William Springer has been involved in the sale and marketing of computer systems for market research applications for the past seven years, most recently representing Computers for Marketing Corp. His background includes marketing and management positions in several service industries. He is a graduate of Georgetown University.

A great deal has been written about how to select computers and computer systems. Most of it is good advice and worth following, but following it does not always ensure success. Yes, the computer and the software are important, but they seem to get all the attention. When the selection is finally made, executive attention moves on to the next issue. This is where problems begin. Not enough attention is given to planning the installation of the system. The result can be that the investment in hardware and software yields less than the expected results.

To ensure that this does not happen, it is important to consider the total project—all the issues in addition to software and hardware that are key elements in achieving success. These key elements include: the need to define in some detail what life will be like with the system installed, the development of an implementation plan, selecting a champion and celebrating success.

If you can’t describe what life will be like with the system installed, then you really don’t know what it is you want. Ask a 16 year-old boy what kind of car he wants and you won’t have to wait long to get a very clear and detailed answer. It is this kind of intense interest, thought and detail that is needed. When the key people involved in a project can match the 16 year-old’s detail and interest in describing what life will be like, then you are on the right track.

You are now in a position to develop an implementation plan, an important step to ensure maximum success. The implementation plan can be a simple document two to five pages long that covers some basic points. The written plan is a way to focus executive and middle management attention on the key issues necessary to make the project a success. It ensures that everyone involved has the same expectations for the system in terms of timing, methodology, and changes in the organization that need to occur to achieve success.

The first point is that the plan must be written and available to those involved in the system implementation. If the plan is not written, there is a question that a plan really exists. If it does exist, it may be only in one person’s mind. To be effective, the implementation plan must be written and known to all those involved in the implementation process, otherwise there is no common understanding of what is to happen, no common set of expectations and no common definition of success.

It is important to realize that a plan will go through a number of revisions before it is final. Don’t let frustration cause you to abandon the process. This iterative approach is part of the process.

The plan ought to cover: site preparation, training, staffing, sequence in which work will be brought onto the new system, and the schedule for phasing out the old system. There is nothing particularly esoteric about developing and writing the installation plan. It is something most managers can do.

The plan should also define success in a quantified way so you will know when you have achieved it. Not doing this makes it questionable whether or not you have achieved your objectives, or if the project has been a success.

Having written a plan, it needs a “champion,” a leader interested in making the project a success, who has the backing and confidence of the corporation executives, who realizes that his/her future with the organization will be advanced significantly by making the project a success. The champion is a hands-on manager-this is not an executive position run by delegation. The champion is the one to whom the executives delegate the task of installing the system and making it a success.

The personal traits usually seen in these champions are: a commitment to succeed, an ability to formulate and execute a plan, problem solving capabilities—they don’t let problems demoralize them, and they work to prevent them from happening, but can deal with them when they occur; leadership ability—they must inspire and generate confidence in the success of the project and in others that they can be successful in this project; a positive attitude-they catch people doing things right, they don’t just see and talk about the frustrations and problems.

In addition to writing an implementation plan and finding a champion, be prepared to deal with some sensitive issues. What new jobs come into existence as a result of the system being installed and what jobs disappear? How do you deal with longtime employees who no longer fit in any job? If they are put in a job they can’t perform, this impedes success. The employee is unhappy and so is the company. There are fair and compassionate ways to deal with this situation; avoiding the problem is not one of them.

Be sure to structure success, not failure. Structuring success means doing more than is necessary each step of the way to be sure each step is successful. Common errors are: establishing a time schedule that requires each event to go off exactly on time—experience tells us this does not happen, so don’t plan that it will. Another is understaffing—if you need five trained people in a position to handle the anticipated work load in six months and you have none now, don’t hire five people and expect all of them to be trained and competent six months later.

Hire six or seven people for the position, recognizing there will be some failures. This is the cost of insurance on the success of the project.

Finally and most important, celebrate success. There will be some frustrations encountered during the installation of the system, so put them in perspective and, to keep a positive attitude, recognize all the things that go well, the jobs well done. Part of structuring success is to ensure that people will be “caught” being successful, giving something to celebrate.

Celebrating success, even small successes, conditions the rest of the organization to accept the system as it begins to touch them. Without this, problems with the new system become the subject of conversation and people resist becoming involved with it. Time spent selecting the right computer system-software and hardware-is important. But developing a sound and functional implementation plan with a competent champion to execute it, is a key ingredient to maximum success.