![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Steve-Behm.jpg\")
When a project ushers in various departments within a\nclient\u2019s operations, it can sometimes lead to miscommunications, disagreements\nand internal arguments that need to be managed. Steve Behm, vice president of\nprofessional services for Flex Technology Group, sees a linear path that must\nbe followed in order to have a successful (and smooth) implementation. It\nbegins with agreeing upon where the initial work (which department) is going to\nbegin, and developing a solid scope of work that all parties are in agreement\nof before starting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce that\u2019s completed, you have to have a good completion\nof work document, meaning everybody\u2019s going to sign off on it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\nalways like to say let\u2019s take one step at a time, let\u2019s not try to do the whole\norganization all at once, because that is a very painful process. There are\njust too many things going on, too many different people involved. It gets very\ncumbersome at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scope Creep<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the client wants to make a change during the process,\nBehm says it\u2019s important to document that with the change order, so that\neverybody is in agreement. Having it in writing is the key. And changes can\nhappen at any point, particularly toward the end of the project (a.k.a. scope\ncreep).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople start learning both what these products can do, and\nthe fallacies of the way things are done in their organization,\u201d he said.\n\u201cThere are people within organizations who won\u2019t say anything until you\napproach the end of the project, and they\u2019re faced with the reality that we\u2019re\ngoing to start rolling it out. That\u2019s a relatively normal occurrence. You can\nreduce that by consulting with them on the front end, making sure you\u2019ve got a\ngood scope of work and keeping their people involved in it pretty much on a\ndaily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Choosing one\u2019s third-party partners can be a tricky\nproposition. Any failure on their part, be it technology, communication or\notherwise, reflects back upon you, the dealer at the front of a project. Mark\nLasinis, director of technology for Imagine Technology Group, had a painful\nexperience with one vendor partner that did not deliver on its promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe key lesson learned is to make sure you use very professional, ethical and extremely detailed specs of work from your partner,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to be as detailed as possible on the precise workflow and what is expected from them. This partner didn\u2019t have that, and I take responsibility for not specifying even more detail. They were able to say that it wasn\u2019t on the statement of work, but it was in every conversation that we had. The support from the second partner we used was so much better than we could ever have hoped for, and we\u2019ve developed a strong relationship with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brad Yocum, market manager for Function4, notes that in its\nearliest implementations, his dealership had issues with understanding the\nintegrations or compatibility issues that existed prior to starting on a\nproject. Getting over those early issues has provided smooth sailing for\nFunction4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got great staff right now that\u2019s really well-versed\nand experienced in building out integrations with a variety of different\ndatabases,\u201d he noted. \u201cYou always want to prepare for the worst. In most\nsituations, we\u2019ve been fortunate not to have any major hiccups in recent\nyears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ducks in a Row<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting expectations for all parties involved, both internal\nand external, is critical to the ultimate success of a project, notes John\nSutton, the national director of sales for Novatech. Dealers should also ensure\nthat clients are aware of any requirements they must fulfill to meet that\noutcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToo often, sales professionals get into the habit of agreeing with everything the clients are OK, so you\u2019ve sold a workflow solution to the client. That was the easy part. Now the nightmare can begin. Did we say nightmare? We meant to say implementation. When a project ushers in various departments within a client\u2019s operations, it can sometimes lead to miscommunications, disagreements and internal arguments that need to be managed. Steve Behm, vice president of professional services for Flex Technology Group, sees a linear path that must be followed in order to have a successful (and smooth) implementation. It begins with agreeing upon where the initial work (which department) is going to begin, and developing a solid scope of work that all parties are in agreement of before starting. \u201cOnce that\u2019s completed, you have to have a good completion of work document, meaning everybody\u2019s going to sign off on it,\u201d he said. \u201cI always like to say let\u2019s take one step at a time, let\u2019s not try to do the whole organization all at once, because that is a very painful process. There are just too many things going on, too many different people involved. It gets very cumbersome at that point.\u201d Scope Creep If the client wants to make a change during the process, Behm says it\u2019s important to document that with the change order, so that everybody is in agreement. Having it in writing is the key. And changes can happen at any point, particularly toward the end of the project (a.k.a. scope creep). \u201cPeople start learning both what these products can do, and the fallacies of the way things are done in their organization,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people within organizations who won\u2019t say anything until you approach the end of the project, and they\u2019re faced with the reality that we\u2019re going to start rolling it out. That\u2019s a relatively normal occurrence. You can reduce that by consulting with them on the front end, making sure you\u2019ve got a good scope of work and keeping their people involved in it pretty much on a daily basis.\u201d Choosing one\u2019s third-party partners can be a tricky proposition. Any failure on their part, be it technology, communication or otherwise, reflects back upon you, the dealer at the front of a project. Mark Lasinis, director of technology for Imagine Technology Group, had a painful experience with one vendor partner that did not deliver on its promise. \u201cThe key lesson learned is to make sure you use very professional, ethical and extremely detailed specs of work from your partner,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to be as detailed as possible on the precise workflow and what is expected from them. This partner didn\u2019t have that, and I take responsibility for not specifying even more detail. They were able to say that it wasn\u2019t on the statement of work, but it was in every conversation that we had. The support from the second partner we used was so much better than we could ever have hoped for, and we\u2019ve developed a strong relationship with them.\u201d Brad Yocum, market manager for Function4, notes that in its earliest implementations, his dealership had issues with understanding the integrations or compatibility issues that existed prior to starting on a project. Getting over those early issues has provided smooth sailing for Function4. \u201cWe\u2019ve got great staff right now that\u2019s really well-versed and experienced in building out integrations with a variety of different databases,\u201d he noted. \u201cYou always want to prepare for the worst. In most situations, we\u2019ve been fortunate not to have any major hiccups in recent years.\u201d Ducks in a Row Setting expectations for all parties involved, both internal and external, is critical to the ultimate success of a project, notes John Sutton, the national director of sales for Novatech. Dealers should also ensure that clients are aware of any requirements they must fulfill to meet that outcome. \u201cToo often, sales professionals get into the habit of agreeing with everything the clients are saying, because they want to close the deal,\u201d Sutton remarked. \u201cBut we would service the customer a lot more completely if we let them know that in order for us to do this, and we can, we\u2019ll need you to take care of this first, whatever it happens to be. Also, you want to establish the proper players sooner rather than later. You need to be as high up in the food chain as you possibly can. Remember that many of the decisions that need to be made will have to be close to top down. If you start anywhere else, you\u2019re going to be bogged down by politics and process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":34973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[3487,3588,3673,3410,541],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35242"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35246,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35242\/revisions\/35246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mark-Lasinis.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Brad-Yocum.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/John-Sutton.jpg\")