Nobody enjoys changing accounting systems, but sometimes it is necessary for a company to reach the next level. Reading website marketing buzz often leaves buyers with more questions than answers, and, once a system is chosen, the process of implementing it can be seemingly unending and demanding of so much time, money, and energy that it isn’t clear if you’ll ever see an ROI. In our more than 30 years of combined experience implementing accounting systems, we’ve found 3 key factors that, when properly considered, ensure you experience a smooth, efficient implementation that leads you to quick ROI instead of a profit-sucking quagmire that leaves you worse than when you started.
Your company, your results
Just because an accounting software system is popular or well-known doesn’t mean it is the right fit for your company. For example, one company may use a very flexible system that suits their rapidly changing needs because their decision makers and staff have the technical expertise to reconfigure the system in response to changing business needs, but if another company lacks technical expertise or doesn’t experience the same pace of change — because every company is unique – and they get the same system on a recommendation, they would very likely be overwhelmed by difficult technical decisions before they ever got it working. This is an important caveat of some Big Name horizontal systems that tends to be left out of the brochure. If you don’t have in-house technical expertise, it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay a knowledgeable project manager and team to get the system off the ground at all.
If you don’t have someone at the decision-making level with technical expertise, it may be worth considering a smaller niche accounting system geared to your industry. These systems are typically built with a different set of goals than horizontal systems. Instead of being infinitely configurable to suit every need under the sun, they come set up out of the box to be usable as soon as you get your data put into them. They usually include a fair bit of flexibility, too, since no two companies operate exactly the same way, but the number of decisions you’ll have to make will be significantly smaller and much less complicated. The important caveat to smaller, niche systems is that it can take years for these products to properly mature before they truly carry those benefits, so it’s important to pick a system with a history of happy users in your industry and not to rely solely on the system being supposedly tailored to it. If you find a mature system that is already tailored to your business, you can drastically reduce your implementation timeline and cost – allowing you to achieve ROI at a much faster pace.
Responsiveness counts more than perfection
While it is important to pick the system that best fits your company, no system will ever be perfect. A good software system is also backed by a team that responds quickly and meaningfully to the imperfections that stand in your way to achieving success. Big Name horizontal systems tend to be sold and implemented by third parties who do not have the ability to make changes to the underlying system which can be used as an excuse to refuse to solve problems. These third parties also rarely understand the system in its entirety and as a result can provide incorrect answers to questions or fail to solve problems that have easy solutions. This makes having in-house expertise critical to protecting your investment in a Big Name horizontal system because no third party will ever care about your success as much as you do.
Niche systems are more likely to be sold and implemented by the companies who develop them which typically results in shorter turnaround times on reported issues since it cuts out the middleman. This also means your questions are more likely to be answered by the people who wrote the features in the first place. Most importantly, the implementer in this scenario can’t hide behind a lack of access to the underlying code as an excuse to refuse to help. This makes them a better option once again for companies who lack the internal resources to protect an investment in a Big Name horizontal system. In some cases, this reduction in impediments can even enable a system that is maybe not as a good a fit out of the box to provide better ROI.
Making giant leaps requires taking small steps
When a new accounting system is purchased, most companies are excited by the potential to streamline their processes. Before the implementation process even begins, stakeholders start learning about how new features can translate into ROI, and it’s always nice to share in the excitement over that potential with a new customer, but it’s important to put that potential in the proper perspective. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither should your transformation happen overnight. The temptation to try to change everything at once must be avoided because it inevitably leads to a drop in morale within the organization that can actually derail the implementation and prevent you from ever seeing any ROI.
The quickest path to maximizing your ROI is to take very measured, deliberate steps toward your end goal without biting off more than you can chew. You want this new system’s workflow to be as close to the old one as possible at first with the goal of keeping everyone happy. Once you’ve finished implementing the system, give your people time to adjust before making changes to the workflow. This allows you to take advantage of those new features that benefit your current workflow which are often enough to get you to ROI when you consider how much shorter the implementation ends up being. Once the organization has adjusted, begin making small changes and measuring their effects. You may even find what you first envisioned is not nearly as efficient as what you end up doing.
Software implementation is a delicate balance of speed and accuracy, and finding the right partner is as important as finding the right product. If you’re in the market for a new accounting system, I sincerely hope you find this advice instrumental in making the right choices for your company.
