You're To Blame End Users Hate Your Solution

It’s a story I’ve heard over and over throughout the years. A company recognizes the need (often through the assistance of a VAR) to add or update an existing hardware/software system, but in the end, the project fails due to low user adoption. In other words, users of the technology either ignored the ‘better’ system or found workarounds. Perhaps they were used to doing things one way and didn’t see the advantages of the new system, or maybe they felt threatened by the new system. (These things might replace me.) And remember, when I say “fails,” that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire project was scrapped and referred to later as a ‘lesson learned.’ A failed project to some of your customers could mean the benefits you promised didn’t come fast enough due to user adoption problems.

Consultants call this change management; I call it an obligation and an opportunity for VARs and integrators. If you want to achieve that trusted advisor status, you need to realize the sale doesn’t stop after the rollout is finished. Sure, I’m talking about training, but that’s only part of it. You need to be proactive and use that business process information you gathered prior to the sale for more than just how your solution is going to replace the existing system or process. Leverage that data to anticipate user adoption problems. Are the majority of the end users not accustomed to using technology to complete their jobs? Do your training plans include not only instructions on how to use the new technology, but a list of benefits to the employee — not the company — for doing so?

In our sister publication, Integrated Solutions, there was a recent article about a company that gave technology users T-shirts and coffee mugs branded with ‘Project Pioneer,’ all to help achieve a seamless transition to a radically different work process. Now, I’m not suggesting you build T-shirts and coffee mugs into your next project proposal, but you may want to schedule some of this type of pretraining as part of the services you’ll provide. What’s the worst that could happen — you could find a better way to implement your solution, or by interacting with more people at your customer’s site, uncover another sales opportunity in a different department? Neither sounds too bad to me.

If you’ve discovered a great way to address change management, or if you have some horror stories of how it can be done wrong, I’d love to hear either one. And for doing so, I’d be glad to post your response on our new website, which would boost your credibility — which also doesn’t sound too bad.

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