It’s always a good business practice to ensure your business is taking advantage of the latest and greatest technological innovations. To keep pace with the tech industry’s ever-shifting trends, you’ll need to consider transitioning to a new software platform to boost productivity and maximize every second of precious work time. If and when that time comes, you’ll want to make sure the transition runs seamlessly to avoid interrupting your company’s day-to-day operations.
Let’s assume you run a loan serving company and have decided to change your company’s loan servicing software. You already know the success of your business depends on a smooth transition between software platforms. However, are you aware of how to execute a software transition without disrupting productivity?
To aid in the software transition process, here are five tips you can follow.
Have a conversion plan
There are a lot of intricacies involved with the software conversion process. To keep things organized and running smoothly, you’ll need to devise a thoughtful conversion plan.
A well-oiled conversion plan entails identifying the logistical steps that need to be followed, collecting the resources necessary for the conversion, and outlining specific goals, along with the timeline of the transition.
Select data for conversion
While mistakes and missteps are nearly inevitable, you can’t afford to lose precious company data while transitioning from one software provider to another. Successfully executing the transition process doesn’t necessarily mean you have to convert all of the data. It’s possible to store some data if it’s not relevant to current business functions.
Before the conversion process commences, you should have your end-users identify what data they need and why they need it. Once you know what data you’ll convert, there should be a properly trained conversion analyst on board to help. Their job would be to write a conversion script that will keep the data conversion process simple and secure.
Monitor progress of the conversion
Once you’ve drafted a plan and prepared the conversion data, you’ll need to assign a staff member to continually survey the project’s progress. Why? During a software transition, every step depends on the previous step’s success, meaning a conversion analyst can’t proceed without proper confirmation.
Should you overlook a minor detail, expect costly failures. Constantly monitoring progress and comparing it to the initial plan’s core tenets is the best way to ensure nothing gets missed in the first sweep.
Perform thorough testing
Unavoidably, system bugs are going to occur. Including a contingency plan for system malfunctions, errors, or security breaches will serve a company transitioning software providers in the long-run.
At certain intervals, a system analyst should perform proper testing. The software shouldn’t go live until everything has been tested several times by several individuals. Otherwise, you risk tarnishing the company’s reputation, costing your team thousands of dollars in sales.
Train your employees
During the conversion process, employees should be undergoing training on all aspects of the new software’s functionality. At the end of the day, these are the staff members who will use the software to perform their daily tasks. Skipping this step may result in severe consequences such as disgruntled employees and declining productivity.
Typically, there are two ways employees can receive the training they need. Firstly, relevant staff can take part in formal training sessions that the new software vendor should provide. As a second option, they can participate in the conversion process, which will act as hands-on training that will help your staff members retain essential information. Note that the new software shouldn’t go live until all employees have completed the necessary training workshops.
In summary
To maximize training time and staff resources and integrate new software seamlessly, you’ll need to maintain thoughtful attention to detail. Skipping any one of these steps may result in lost data, delayed deadlines, or dissatisfied customers.
