Managing technological change can be a daunting task. It’s not just about making the change itself, but ensuring that the change is successfully adopted by employees across the company. This requires careful management and communication to streamline the process and make it as easy as possible for employees to be onboard with the changes. Process documentation is a crucial element in facilitating the process. Without it, technological changes can quickly become chaotic and lead to frustration on the part of both management and employees.
In this article, we discuss some of the challenges that you may face during the process and explore the benefits of process documentation in managing technological change. We will also provide tips on how to facilitate software adoption successfully!
Why make technological changes?
Managing technological change can be anything from small-scale change such as adding new features to a software or fixing bugs within systems or major change, for instance the introduction of a new software.
Companies make these changes for a variety of reasons, such as keeping up with customer demands, improving employee productivity, accommodating for external circumstances (such as remote work!), or simply staying with the beat of technology.
But not all changes are successful and failure is most often due to inadequate change management. When managing technology change, it’s essential that you take your team members’ needs into account. After all, they are the ones using the software and will be affected by it.
What are some of the challenges you may face while managing technological change?
Software complexity
Depending on the complexity of the software introduced, change management may be more or less difficult. The more complex and customized the software, the more time and effort is required to facilitate the change management process. This is also about relative complexity: what is the new software replacing, a fax machine or a similar system? How experienced is your team in the use of complex software? This brings us to the next point.
Training new software
While most consider training a solution to software change management, it can actually be a huge obstacle, too. Providing intensive, personalized trainings for every employee on the new software is ideal – and most often impossible. Time and resources are major constraints but so is the way and the pace at which people learn. Single software training sessions can introduce software but problems with everyday usage are not addressed with this kind of training. Training modules and videos may be another training strategy but once again, they aren’t very accessible when a team member is in need of a quick fix on the job.
Time factors
This cannot be stressed enough but even the most efficient software rollout takes time. And probably more than you think. Making sure employees get enough time to adopt the new software is a big part of time management. A software change is not successful if the rollout happens too fast and people are unable to use it properly.
Psychological challenges
One of the biggest challenges that you may face during software adoption is getting employees on board with the changes. Change can be difficult for people psychologically, and it’s important to manage this carefully. Employees may resist the change if they feel like they are not being consulted or if they don’t understand the purpose of the new software. It’s important to address these concerns early on, and ensure that employees feel like they are being kept in the loop.
Unleashing the Power of Process Documentation for successfully Managing Technological Change
Recognizing any of the difficulties above and wondering how to overcome them? Spoiler alert: with the help of process documentation. While it may seem like extra work at times, creating process documentation is crucial in software change management.
If you are new to the topic of process documentation, we have an article to introduce you to our universe. If process documentation is already on your menu, you should get excited about software change because how often do you get an excuse to capture software processes and streamline them for maximum efficiency? No more scrambling and haphazard guesses of how the process is done correctly.
And if you are looking for a way to make your process documentation significantly simpler? Then FlowShare may be something for you. FlowShare is an easy-to-use documentation software with which you can capture processes while you perform them and automatically turn them into simple step-by-step instructions. It allows you to capture hundreds of processes in a short period of time in a way that is easily accessible to users. Perfect for a task as extensive as introducing new technology to your company.
Benefits of process documentation for your company
There are several benefits of process documentation for your company that make managing technological change easier:
- You can avoid disruptions and unnecessary delays by having work instructions at the ready that tell your team members what to do instantly.
- You can streamline processes and get everyone on the same page of how a process is to be done.
- Train new software quickly and efficiently
- Decrease repeated support requests by making software accessible
- Get employees on board
Benefits of process documentation for employees
Your team members also reap the benefits of process documentation in managing technological change:
- No more guesswork: clear instructions mean less frustration, employees know exactly what to do and how to do it.
- Fewer support requests: no need to bother contacting support, but employees can easily help themselves with the instructions.
- Easy to learn new software: empower your team members by allowing them to adopt the new technology with sufficient guidance.
- Get up to speed quickly: new employees can become productive members of your team in no time because they get clear instructions on how processes are done.
You see, while process documentation requires some additional effort upfront, the benefits quickly outweigh the cost. In software change management, having process documentation is a game-changer.
Let FlowShare convince you!
We get it, managing technological change and software change is hard (and so is documentation if you are lacking the right tools!). But there’s no need to go at it alone – we’re here to help! FlowShare is a simple, easy-to-use process documentation software that supports your software change management. Overcome challenges by quickly creating accessible instructions, capable of capturing complex software systems in an easy-to-follow manner to which your employees can return when questions arise.
See for yourself: You have the chance to test FlowShare for free for 7 days to experience first-hand how it can help facilitate new technology! With the free trial version you can create an unlimited number of process documentation.
