The key to successful IT projects: committed employees

When implementing new digital ways of working, it's easy to get bogged down in hard metrics - technology, performance, implementation time and cost. Historically, large projects have worked with ready-to-go solutions where users have had to adapt to the technology available. But with today's increasingly dynamic solutions and focus on productivity and ease of use, employees need to be much more involved than in the past, if the technology investment is to be translated into business value.

From static to dynamic IT solutions

In the past, technical systems have had limited scope for adaptation. IT has been responsible for fairly static solutions and has therefore not needed to involve users beyond possible training. Instead, the starting point has often been at the top level, with the management team, for example, being the main requirement setter.

Thanks to cloud services such as Microsoft 365, it is possible to dynamically tailor technology to meet business needs. Involving all users in designing solutions can be unfamiliar. Often, there may also be a fear that if too many people are involved, the project will drag on. But without the project being driven from the bottom up, with the help of employees, it is unfortunately doomed to fail.

What's in it for me?

An important part of taking advantage of new technologies is to capture the problems that exist in existing processes and facilitate them with the help of the technological tools. However, without a genuine understanding of the actual challenges faced by employees, new technology will never fully provide the right solutions. And the needs will never be captured if the employee is not engaged and involved in the design of these solutions.

In addition, employees need to be aware of why they are choosing to change their way of working through new technologies and what they stand to gain from the change. Otherwise, there is a high risk that the new solution will not be used as much as desired - or even in the right way. In the worst case, employees may even become hostile and instead find their own solutions outside the company's IT platform - so-called shadow IT - to remedy inadequate processes and ways of working. This puts business information outside the company's IT environment, jeopardising IT security and, in the case of personal data, violating the GDPR.

Tip: How to engage your employees

For dynamic IT solutions to be successful, users need to keep them alive, which in turn requires employees to be engaged and feel part of the implementation of new digital ways of working. There are many ways to engage employees and here are some of our tips:

  • Start by holding one or more workshops where employees can have their say and give their views on how work is currently done and how they would prefer it to be done. Then find opportunities to build new, improved ways of working using the new digital tools. You can also run internal competitions where the best suggestions for improvement win something.
  • Move important processes that involve many employees to the new tool so that they are forced to get started and use it. Holiday planning or time reporting, for example.
  • Have ambassadors for the tool within each function/department. The ambassador should be a committed member of staff who is willing to drive the work forward with respect to the specific needs of their work group. The ambassador should be more of a change leader rather than a technical person - the key is to drive engagement and change behaviours.
  • Present information about new functionality in an understandable and user-friendly format - that is, not too technical. The important thing is to clearly demonstrate the benefits to the user.

The proof of a successful IT investment

Employees are the greatest asset in your business. Ultimately, they are the ones who ensure that new ways of working are actually adopted. To successfully implement a new digital way of working, it is the input of your employees that should primarily guide how the solutions are built. After all, they are the ones who really know where the gaps are, what could be improved and how day-to-day work could be improved through smarter processes.

Only when your employees feel involved and understand the benefits of the new tools will you get a return on your investment. If everyone is involved, you can also continuously optimise the tools through iterative improvements. In a way, engagement becomes the proof that the implementation of a new tool has really succeeded.

Want to know more about how we at WeSafe think about successful IT projects? Welcome to contact us!

Annica Tunster
Annica Tunster

Technical Lead - Power Platform

040 - 626 75 20annicatunster@wesafe.se

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