review before you replace

The technology system you bought a couple years ago has never really met your needs, nor has your vendor ever delivered on the commitments they made during the sale. Sound familiar?

This experience often seems to be the majority for hospitality venues, and like many others you are contemplating investing in a new system. Your vendor does not seem to want to fix the problems and you are not sure they can. But before you go down the road of new requirements, RFPs, budget allocation, and the infrastructure investment of buying a new system it is worth your time and money to “Review Before You Replace”.

After almost a decade of replacing technology systems, working with venues to fulfill sales commitments, and minimizing the interruption of a new installation my experience is 65% of venues ended up having the same problems with the new vendor. The reasons for this are generally not the fault of the vendor. Usually it is a number of steps were not and have not been done by the venue in ensuring the software they purchased meets their needs. The reality is 80% of the features in competitive technology systems are the same, and the unique 20% are a very specific set of features you probably do not need (the exception to this may be in system architecture). It is highly possible that replacing your system is just a really expensive way of buying the same problems.

Before you replace your system go through the following exercises as a due diligence effort. If after these steps you find that your current system does not meet your needs, you will already have most of what you need to begin the replacement process.

1. Define your needs versus wants.
   Define exactly what you need from your technology solution and then define what you want. You will most likely find that many of your needs end up in the wants column and some of your wants end up as needs. Prioritize the needs and wants separately as high, medium, or low. The exercise of prioritizing them will also help you organize the needs versus the wants.
   
   This process should include multiple users of the technology system with input from different functional areas (i.e. finance, f&b, information technology). If this process is accomplished by a single group (read information technology) it is a worthless exercise.
   
   
2. Review the list with your internal expert.
   Have your internal system expert review this list and recommend system changes to meet these requirements. If no one in your company can do this then you will never be happy with any system you have. Like it or not, someone in your company needs to be a 'super user'. If you believe the system you bought does not require someone in your organization to know how to use it intimately then I believe you will never have a solution that meets your needs. (Step 5 is part of the solution this problem.)
   
   
3. Review the list with your vendor.
   Meet with your vendor to review the list together and request they respond to each need and want. You should have filtered out the items you already know can be met at this point to save time for everyone. Most likely you can work with Customer Care or Technical Support and go through this process without paying for a billable service. You are not actually installing anything new, but optimizing the use of your existing system. If your vendor responds that this is a billable service then you may be better off going with a different vendor. The vendor has to want the system to work for you.
   
   For this step to be successful the vendor must provide a resource that is an expert in your vertical and on the software. Demand this as part of the process and do not settle for a resource that has to escalate to another person to answer every question. A first level (or even second level) support resource is most likely going to be a waste of time for you. For this to work in a timely fashion you need a resource with two years of experience.
   
   
4. Require your vendor to outline how to make changes.
   After getting a response for every item on your list from the vendor request detail on how to implement the changes for your system. Recognize that these changes may require you to change operational procedures. No off the shelf system is going to match exactly how you run your operation. If you want a system that does you will need to build it from scratch, and that is way more expensive and troublesome than changing operations.
   
   Review the notes from your vendor in detail with your internal system expert (super user) and ensure they understand how to implement both the system changes and operational changes. At this point you will probably find a new system is not required, but if you do the requirements have already been defined.
   
   
5. Invest in training.
   If your 'super user' cannot implement the changes without assistance invest in training. My experience is one of the biggest reason venues are unhappy with their investment is they skimped on training. If you are looking to cut costs in your project do not cut training. Your entire operation will run smoother when everyone knows what to do. The analogy I use here is learning to drive a golf cart and then assuming that you can drive that golf cart in rush hour traffic on the freeway. You will probably cause an accident. If you do not you will succeed in causing road rage.
   
   The training should be catered towards implementing the changes to meet your needs. Do not let your vendor waste your money by delivering a canned curriculum that only covers half of what you need to know. Demand a custom curriculum be delivered in advance of the training so you can review it, and demand the trainer have expertise in your market and on every feature you are going to implement.
   
   
6. Build a plan to implement the changes.
   When training is complete your super user should know how to implement changes to the system and to your operations. Build a plan on how to implement these changes. Chances are some changes will be dependent on others, and some may need to be planned around other existing events. For example, if a change will alter how your reports look you may want to wait for the end of the fiscal period. This will make running historical period reports simpler.
   
   
7. Create a feedback mechanism for system users.
   When you have made the necessary changes to your system implement a feedback process for your users to request system or operational changes to improve efficiency. The people using the system everyday have great ideas on how to make it better. Take advantage of this and earn some good will in the process. Acknowledge employees if their recommendation is implemented and has a positive effect. This will increase the satisfaction of your employees which in turn will increase the satisfaction of your guests. And that really is the point of all this work.

By Step 4 of this process you will know if the right decision is to keep your existing system or replace it. However, vendor deception is the exception to this. If you vendor has not been honest in this process you should discover this in Step 5. This is the primary reason for a custom training curriculum versus canned content. And if your vendor lied you have a pretty valid argument for denying payment for training. This process may seem like a lot of work, but it will be less expensive than buying a new system.

If you found this article helpful, have questions about this post, or want to add insight into avoiding the high cost of system replacement please submit a comment. We can all learn from each other.

For more information about kevin sturm Consulting please visit my website.