In the 4th episode of our podcast you hear from both Gary Feary from Grafton, and John Wallace, CEO Documation, on the reasons the automation project was successful.
How was the success measured?
Grafton deemed the automation project successful. Gary Feary, Director of IT Solutions at Grafton, lists the keys to measuring the success below.
- The System is now fully deployed with no more dual posting or testing
- All Branches are fully on-board and have adopted the new systems of working to ensure automation runs smoothly
- The training roll out was excellent because the Documation web interface is extremely intuitive and only key team members needed training and the rest of the staff could just jump in and try the system, guided by an online training systems and an information guide. This meant large classroom sessions were unnecessary and staff quickly adopted the new systems.
- Choosing the right partner is essential.
- Strong relationship is hugely important, especially when things start to get complicated and critical, you need everybody involved to be working together. You need to trust everyone in the team.
- Working with a partner who is comfortable to push back and challenge when you are wanting to do something that is away from the box, (eg outside the off the shelf solution). Documation did that, and it worked. We planned and worked together on all customisations of the solutions, everyone was on board and knew the implications of cost, time and application.
So what made the project a success from Documation, the solution provider’s point of view?
- Great project teams on both sides – Getting the right people in the room at the right time is essential. Both teams came up against obstacles that they worked through together for a positive outcome.
- Strong project management – Grafton’s project manager was excellent and was prepared to challenge his own team decisions when necessary. This resulted in a strong and driven customer team
- Planned rollout – Making sure all adopters have education, belief, and buy in and provide a visible early success rate early on, hence creating project evangelists
The partnership between Grafton and Documation continues, with further automation projects being identified.
Overall Partnership and Teamwork were the 2 key factors to the success of this project and in fact any other!
What is important for anyone considering an automation project?
John Wallace, CEO ‘It is important to understand why you are doing the project, have very clear objectives and prioritise the things that really matter. Don’t spend time automating things that are just bells and whistles in your organisation –automate the things that are really, really important and spend time and energy on doing that well’
‘Businesses don’t stand still, they change and grow, so whatever you have, you should have a partnership that can take the automation forward and a solution that can flex where necessary.’
Listen to the podcasts here
