Everyone knows that installing a new or upgrading an existing system can come with headaches. To make any implementation a successful one in the eyes of your users, you have to make their experience as easy and trouble free as possible.

The most important thing that we (meaning us at ADV and you, our partners in implementation) do is test and test and test. Testing a workstation implementation can be tricky though.

Asking for a test workstation is a normal request we make any time we are doing an implementation. After doing a new install or an upgrade, we at ADV like to make sure things are working from a technical and functional perspective before we hand things off to the client or IT Service partner. The trouble is that we often get a workstation that is relatively clean to test with. This is where a major difference can be made.

A pilot program can make the difference. Having a group of users spend time working with the system in the way they would normally work can catch issues and bugs before things get rolled out to the entire organization. Having a good mix of power and casual users is always beneficial, everyone works different. Yes, we may be taking time away from actual work to do that testing. But, the cost is more than made up for in adaptation and user acceptance of the new system, less down time in production trouble shooting and better training as we learn how you work.

ADV is very familiar with the functionality of the products we are there to help you implement. However, we only have a limited idea of how your users are going to work. Over the years, I have learned a tremendous amount from watching users when we are trouble shooting problems. They will do things that I, as a technical user, would never even dream of trying. The phrase, “I never knew you could do that.” has passed my lips more than once.

When you look over that project plan, ask yourself… “Do we have a pilot testing plan?”