Written by: Samantha Colby
Congratulations! Having exercised careful consideration, deliberation, and negotiation, you’ve finally selected your new HCM system. After contracts have been signed, your vendor sales representative throws a major curveball your way – there are going to be extra costs associated with implementing your software. No one had made you aware of that prior to this moment. You’re understandably caught off guard as the vendor representative offers to introduce you to an implementation partner, like HRchitect, to see exactly what the implementation will entail, and get a clearer picture of what these added implementation costs will be.
It is understandable that, at this point, you might be thinking, “We’ll just have our team handle the implementation internally. They’re perfectly capable of doing so, and there’s no need to spend more of our budget on these unforeseen costs.” While I certainly appreciate the go-getter, independent attitude towards embracing a new project; I’m cautioning you that, unlike a Do-it-Yourself or Pinterest project you may take on independently, HCM implementations are one major undertaking that you don’t want to do all on your own.
Some of the pitfalls you may experience by forgoing working with an implementation partner during your HCM implementation include:
- Diminished system complexity
We’ve all heard the saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” If you’re not familiar with the system and don’t know what the system looks like when it has been fully configured utilizing all features, workflows and functionality, the configuration that your team produces may be very basic. It’s like building a kitchen island and only ending up with a countertop, not knowing that you could have drawers for storage, custom hardware for drawer pulls, and wheels for portability.
You likely purchased the system due to the advanced functionality you saw in demos, so outsource your implementation to a certified partner, like you would to a contractor, who will ensure you have a top of the line system, including all of those jaw dropping features upon go live.
- Time
As much as it can be exciting to take on a new project, an HCM implementation takes a significant amount of time and attention. You’ll stress yourself out by taking on this extra project without outside help. Do you really have the extra time to be spending hours and hours each week on an implementation over the next few months, without detracting from your existing responsibilities? An experienced implementation team operates extremely efficiently and can get your system up and running much faster than an unseasoned team who is pulled in different directions with other job responsibilities.
- Money
You may think that you’ll end up saving money by implementing the system on your own, but that frequently isn’t the case.
Since your resources are not well versed in the platform, it will take them longer to perform the implementation, and time is money. Additionally, there is a chance that after all of the hard work your team put in, you’ll still need support, or if there are too many missing pieces, you may need a re-implementation or optimization. You’d be surprised at the percentage of HRchitect clients who have reached out to us after trying, and failing, to implement a system on their own. Think of those budget dollars that you could re-allocate by working with an experienced implementation partner from the start.
- Lower Adoption
If you are dedicating every spare minute on your system implementation to ensure you meet your go live deadlines, are you sure you’ll find time to deliver quality training, and change management initiatives at the same time?
Change management is often overlooked when the resources staffing your implementation are already stretched thin, thus user adoption is at risk of failing. You know that no matter how well the system is configured, it won’t work if people don’t use it, so let the experts implement, and you focus on ensuring your end users are excited about, and trained to use, your new and improved system.
I don’t doubt that you are Superman or Superwoman producing exceptional results in your workplace, but do want to caution you to recognize that an HCM system implementation fail has significantly more consequences than your Pinterest or other Do-It-Yourself project fails. You want to do everything you can to ensure that your system implementation is a success, and the best way to do that is to work with an implementation partner, like HRchitect, that will work alongside you to do so.
HRchitect has the technical expertise to assist you in this area. We have worked with many different sized clients, industries, and systems over the past two decades, which gives us an expansive knowledge of the best practice for your organization. HRchitect can assist you with all your implementation needs to make sure that you get the most from your investment.
About Samantha Colby
Samantha Colby is the Marketing Director at HRchitect, the leader in HCM systems strategic consulting. Samantha has several years of experience in the payroll and benefits administration space. Samantha has B2B and consumer marketing experience in several industries including consulting, higher education, and sports and entertainment. When not preparing for upcoming trade shows or executing marketing campaigns, Samantha can be found following Boston-based sports teams or reading a book from the local library.