

Last week, I touched on the first two real-world problem areas of supporting a new technology like SaaS without the sometimes-magical “silver bullet” mindset.  Today, I’ll explain the final two.

Problem #3 – Just do it!

(Meaning: Distributing the innovation without the structure or support to enable it to succeed.)

We’ve all seen this before: it occurs when a technology is implemented without effectively managing the needs of the field.

Here’s what it looks like: corporate goes to great lengths to build a solution that makes a lot of sense where the infrastructure is plentiful.  However, your field offices, manufacturing plants and certainly the drop trucks do not have a comparable infrastructure. Outside of corporate, the solution fails miserably and the field must find a workaround. Even worse is when outdated policies conflict with a seemingly straightforward solution. Undelivered mail can be sorted and corrected in the mail center with new technology; however, many of the operating companies require that mail to be returned to the operating company for processing. The benefits of the new capabilities never materialize. Additionally, the rift between corporate and the field grows and complicates future enterprise-wide initiatives.

Problem #4 – You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile!

(Implementing change without transitioning ownership throughout the organization.)

Here’s the scenario: you have the all-powerful senior leadership reinforced with massive budgets and executive support. They are united in their intent to change the way the organization operates and begin implementing changes across technology, policy and processes enabling the transformation to a better business.

But.

No efforts are made to work with the employees, obtain their opinions, or motivate them to accept the changes. Often executives simply state that “they will get their people in line should they learn about any problems.” Employees, afraid to lose their jobs, do not mention concerns. In the eyes of the executives, all is as it should be.  However, unbeknownst to them, an underground wave of resistance is mounting. Problems emerge, although no one seems to be at fault. Passive resistance is rampant, yet undetectable, as employees know the consequences of expressing their opinions. Progress continues to slow or even reverse.  In the end, the employees overwhelm the controls and mandates. Executives find a new initiative to focus on, and the business remains unchanged.

So, what do I do?

Organizations can manage these problem areas and others by investing in a concerted organizational excellence effort to support their SaaS implementation. ‘Organizational excellence’ refers to change management in its broadest form. It accounts for defining a strategy to support the initiative.

These strategies do not have to be all encompassing.  They should, however, articulate a clear vision of an improved working environment while accounting for how the innovation aligns with the corporate direction in terms of results that can be measured across outcomes, outputs and products. Examples of what I mean:

• Things like transformational benchmarking — especially in conjunction with value stream maps (or even process maps with resource data) — enable the clarification of opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency and the definition of a future state that compliments the innovation.
• Completing stakeholder and enterprise impact analyses proactively identify organizational requirements and contingencies (particularly in the field) that must be managed for a change to be effective.
• Lastly, managing organizational change assures that employees, managers and executives transition from awareness to understanding to buy-in to, finally, ownership of the changes associated with an innovation.

There’s a lot to digest here, and more science than simple conceptual art.  If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more, please email me.  I can talk about this all day, and would love to show you how MIPRO Consulting can assist with your next technology implementation project.

Oh, a final plug: if you’re interested in what we stumble across daily (and think is worth talking about), follow MiPro on Twitter, or become our fan on Facebook.  We’re won’t waste your time – we promise.

Related posts:

Supporting SaaS Without a “Silver Bullet” Mindset (Part I)
The “Effortless” SaaS Implementation Ideal
SaaS Booming in Enterprise Market
CIOs Say ERP Systems Considerably Underutilized
What Workday’s Cash Infusion Means in Today’s Markets
Workday Named #1 Best Place to Work in Bay Area
Big Hit: Workday Raises $75M in New Funding
How Economic Chaos Can Mean Opportunity for Smart, Daring Firms
Field Notes: Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri Kick-Off Workday Rising ‘08
Workday: Dave Duffield 2.0 Gaining Steam
Salesforce.com and Where SaaS Goes From Here (Eventually)

Related web content:

MiPro Consulting: Workday Professional Services

Tagged as: business transformation, change management, cloud computing, enterprise it, IT governance, project management, SaaS, software, technology