Prioritize on End-Users for a Successful IT Strategy

Technology grows at an incredible rate, and businesses need to take advantage of new features to get ahead of their competition. But is simply adopting new technology enough to get ahead? After all, new technology solutions mean nothing if your end-users don’t know how to use them.

This reasoning is actually more simple than you might think; since your end-users are the ones that are actually using new solutions, you want them to understand how they work and why they help your business as a whole. So, the first step to using your new technology solutions is to understand how you can make it easier for your end-users to use them. Keep your end-users first, and great technology second.

You’d be surprised by how many companies implement new IT solutions, only to see a decrease in productivity: InfoWorld claims that this is due to two reasons: 1) Lack of training, and 2) A reluctance to change habits or behaviors. Therefore, when your organization implements new office productivity suite technology, or new operating systems like Windows 10, you need to work with your users to accept the changes, and to educate them on how best to use it to their advantage.

In most cases, end-users will only care about one thing: functionality. They don’t particularly care about the technical specifications of a solution, and you can’t expect them to. As long as it works, they’ll want to use it. If you want to get the most out of your new IT solutions, it makes sense to educate your end-users on the benefits they offer, and to provide the training necessary for them to be competent in using them. Doing so can cut down on resistance to your new solutions, and can make it easier to maximize productivity right off the bat.

InfoWorld states: “You might stagger the rollouts so the disruption is spread out. Rolling out a series of smaller changes takes more time, but it also lets users get more comfortable with the changes, reducing the disruption to their work. It might even let some users get deep into new capabilities and share their excitement with colleagues, who won't be so overwhelmed with changes that they can't focus on the benefits.”

Basically, you want to ensure that your new IT solution isn’t just a successful technical deployment; you want to guarantee that it works well with your end-users. This is the essence of a successful solution deployment, and one which businesses often forget about. When your end-users are the ones using your technology solutions on a daily basis, but aren’t sure how to use it or reap the many benefits that they provide, your business will suffer. If it’s not providing an immediate return on investment, then why are you wasting valuable time and resources implementing it?

If your business needs to get the most out of its new IT solutions, PCSOFT can provide the training and consultation required to maximize your return on investment.