Driving EDRMS Adoption
and how Change Factory can help you succeed
Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) implementations fail for a number of reasons, not usually related to
the system or the software. They fail when employees are sceptical, suspicious, and just not on board.
When individual behaviours or habits don’t change with the launch of the new system, you don’t achieve compliance or consistency in recordkeeping. The result: your EDRMS implementation fails to reach the level of maturity of recordkeeping required to achieve the goal of your project.
Our approach to EDRMS adoption projects
An EDRMS implementation represents a major change in an organisation. Not just in software or IT, but in changing people’s behaviour.
Change Factory specialises in change management. In assisting Australia’s largest EDRMS rollout for a leading energy provider, we’ve earned a reputation for developing and implementing a change management solution that delivers success in this specific area.
Our approach is based on achieving engagement with all stakeholders, followed by a focus on two key change management tasks:
- Changing organisational (division/branch/department) behaviour in relation to record management and implementation; and priority.
- Changing individual behaviour in relation to record keeping.
Working as part of your team, our role is to look after your:
- Change management strategy and plan
- Stakeholder management strategy and plan
- Communications strategy design and execution
- Training strategy and plan
The Rules of Getting Engagement
Failing to obtain both the sponsorship of senior managers and engagement of users is the death-knell for as many as 70% of IT projects.
Many EDRMS projects are “led from the middle”, making them highly susceptible to failure. Without senior management endorsement, the prioritisation of the project and provision of resources required over the typical 12 to 30 month timespan – both of which are prerequisites to success – have a high probability of being withdrawn. Senior managers generally support the idea of good recordkeeping and compliance, but do not know what is involved and do not understand the productivity that is unleashed by a
successful project. At the other end of the spectrum, users tend to see an EDRMS project as just another compliance driven, administrative burden with little personal benefit.
Getting engagement up and down the hierarchy is therefore fundamental to the success of an EDRMS implementation. Engagement progresses through five levels. Change Factory can help you drive your organisation through each level of organisational engagement.
The Principles of Changing Individual Behaviour
In an EDRMS implementation, it’s not enough to just get engagement of the organisation. Success rests on changing individual behaviours and habits. It’s no easy task, and requires each of the following three principles to hold true:
- The user needs to believe that the change is good for them. Adopting the EDRMS must be seen to be better than the status quo and better for the individual than most of the other initiatives and activities they are involved in. Communications must be highly visible and resonate with the user’s daily life.
- The user needs to believe that the new habits required of the new level of recordkeeping are the norm. Stakeholders with high power over the users’ opinion must be converted into highly visible, active supporters.
- The users must perceive they have capability, authority and data to execute the new behaviours successfully. Training should be multi-modal, engaging and fun. Technical and process support must also be readily available, and employees should feel empowered to take responsibility for correct use of the system.
Prefer to read a pdf? This information is available in our brochure: Driving EDRMS Adoption and how Change Factory can help you succeed
