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    • Action plan

    Step 1 – Setting your objective

    High effort

    High impact

    Beginning the adoption of any new technology should start with being clear about what you want the software to do or the problem you’d like it to fix. That will help direct any future decisions you need to make and prevent you from investing in something your business either doesn’t need or won’t actually use.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    The first step of the software-buying journey is to decide what you want it to do. Which problem do you want it to solve? Which goal do you want it to achieve? Answering this will help you narrow down the type of software you need.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Having a clear and well-defined objective from the start is one of the critical success factors in making solid software choices. When salespeople are promising you the earth, you can use this to check whether the thing they are offering is something you actually want. For this action plan, you'll need to make use of our objectives template.

    Get your fingers burned
    2

    It’s time to think in a bit more detail about what an ultimately successful adoption process will look like – whether this is about behaviour changes you’d like to see your staff exhibit or an improvement in business/customer communication.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Rather than thinking of success being simply implementation and use of a new technology, setting goals aligned with your company’s wider vision and targets will help make the adoption more relevant and you should get better buy in from both senior management and the rest of the team.

    3

    Having spent the time establishing why and what good will ultimately look like, working out what parts of the business and which people will be involved is important.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Establishing which people will be involved will play a big role in the success of your tech adoption. You’ll need a mix of those with experience, those that will be using the technology and those with the seniority.

    4

    Think about any upcoming critical dates your business has, such as a new product launch, board reporting deadlines, seasonal rushes or predicted cash flow dips, that may impact on the success of an adoption programme.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    As with anything new and unknown, getting a grasp of what issues or challenges might crop up along the way will allow you to better deal with them if they end up arising – without needing pause activity or stop it entirely.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

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    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Clear objectives set

    Establishing goals helps drive informed decision making

    Why this metric?

    Without establishing the goal(s) you want to achieve, the long-term impact of changes will be harder to measure.

    How do I use this going forward?

    Have your clearly-defined objectives to hand when it comes to further steps in the implementation process – such as justifying a budget or making it work for the team.