When companies invest in high-performance software, they often neglect to adjust their working habits to achieve maximum performance.
If you are planning to trade up your software or simply want to get more out of your current tools, here are some tips to help you get optimum performance.
Set Targets
Understand what you want to gain from your software, identify which user activities are essential to achieve your targets, and then set some key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus users on the task. Don’t forget to monitor the KPIs, reward users for hitting their goals and encourage them to persevere when they fall behind.
Appoint a Guru or Two
Appoint some personnel as evangelists for the new tool. Get them well trained on all functions and ensure that they help users adapt their habits. This helps smooth the transition period and helps the whole organization benefit quickly. It also provides a primary contact point between you and your supplier for sharing of information, transfer of new knowledge and troubleshooting. This often means that simple issues are resolved more quickly.
Train, Train and Train Again
Plan a programme of training for all users so that they quickly get familiar with the system but don’t just leave it at introductory training. Throughout the year and beyond, seek out more specialised training to keep increasing the skills base and enthusiasm of your users, and to help prevent old habits creeping back in. As you become more accomplished with using your new software you will discover more functions that will help you and more ways to improve your efficiency. Don’t expect to know everything from day one, but do seek out ways to improve your skills.
Give Suppliers feedback
Don’t be shy about requesting new features or suggesting improvements to the products that you use. User feedback is one of the most valuable sources for improving software features and often highlights small changes that can make a big difference to end users. So speak out, and look forward to receiving your new improved product in the next release.
To help you with setting your KPIs here is a checklist of things that affect the effectiveness of software systems:
Poor data capture – set a minimum data quality standard to achieve for each record type.
Entry of duplicate records – ask users to check for existing records before adding a new record such as person or company.
Poor reference data – make sure lookup lists have the right values, no duplicates and support your reporting needs.
Lack of Policies and procedures regarding data recording – let your users know what you need to have recorded in each phase of a process flow.
The summer period is a time when business activities slow down. Personnel returning to work recharged after a break, will be more receptive to new practices. This provides a perfect opportunity for you to review how you use your systems, set targets and kick off autumn looking to increase productivity in your business!
Book a free consultation to find out how Moebius can help your business run more efficiently.