Working in IT can get be frustrating. People constantly need your support, but then they complain about too much ‘IT policing’. You spend weeks evaluating a software requirement for a department, and then find that someone is already using some shadow IT to get it done.
Nathan has seen it all as an IT Director for a large financial enterprise for the last ten years. But his latest frustration is that he used a big part of his budget to purchase an expensive cloud-based workflow platform for the entire company last year. Except for a few things running in the administration team, no one else has created any workflows. Everything is still happening either manually or on paper.
Nathan is starting to wonder where things went wrong. His team ran a company-wide gap analysis with all departments to confirm that a workflow software was a must for them. He fought with the CFO to increase the IT budget, but now he has to face low adoption rates.
The platform seemed perfect – easy for non-tech users, easily scalable, good support, and even a mobile app. His IT team even created some custom integrations with some of their existing software.
But still, with dropping usage rates, he has almost resigned himself to swallowing his pride and telling the CFO that he needs to cancel the program and use the budget for something else.
5 Ideas for Internal Selling
Most teams understand the value of automated workflows, they just don’t want to be the first ones to experiment with it. Although the workflow app that Nathan bought is easy to use, his team didn’t do the preliminary groundwork to make it obvious to the adopting teams.
Here are some ways Nathan’s IT team could do more to turn the tide and increase adoption rates of their workflow platform:
1. Run Specialized Tutorials
The people in Nathan’s company have diverse learning curves. Those who are technically-inclined are quick to adopt new technologies because they are already in the groove. Others know what the app is for, but are more laid-back about exploring it.
Nathan can run different in-house tutorials for those at different levels. For the technocrats, he can do some deep dive views of all the tips and tricks that are possible on the platform. For the big-picture folks, he can show them some prebuilt applications and how easy they are to set up and customize.
2. Identify Multiple Evangelists
Workflows are hard for someone to make who doesn’t think about them all the time. IT teams often need a few people outside of IT who will vouch for the effectiveness of automated workflow tools. A good strategy is to identify someone from the leadership team who is passionate, and also someone more involved in day-to-day usage of the product. Allow these people to speak on behalf of the product, rather than it always coming from the IT team.
3. Lead By Example
Nathan’s team has been ready to help departments get their workflows set up. They just need to send an email and someone will come and collect more data.
…or, Nathan could set up an automated form that triggered an internal workflow. And, then he could handle all IT requests and software purchase requests with automated workflows.
4. Share the Numbers
One huge advantage of the best automated workflow platforms is that you can get live statistics on how well your process is running. You can see how many items complete a workflow, the total time taken, and averages for each step. Nathan can run a contest to see which groups can shorten the amount of time taken to complete a process the most.
By publicizing numbers, Nathan can bring in gamification and draw more attention to what can be done with automation. Other teams can be inspired to shorten their processes as well.
5. Hard Sell on Integration
One hangup many departments have with new technology is that they are often just getting used to a new system of their own and don’t want to add something new. Good workflow automation software will always be very easy to integrate.
Nathan’s team can go to each department and show how a workflow platform like Kissflow can augment the use of their core software without providing additional headaches in terms of account maintenance and manual data transfers.
Got the New Adoption Blues?
If you are having trouble getting your organization to fully embrace your new workflow platform, chances are it isn’t going to happen on its own. Experiment and find new ways to promote the platform while showcasing its advantages.
The best way to create an instant hit with your next big IT purchase is to make sure your users love it. Give Kissflow Workflow a try and use one of our pre-built automated workflows to see just how excited your teams will be to use it!
