Ensure Your New Spend Management Solution is Welcomed with Excitement
What’s the usual reaction in your business to the announcement about a new system being rolled out? Excitement about the difference it will make to your efficiency and productivity? Or a sigh as everyone thinks, “oh great, another system to navigate.”?
If you’re thinking about implementing SAP Concur solutions in your business but are concerned that the reaction may be more despair than delight, read on. We’ll look at the three pillars of a successful rollout and how you could see immediate value in the investment you’ve made and achieve ROI more quickly.
Pillar 1: Strategy and planning
As the saying goes, it’s all in the planning. Planning ahead reduces complications and setbacks during rollout, helps you coordinate actions so everything moves effectively and efficiently, and identifies key areas of responsibility so you can make sure nothing gets missed.
Our clients have found it helpful to use the reasons behind the decision to purchase SAP Concur to define success. They have created small pilot groups so they didn’t overwhelm the rollout team and identified small groups of users to provide relevant feedback. They have been mindful of the company calendar so they respected end users’ workloads and have made sure the implementation team at their end has been involved as early as possible.
Pillar 2: Training
One of the compliments we often receive about our solutions is how intuitive they are to use. Even so, we always recommend taking time to train end users. Proper training brings people up to speed more quickly so you can start to see greater efficiencies more quickly too. Plus, untrained users can make mistakes that cost time and money to sort out. It’s about educating new users on your company policies as much as it is about using a new system.
Above all, great training equals greater user satisfaction which equals higher user adoption and better ROI. We have a training approach guide we give to clients rolling out SAP Concur. We also have a wealth of training resources you can turn to.
When we asked SAP Concur clients for their tips around training, here’s some of the advice they gave:
- Break up training based on needs so you don’t over-complicate things
- Create tipsheets and FAQs for people to refer to
- Appoint user champions on each team
- Educate your employees on your T&E policy so there are no surprises
- Take time to ensure your training team is completely comfortable with the system before they start to train others
Pillar 3: Communication and measuring success
No one wants to feel they have had a new system implemented and then been left to fend for themselves. The solution is to keep a constant dialogue going so your end-users stay engaged with the product and the process. It removes ambiguity so everyone is clear about what’s happening. Crucially, it also means you’re able to adapt because you’re getting consistent user feedback.
To help you, we have a communication plan you can follow, as well as a training and rollout survey you can use to improve the effectiveness of your training, discover any gaps, and improve onboarding for future users.
We also communicate with customers regularly, providing system tips and tricks so users can get the most out of their tool. We also encourage clients to make use of their internal communications systems to make sure users feel kept in the loop. You should consider segmenting your updates so that only those updates relevant to certain users are shared and you aren’t overcommunicating with irrelevant information.
The tools for success
Taking time to plan each of these three pillars means you have put in place the tools to bring success:
- A plan of action designed to achieve a successful rollout
- The education needed to ensure end user adoption
- The ability to inform users of critical information and measure the level of success
Once your SAP Concur instance is in place, be sure to join the discussion in the SAP Concur Community to learn more tips and best practices from fellow users.
