Changing accounting systems is akin to having a heart transplant.\u00a0 Your mission critical system is ripped out of your business and replaced with a new one.\u00a0 And while all of this invasive surgery is being performed, someone has to keep the lifeblood flowing.<\/p>\n
Accounting is at the core of almost every critical activity that happens in your winery and serves to keep cash flowing through your healthy business.\u00a0 No wonder there is stress involved in changing systems.<\/p>\n
But the stress needn’t be life threatening.\u00a0 With proper advanced planning, you can minimize the disruption to your business and ease the pain for your staff.<\/p>\n
Here are eight secrets to making this vital operation as painless as possible.<\/p>\n
1. Get Executive Support<\/strong><\/p>\n Management must be visible and vocal about their support for the project. They must be willing to accommodate flexible work schedules and extra hours if needed to complete the project.<\/p>\n 2. Designate an internal project lead.\u00a0 (And if possible a backup person to support them.)<\/strong><\/p>\n This person should have an understanding of your business processes and accounting. In addition, they should have a good relationship with members of other departments (sales, vineyard management, cellar and production, marketing, etc.)\u00a0 They will be charged with learning the application and holding others accountable for successful adherence to project goals and timelines.<\/p>\n 3. Invest in adequate training for your team.<\/strong><\/p>\n Accounting is a mission critical application requiring special knowledge. It is imperative that team members are properly trained in the use of the application and supported in their roles as they make the transition to a new system.\u00a0 Short cutting the process or saving budget dollars by offering only a minimum amount of training can lead to frustration, stress, and ultimately inefficiencies and even inaccurate data.<\/p>\n 4. Make sure you have considered all of the stakeholders in planning and selecting the application you are implementing.<\/strong><\/p>\n Failure to consider the needs of every stakeholder in the software selection process will lead to team frustration and unhappiness during the implementation process.\u00a0 Make sure that you have considered the needs of all departments in the software selection process so that everyone who is dependent on application inputs or outputs has a voice in the solution specifications. There is nothing worse than implementing a system only to find out that one or two critical features were omitted from project specifications.<\/p>\n 5. Scrub any data you will be converting to the new system<\/strong><\/p>\n Converting bad data from an old system to a new one can reduce the value of the new system.\u00a0 Instead, take the time to clean up any duplicate data and fill in any missing or incomplete information.\u00a0 In the event that you have data that needs to be mapped or reconfigured, your implementation team can help automate and simplify that process.<\/p>\n