The Personnel Touch for A Successful Tech Implementation

It's an exciting thing to be able to solve a business problem or drive away a pain point

But the process becomes even more rewarding when there is overwhelming proof that the solution has been a real a success. There are many companies who have been able to boast some serious business results after transforming or integrating their digital processes – not least in the area of marketing technology. Obviously, I am going to plug the successes of censhare customers here, but that aside, these stories come from within a whole range of industries and organizations of all shapes and sizes. For those looking for key takeaways when it comes to successful implementations, they are well worth looking through.

The Figures Speak for Themselves

Pharmaceutical company, URSAPHARM, for example, more than tripled its content output while simultaneously reducing approval cycles from one week to a single day. Swiss retailer, Migros, used censhare’s Universal Content Management platform to help it reduce hosting costs by a massive 70% and agency costs by 15%, all while continuing to manage upwards of six million assets. And last but not least, Lands’ End is supporting its global expansion with an effective and holistic DAM, housing over 2 million assets and accessible to 700 users worldwide.

Latest industry research also demonstrates that there is a distinct advantage for companies that successfully invest in content management technologies. The State of Universal Content Management 2020, a study commissioned by censhare from London Research, found that leading content managers were “significantly more likely” than mainstream companies to consistently meet or exceed their goals.

And yet, some companies can struggle to adopt new technologies that could easily help transform their business.

The Challenge of Adapting for Transformation

Aside from the obvious hurdles such as budget and business culture, there can be a far more human element at the core of the problem. Once an organization is ready to invest in a new system, it often encounters resistance from both leaders and users, for a range of reasons.

Sure, some solutions are doomed to failure from the start with only themselves to blame. Overly complex and user unfriendly interfaces that require extensive training and a great deal of time to get staff up to speed are instant blockers to success.

But others may fail for different reasons. A new system is only as good as how it is used and this means that a lack of staff training, engagement, and investment at an individual level, can be just as damaging to the success of any roll out - regardless of how fab and sparkly a solution may potentially be.

So What's the Answer?

For any technology solution to work it has to be designed and implemented with the employee’s needs at heart. This takes time and effort right from the start - even before the choice for a particular vendor has actually been made.

The business must first identify what it wants to achieve with the product and how, and involve all stakeholders in this process from the off, listening to needs, demands and use cases from a range of departments, to ensure that employees will be as professionally invested in the new system as the business is financially. I have written on this in more detail here.

Taking Inspiration from BSH

In many ways, implementing censhare Universal Content Management was an easy decision for German home appliance retailer, BSH Hausgerate GmbH (BSH). With 10 brands on its books, hundreds of different products and sales teams serving a large number of countries, it needed a solution that would overcome cumbersome, difficult to use, and outmoded systems that were spread around the company.

Yet even though BSH knew the solution would benefit the whole organization in a number of ways, it took a great deal of time and care in collaboration with censhare to make sure the onboarding process was as comprehensive and employee centric as possible.

From agile, scrum like contact with censhare’s project management and developers to workshops, BSH worked with censhare to carefully tailor the solution to ensure a focus on its Digital Asset Management (DAM)and Product Information Management (PIM) needs. End users were invited to contribute ideas during these workshops and request features which meant the final product would be completely appropriate to their needs – as well as easy to use.

A series of pilot phases let the company give the system a ‘dry run’. It helped users identify the best way they could use the system and what they could expect to get out of it. Not only did it reveal that some users could find their own ways of working with it to produce the best results, but it also helped to manage expectations by demonstrating exactly what was possible.

The final rollout saw the company use internally skilled staff to drive a ‘self-study’’ approach and, as testament to its usability, Daniel Correns, BSH’s Senior Product Manager stated: “If people can use eBay and Amazon they should be able to use the new system. […] nobody is asking for their old system back.”

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You can learn more about how BSH implemented a customized DAM and PIM solution here, including the great business results that they have seen so far, and what their plans for their future with the solution are.