What is your migration mindset?
Not everyone has the same philosophy when it comes to digital transformation and ERP migrations. Some organizations prefer to stick to what they know while others prioritize staying ahead of the technology curve, taking advantage of new features as soon as they’re available.
How do you define your migration mindset? We compiled the top archetypes and what each type should keep in mind for transformation success.
The Early Bird
You’re a regular subscriber to industry blogs and can always be found on the attendee lists for conferences and webinars. Early awareness and interest in new products are key drivers in keeping up with best practices, and regular upgrades are part of your business philosophy. You are ready with the business case to justify the need to optimize operations. Taking advantage of new features as soon as they’re available supports innovation and helps IT show its value to the business through meaningful improvements.
Added benefit of being among the first? The ability to try software early and share vital input to optimize use for your organization. You also have the ability to share lessons learned with similar organizations looking to replicate your innovation success or benefit from lessons learned.
The Analyzer
You use the time for major technology upgrades to take stock of existing investments and ensure they continue meeting current and future requirements. Developing a comprehensive set of requirements, including how the technology is being used and where there are opportunities for improvements, can ensure new technology can keep up with changing business demands. The analyzer knows the key to conducting an effective business processes analysis to uncover improvement opportunities is to start with the end goal in mind.
Ready to take your analysis to the next level? Learn the power of analytics in driving change.
The Change Management Champion
Yours is a collaborative decision-making culture that prioritizes people as key to project success. As the change management champion, you know technology changes have a reputation for disruption, so it’s critical to get executive buy-in and prepare people for what will change, how it will impact them, and how it is beneficial – and to do it all early in the process, when word of impending technology changes get out. The change management champion lets the vendor know who is involved in the decision-making process, the information they need to minimize delays, analytics to understand the priorities, and a plan to proceed on schedule.
Focused on executive buy-in to ensure technology investments align with business goals? Don’t forget to include the business users who rely on the system.
The Procrastinator
Whether you enjoy the challenge of racing against the clock, can’t fight your innate ability to put things off or have other priorities on the to-do list, you take your time embarking on a software upgrade. But there are pitfalls: As other companies get their project scheduled, your vendor or deployment partner may not have capacity to handle your initiative or preferred consultants with top skills may be busy on other assignments. Planning ahead is especially important if your legacy system is nearing decommission to avoid loss of support or data. Not allowing enough time for best practices in implementation may force you to cut corners that can impact success at go-live and beyond.
Know that a mad-dash approach is your likely scenario? Find out if your vendor offers accelerated implementation programs to get to go-live quicker.
Legacy products can’t be supported forever, and timely upgrades are a necessary part of the technology lifecycle to ensure your team can work to the best of their abilities. Taking advantage of new technologies can help your organization stay competitive, save money, and give users a better experience, no matter your style to get to go-live.