The Advantages of a Pilot Implementation System
Software implementations involving improvement in business process areas require pilot implementations. Pilots test how business processes will be performed with the software. The project team performs the pilot effort after being trained on the software capabilities. The project team then creates graphical workflow charts of the company business processes. Both current process workflows and proposed future workflows are created for testing during the pilot. The current workflows and future workflows, once tested and finalized, form the input for training the users of the software system to run the business. Advantages of pilots include risk reduction, business process improvement and in-depth learning of the software.
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Risk Reduction
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Piloting business processes prior to actual use of the software to run the business reduces the risk of failure, errors, delays and shutting down the business. Attempts to use the software to run the business immediately after generic software training have a high risk of failure because of the many unforeseen nuances involved in accomplishing business processes. The pilot requires running through the processes, including integrating other departments. Many changes occur to business processes during a pilot.
Improve Processes
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Pilots are an opportunity to try out new processes and to incorporate improvement suggestions that streamline and improve processes. Without a pilot, the project team does not have time to make changes and improve processes; this results in attempting to replicate current processes and not using the software to improve the business.
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Learn How the Software Works
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Software vendor training classes are designed to be generic in nature. They are not designed to train how to use the software to run the business. The training classes are a necessary part of the implementation process. The project team learns how the software will be applied to business processes during the pilot. Once the pilot is completed, the users are then trained in how the software will perform the company's business processes.
Training Materials
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One output of the pilot are graphical workflow charts that reveal how the software will be used to run the business. These workflows will be used to train the users. The quality of these user training materials is extremely important. Poor workflow documents result in repeating pilot efforts and delaying the implementation.
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Resources
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