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Ask the experts: How to successfully bring tech solutions into your utility

AiDash

You’ve convinced your company to bring in an exciting new tech solution. It’s going to solve some big problems and make you more efficient. The deal with your SaaS provider is done, and now it’s time to add this solution to your tech stack and get everyone using it.

But this is not just a step — change management is an ongoing process. And to execute it effectively, you need a strategy and the right partners to help you pull it off.

So how do you go about bringing tech solutions into your organization without driving everyone (including yourself) nuts? Where do you start? What are the best practices and worst pitfalls?

Hear from Bryan Sonnier, AiDash Senior Manager – Utility Specialist, as he addresses the questions people commonly have about implementing new software into an organization — and how AiDash can help.

What are some of the common barriers to implementing new software into an organization?

I see 3 common friction points with that process and with getting new software up and running and then adopted more broadly in the organization.

The very first one is just misaligned goals between work groups on the utility side.

The second problem that we see pretty frequently is resistance to change. Now, sometimes that’s just individual resistance or reluctance. Sometimes it’s more broadly a company culture issue.

The third problem that we see is a lack of training and support.

How do you get people to embrace new technology, as end users?

To embrace something, you have to be close to it. That starts with identifying the personal benefits that the software helps the end users achieve.

And those benefits are different depending on your role in your organization. If you’re an executive on the team, or if you’re an operations manager, or if you’re a field crew, there are different objectives that you need. And there are different benefits where the software can help with your day-to-day operations.

We also don’t just focus on top-down adoption. We work on identifying champions in your organization — those influencers that really can commit to learning the application and then help with some of the peer-to-peer training as well. They can help others in their same job function find that value in their day-to-day roles.

We get close to our customers and get to know them very well throughout the project’s life cycle.

Practically speaking, how do you help people in your organization adopt new technology?

We very strongly believe in meeting in person for training, and we model a “see one, do one, teach one” approach with training.

We’ll show you the software. For example, if that’s our Intelligent Vegetation Management System™ (IVMS) product, we’ll go through what the workflow looks like to create some plans for cycle trimming. We’ll show you what it looks like to add a hazard tree to your tree inventory, and then manage that for removal through the workflow.

And then we have the “do one,” where we take those use cases, like planning and execution, and put that in the hands of the users as part of the training session, just right on the spot. We’ll walk them through creating a plan with this specific budget constraint and these specific timelines. Or we’ll show them how they would look at the work that’s assigned to the specific crew.

For “teach one,” we flip the script, and we have everyone in class turn around and teach us, or have them do peer-to-peer training and show us what they’ve learned.

We also have robust documentation and support. So even once the training is over, you can always pick up the phone and call us.

How do you integrate new technology with your existing processes and platforms?

Too often, new applications get deployed, but the implementation plan isn’t aligned with other processes or products within the organization.

We built our platform with extensibility and customization top of mind. So out of the box, there’s a lot that you can do with exporting data from the product. You can look at the insights and analytics and then pull those into other places. We can also export any kind of reports that you might have to an FTP location. And we can schedule reports to be emailed.

To learn more about how AiDash can help you successfully implement software like AiDash Intelligent Management Vegetation System (IVMS)™ into your utility, reach out now.