How to Reimage Business Processes for Software Implementation Success

How to Reimage Business Processes for Software Implementation Success

Have you installed new software that was universally embraced and paid for itself quickly, perhaps even within 24 months?

Attaining widespread employee buy-in at an affordable price is a worthy but difficult goal. Yet as new software competes for funding with other good ideas, achieving this is important. Business process redesign can help philanthropic organizations realize this measure of success.

The Challenge

Philanthropic organizations replace software, including their big grantmaking systems, every five to twenty years. That makes sense, as the philanthropic industry is growing. Contributions to donor-advised funds totaled $37.12 billion in 2018. This represents an 86 percent increase in contributions over the past five years. The related grants increased likewise.

Growth in grantmaking often necessitates employing new tools to stay ahead of the workload. Leaders of philanthropic organizations need to build a strong case to justify investment in costly new software. The best-case scenario is when the new software pays for itself within 12 to 24 months. In order to achieve such a favorable return on investment, employees throughout the organization need to be open to change and willing to explore all that the software has to offer. Business process redesign engages employees in fully learning and embracing new software, inviting them to fully leverage it.

Business Process Redesign Impact

Recently, three experienced technology leaders and I spoke at a Technology Association of Grantmakers webinar about how to leverage business process redesign to promote software acceptance and a quick return on investment. Key points:

• Including the right business process redesign steps in the new software install plan helps the team achieve success.
• Each organization must identify key factors about its own situation before it can design steps to reimage how work is done.
• Proven tools can help foundations identify the best process redesign steps for their unique situation.

Check out this new, free tool that can inform your thinking about software implementation: Business Process Redesign Steps for New Software Success.

Contact me, Lee Kuntz, at info@improveprocess.net for a no-cost discussion of your situation and recommended steps to redesign your business processes.

Foundations have realized substantial benefits from their new software investment through leveraging our business process transformation coaching and training. You can too!