Change Management

As you can imagine, we see a LOT of change as part of our industry. And as we support our clients, we often have a front row seat as they roll out changes; some technology-related, some business-process related, some people related.

As I put this together, it was just last year that we were sharing what’s different in Windows 11, another important change. Tools we’ve used for years reach end-of-life. How we start our cars has changed. Even getting out of the limo, I had to figure out how to get the door open!

Over the last few months, we’ve seen a significant number of clients choosing various types of business change: moving to a new office or shutting one down; moving from an on-premise server to the cloud; moving from one cloud hosting platform to another; moving from server file shares to SharePoint; integrating third party products that may or may not have integrations with existing software; moving to a new payroll platform or bringing payroll back in-house; Power BI reports available to the field from anywhere!

Most teams know the basics when it comes to thinking through the changes listed above. There’s the logistics—installing software, choosing cut over or move dates, who’s involved. There are vendor communications for changes/upgrades of services or purchase of goods. Then there are arrangements for training, having new procedures, and mocking up data. All of this while you’re still getting your regular work done and holding down the fort.

We have a couple of other things we’d like to be sure are on your radar as you consider various changes in the coming months. Most of these are based on what we’ve seen as we roll out (or roll back) services, as well as the work we do with, and on behalf of, our clients.

Recently a client swapped out an old server. It was way past time to decide to replace the old equipment or move to the cloud. Even though we were part of the conversation leading up to the decision, we weren’t told that a decision had been made. The next communication was a panic call—our FIT System would not work and it was a payroll day! Well, our FIT System talks to the Sage 100 Contractor data, and that data had been moved, but we didn’t know it. This was very ‘fixable’ but with more communication and some testing of critical systems before going ‘live,’ we know the ‘scare’ would have been avoided.

Whether you’re rolling out new software or new equipment, it’s important to make a list, over a period of at least several weeks, of the various critical tasks, things that will have to ‘work’ when the project goes ‘live.’ This might be testing and planning for changes to the FIT System; this could be critical custom reports such as Cost to Complete, Over/Under Billing, Positive Pay, and similar. There might be Power BI connections to S100C and/or Excel data that will have a new ‘home.’

When we are cutting a client over to our hosting environment, we actually test and train access to the new environment, invite users to log into their regular programs, and test access. Sometimes it’s MFA adjustments, or other special routing needs. WAY better to get these tested before the cut-over day! How about testing printing; logging into Sage 100 Contractor, licenses, and access (including the Database Admin tool). Launch SharePoint, and Microsoft tools. What about third party applications such as ProCore, Sage Paperless, FieldFlo, or other special tools you have in place.

Each project requires planning and training. We’re suggesting that you also build in time and structure to test access and important routines to limit surprises and ’fires!’ – CMW