You may hate your current accounting system. You may curse it daily. You may recognise that you have outgrown it. You may even have allocated budget to upgrade it. But still you are hesitant. Why? Because, like every other human on this planet, you are naturally fearful of change.
What are you frightened of?
In breaking from your usual routine and your usual tried and tested methods of working, you open yourself to all sorts of unknown issues. And it is this fear of the unknown that is the crux of the fear. And it is that which makes you averse to changing.
You are worried that something might go wrong and it might be so awful that it would cause the business catastrophic issues. It might be so disastrous that you are left with an old accounting system that doesn’t suit your needs, cannot deal with business changes and may stop your plans for growth. Better the devil you know than the devil you do not and yet your new system still hasn’t been implemented.
You expect that changing your IT system will be a difficult transitional time. You anticipate and look forward to all the new functionality that your new system will bring. Yet, during the initial phase of transition, you know things might get worse before they get better. This anticipated gap between expectation and reality makes you unwilling to undertake the change in the first place. You perhaps fear that it will be a permanent state of affairs. You become hesitant to embrace the change, despite knowing that you will have to take two steps back before you can take one step forward.
A big worry for many is that their staff may not like a new system. They won’t be used to operating it and may not take well to it. Indeed, what if they are completely unable to use it? No-one wants dissent in the ranks over an IT system.
Perhaps the biggest driver of fear though stems from personal factors. Will my own job become redundant if I implement new technology? Will I still be needed? Or conversely, will I be expected to expand my knowledge and my role into others areas?
ERP systems typically encompass many areas of a business. Rather than simply needing to know all about accounting and finance practices, an IT or financial person implementing new IT may suddenly be expected to have to scope out a system encompassing other functions of the business, such as manufacturing, production, warehousing, logistics, HR and marketing. The reluctance to confront or expose one’s shortcomings is natural.
How can Balloon One help?
At Balloon One, we acknowledge that you are loath to change and that the risks and fears you feel confronted with seem very real.
But we don’t fear change. We change fear. We can mitigate your fear and transform it into a confidence that everything will be alright.
We have delivered hundreds of projects over the years and we utilise this experience, which is built on sound processes, by hand-holding you through your project in a way that allays your fears.
We closely project-manage the implementation and act to minimise the risks in all aspects. We approach all our projects in a structured, fully-managed way, anticipating all possible problems and building in contingency plans that address them.
We ensure we are fully prepared for each project and we also never rush anything. Our process follows a five-stage process, based on standard methodology. We go through the documented steps in turn and sign off each part as we go. We never move onto the next stage until the current one is completed to everyone’s satisfaction.
During a project, we take advantage of sharing solutions, such as Sharepoint. This helps aggregate all the project communications into one place, ensuring no message is lost. This safeguards email trails and guarantees version control.
Finally, we can ensure that your team has the necessary skills to adapt to the change. Our experienced and certified instructors can deliver standard or customised training to your staff, from the super-users to the casual users.
Do you still have a fear of change?
Ultimately, change is inevitable; you are going to have to move with the times and upgrade your accounting system. And while the fear surrounding it can be unsettling, working with a partner like Balloon One can alleviate any fear of change within your business, setting you free to improve and progress.
If you would like to investigate implementing a new ERP system, and have Balloon One allay your fears of change, please call us on 020 8819 9071 or contact us using the website form.
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