When buying something that you don’t have today, it’s really hard to figure out how this new thing will actually fit into your world. For example, moving from Excel-based Lease Administration to a formal Lease Admin system seems like a no-brainer. Listening to a sales pitch, it has all the same functionality but better! But when you get it, you suddenly realize all the additional time and attention to detail that is required. It’s nothing like the Excel-based world. It’s so different as to be something new entirely.
If technology decisions were only about the tool itself, they would work 90+% of the time. Instead, we live in a world where many (if not most) new systems fail within the first year. The reason? People don’t understand that the thing they are buying will change how the work is done.
Change management is the single biggest obstacle to overcome when dealing with something new. It could be a new phone, new computer, new shoes, new color of pen. To some people, the change itself is the problem.
When talking to a salesperson, they will usually make their solution sound simple. And in a business-as-usual world where it is setup and running, it may be. But they will often gloss over the change challenge unless you bring it up yourself. But that is the challenge when getting something new – you don’t know all the right questions to ask.
I’ve always found the network to be key here. Someone somewhere has dealt with your same question, problem, or vendor. Covering all of your bases at the start will save you a lot of time and frustration later.