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David Okpala
Bringing new solutions into a business isn’t just a quick plug-and-play. Digital transformation takes time, effort and buy-in throughout the company. And its success comes from a change in mindset and culture – from your CEO to your field service engineers.
So whilst we pitch to you a Salesforce implementation project, the reality is that the ongoing transformation of your operations is now your new normal. Transformation projects only fail when organisations treat them as one-and-done. Your success is rooted in long-term commitment, clear goals and ongoing optimisation.
With over 10 years of experience from all different angles, here are some of my essential considerations that will help you prepare your team and ensure long-term success.
Value first – vision, data and leadership buy-in
Getting your senior leadership on board is essential, and they’re going to want to see early value. Demonstrating to them that it’s not just some new spangly software, it’s a tool that can help them make smarter decisions (and more revenue), will spark their interest.
Choose a main goal, consider your long-term vision and identify key metrics at the beginning. This will help a delivery team like Simpala design an implementation plan that will support these plans and business goals.
Then, download your brain. Documenting key processes, information and requirements helps us understand what you’re about and how a solution like Field Service can enhance that. We need to know everything about your business to plan for success.
Involve your team, but don’t burn them out
A solution like Field Service enhances the roles of many different team members: field engineers, customer service representatives, and dispatchers.
Involve each of these teams in the process from day one – spread the workload, garner feedback and ask them to test along the way. You don’t want to design a solution that only makes sense to two people in the business.
And those who are cursing about the whole thing and are resistant to change? Bring those detractors in early. They’re more likely to get on board if they feel heard and involved from the beginning. Plus, they’ve probably got some good ideas!
With all that said, everyone else has a day job. The wider team’s input will ebb and flow based on their business priorities. Share the load, don’t burn everyone out before the solution is even live.
Plan for the future, not just for your launch
For long-term success, think beyond the go-live. Your roadmap for the project should look years into the future, not just a few months.
In the initial discovery phase, choose one goal but think about the long-term vision for your business. You want the time, energy and cash investment into such a big project to be worthwhile, so add future plans and ideas into a long-term roadmap.
A great way to get started is to prioritise and protect what makes your business unique, your USPs. Amplify this, use the system to do these things even better, and improve the areas you’re not as good at. Perhaps your response time is just 6 hours, can you use Field Service to make it 4?
Once your new system is in place, plan regular reviews with your team. Capture feedback, track adoption and make updates based on how your team is using it.
Those who know and use the processes every day are the best people to advise and guide on the next stage of development.
Use your data for decisions
You must be data-focused to remain competitive. There are many new, agile organisations taking a data-first approach to their operations from day one. It might feel hard to adapt to this, but it’ll be worth it.
By choosing those key metrics at the beginning of the project, we build reports, systems and processes within the solution that help you track and use the data effectively to make business decisions.
The data our client Power Saving Solutions now has access to has helped them secure investment, upskill team members and increase revenue.
Integrating AI into the system will not take away from your team’s role, but enhance it. Great examples include preparing summaries for customer visits, identifying trends and efficiency gaps and dynamic planning for engineer routes, schedules and customer contact.
In conclusion, it’s a team effort
A transformation like integrating Field Service is successful when it’s aligned with your business goals, involves your team and is viewed as an ongoing process, rather than a one-and-done project.
The data you can access from a solution like Field Service can be organisation-changing. It’s so worth the time, energy and financial investment.
So, choose your focus, get the team together and let’s bring to life the future of your organisation.