We’ve seen an increase in Infor adoption in the past year. Yet, like any cloud-based software, implementing it into your workflow operations is a challenge, on several fronts. The key goal in adopting Infor for your business is not only that the initial process goes smoothly, but that your employees are onboarded quickly and that they use Infor correctly in the long-term, long after training ends.
Common challenges include:
1. Orientating new employees effectively as well as training them so that they are competent in using Infor
2. Getting your staff to adopt new features, updates and business processes
3. Being bombarded with never ending and continuous calls for technical support, particularly in times of change
4. Freeing staff so that they can concentrate on their work and not waste time on more technical issues
How can we overcome these problems easily?
1. Take a One-Step-at-a-Time Approach
Avoid overwhelming staff by attempting to teach them all that they are required to know. Start by explaining to them how Infor positively contributes to the business. After that, adopt a gradual approach, in which you start to teach them back office processes.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about new employees familiarizing themselves with Infor as that will be their main software they use moving forward, or if it’s a veteran team member training on migration to Infor. All of us can appreciate this sense of trepidation.
Although Infor can assist with both front and back office needs, I would advise first actualizing your back office changes as this enables you and your team to explore progression from the beginning. After that, you can now roll out your front office changes and actualize your request administration, client access to the web, client records and site needs.
2. Turn Staff into Advocates of Infor
In most cases, people who resist change do not have all the necessary facts, which is why communication is very important. At every step of the way, ask your employees to give feedback and let them know that you appreciate the feedback. Know your power users and give them an opportunity to try the platform first. It might be a good idea to teach them the features of the software along the way, as well as its capabilities but you need to ensure that you have them on your side at the time of rolling out the system.
3. Provide Easy-to-Absorb, Relevant and Impactful Training
You can also overcome the lack of excitement about Infor at the beginning by giving users necessary knowledge that they need for operating the software confidently. Although it may sound very simple, the truth is that knowledge breeds confidence and is important in eliminating user resistance. Ensure relevance to the training, and work towards the specific function and role of each user. However, ensure that the training is not too abstract. It needs to be onscreen, as well as in the moment of need and should show the user methods of performing the requisite steps in order to accomplish a key process.
4. Ensure Rapid Training & Correct Usage for The Long Haul
It is also important to talk about continuous support, even after completing the initial training session. In order to optimize the use of Infor, employees must be able to take advantage of quick onscreen access to any information whenever they require it. Performance support software can provide information onscreen at the time that it is needed and it has witnessed increased adoption especially in recent years.
Step-by-step and real time instructions help guide the user through a process especially when they forget the earlier training. The best way employees learn is by repetition, relevance, specificity and immediacy – and Infor users are not an exception.
Summary
While employees normally turn to the support from helpdesk when they run into a problem, this is not a very effective method for your team’s productivity. Employees lose time when they cannot perform the tasks that are expected of them. A mixture of impactful, relevant training that is easy to absorb, combined with performance support application that has been integrated with Infor will help every user get the information that they need at the instant that they need it.
All of us want that the Infor roll-out to be very smooth. This means high user adoption, rapid onboarding, correct usage after the completion of training and low change resistance. I hope that with these ideas, your employees will get used to Infor easily as well as yield results with time.