Smooth Technology Projects: 12 Significant Steps to Success Part 4

The Smooth Steps to Success Series I wish to make sure offers everyone an end-to-end toolkit of advice for implementing people technology. Find the complete series, as published in partnership with HR Zone here.
Something fabulous about being independent of any one provider – as we are at Phase 3 – is that we can help to fill in gaps. When you’re in the business of choosing, buying, implementing or changing your systems then each supplier tends to cater for their part of that mission (and appropriately so). But experience teaches me that there is a good deal of work you can do, as an internal project team, to make the difference to your success and most particularly to the efficiency of that success. In this part 4, I call that “homework” because it’s that which I suggest you do when you’re away from the supplier training room and back in the organisational home team. On this it is rare to find advice.
This article in the series tackles some of the areas you can make continuing progress with and gets to grips with, for example, the rather dreary job on data (a view only and with apology if you love it!) explaining where you need to look at the quality and completeness of people data to have at the ready. I also address some thorny questions about contract negotiation for you.
In both cases, it is wise not to be alone with your thinking and you may find that your natural benchmarking networks can offer limited value, contracts feeling rather confidential and data distinctly different in all cases as well as dull to bring to your network meetings! Take a passive approach to this period between selection and project kick-off and you’ll worst case be led into error without understanding your choice, risk budget and timeframe project over-runs. Best case you play a waiting game.
So, practical tips I hope here help.

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