Once you’ve decided to invest in and implement a new construction equipment fleet management system for your company, the fun begins. During your buying journey your vendor should have provided a comprehensive overview of their implementation process. Buyer beware: if your vendor says “Slap and Track” you are heading into a short-term solution that probably has a high switching cost. Now that you’ve committed, you’ll want to get your implementation off on the right foot.
The 5 Factors That Will Help Ensure Implementation Success
- Determine your KPIs for measuring success and when you will revisit them after you implement to see if you are on track, need to adjust, or are exceeding expectations. You may want to check more frequently in the beginning, i.e. every month, and then move to a quarterly or six-month reporting cycle. However frequently you decide, its critical to stay clued into your performance after you implement an equipment management system to ensure you are maximizing your investment and seeing the results and improvements you expected upon your decision to purchase.
- Clearly define the responsibilities of those who will be using the system and be sure to update any existing policies and procedures documents to incorporate your new system. If you do not have any, it’s a good time to create some.
- Create a communication plan that includes the implementation timeline, action items, and which stakeholders will be involved so expectations are clear.
- Be sure to reward and provide positive reinforcement when your team is performing as they should with their new technology, meaning they are executing the Implementation Plan as laid out, meeting target dates, and using the system as intended. If you are seeing adoption and results, then praise them! Your construction technology solution should be directly benefitting your employees as well as your overall business, after all.
- Do what you do best and manage the implementation as you would any construction project. First and foremost, work with your vendor to develop a detailed Implementation Project Plan before any work begins. Your vendor may provide this as a standard in their Implementation Process but if not, you know how to put a project schedule together, so have at it!
