Implementing software for an integration business is like laying the first cornerstone brick of a new building... alone, that brick doesn’t look like much but it becomes the foundation for the entire business. That’s why it’s important to make sure you take the proper first step when deploying business management software in your company.
So, what are the first steps to take. During a panel discussion at the recent CEDIA Expo, tow industry veterans – Randy Stearns, CEO of D-Tools, and Chris Smith, principal at TheCoTeam – discussed three steps integrators should consider taking.
1. Look at Your Immediate Needs First
Stearns says often the first step depends on the company’s needs. “It depends a lot on the organization,” he says, citing some recommended questions that integrators ask themselves that will help guide them, including:
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- What is your timeline?
- Do you plan to adopt the full feature set of the software at once or in stages based on your most-urgent need, such as sales or project management?
2. Tap Your Software Supplier for Training, Support
“Most importantly is to lean on the software provider for guidance,” says Stearns. “D-Tools onboards thousands of new companies onto our software… 50 a month. So, we've seen everything over and over again. We have teams that know how to do it and have done it all different ways. They know what works and what doesn't work. So really rely on the software provider to help guide that process because they're going to have the best answers.” Smith agrees, quipping, “The first step to admitting you're an alcoholic is to admit you're an alcoholic. We have this problem as a business and we're choosing to no longer have this problem, which means we're going move away from what we're doing.”
He says once you face that reality and make it clear to everyone on the team that unless we all adopt this software universally, the company will not be able to thrive.
“Once you do that, the next step becomes easy. Whatever the step is that you pick,” he adds. Smith says during his experience with several prominent integration companies, including Cloud 9 Smart and Advanced Audio, it was game-changing when his companies selected a software solution that also offered a training curriculum that could be purchased as part of the adoption process.
“Look at your software provider and ask, ‘What are my deployment tools?’ Who are my deployment teams?’”
3. Pick One Solution and Go
Analysis paralysis is real. It’s easy to spend so much time investigating solutions that it becomes hard to pull the trigger and implement it. Smith advises integrators to do their homework and then act.
“Talk to people and ask them which one they you use, but then pick one. Pick one and go. The faster you pick it and go, the faster you'll get started. The faster you get started, the faster you'll feel the pain and fix those pain points. Pick one and move,” he says.
