Implementing New Technology

There are amusing and horrific stories of the trials and tribulations associated with the transfer of technology, and the implementation of new systems and architecture. There are lessons that we can learn from those who have blazed the trails before us, and those who have been burned by the blaze. Get your fingers ready to count the five fundamental considerations for implementing new technology.
What we learned from Oracle
"The original plan was to transition the existing IT infrastructure to Oracle over a period of three months. It is three years later, and we think that we are almost done with our Oracle implementation." Does this sound familiar? if so, you have plenty of good company. Oracle is a powerful engine. It is high octane, scalable, and has flexible object oriented architecture to allow continuous growth and integration. So, what went wrong?
Quite often, in the eager anticipation to install the latest and greatest engine, the other parts of the car were forgotten or overlooked. Sure you have a powerful new engine, but your steering wheel is gone. It was replaced by a series of point and click drop down boxes to precisely instruct the car to turn at a specific angle. Do you want to make a 30 degree turn, a forty degree turn, or a 90 degree turn, right or left? Simply choose the appropriate item from the drop down menu and you will have the exact turn that you desire. Gone is that old fashioned and inaccurate steering wheel that required manual intervention and guidance to gradually adjust the turn in process, and installed is the precision turning device that is managed by your mouse. The problem is, nobody mentioned that the new steering mechanism was sold separately, and would take another six months to program. Nobody mentioned that everyone responsible for driving the car would have to learn a new steering methodology, lose the ability to make manual adjustments along the way, and need to learn to be more predictive and accurate in the selection of the accurate turn. Adjustments can be made along the way to correct a turn, with more point and click menu selections, if necessary. The extra time, design and development costs, and employee training are sold separately. You see, Oracles sells that powerful engine, not the steering wheel.
Does that sound funny or familiar? If it sounds familiar, then the humor is bitter-sweet. If it sounds ridiculous, then you have not experienced it yet. The steering wheel is only one example. Once the steering mechanism is programmed and put into place, then the other discoveries begin. That powerful engine comes with a speedometer and tachometer, so you can see your performance and the RPM of the engine. Isn't is exciting to see that you have only partially tapped into the incredible power of this magnificent Oracle engine? Unfortunately, if you rely on other dashboard devices like signals for turns, air conditioning, or a radio, then you have to build these things yourself. After all, the engineers of the engine realize that you turn on different roads than everyone else, you have personal preferences for your climate controls, and you have personal preferences for terrestrial or Sirius satellite radio stations. Therefore, you need to build the point and click objects, menus, and radio buttons to accommodate your personal preferences, and all the possible variations thereof. Someone forgot to mention that all of these functions and amenities need to be custom designed for each driver.
Once the common dashboard and control devices are designed, developed, and implemented, then the next wave of discovery begins. The old buttons, knobs, and dials are gone. Everything has been replaced with the convenient control of a single device, your mouse. That seemed like a wonderful convenience when it was first described to you. All of the controls are at two fingers on one hand. Once you are past the pain of installing all of the other controls at additional cost, it occurs to you that it might be a little complicated to switch between steering the car, sending a command to roll up the windows, turning on the air conditioner, selecting a radio station, and signaling your turn, all at the same time with one device. All of these things require a different set of menus, so you need to choose your work stream very carefully. Otherwise, you may run into the back of a truck while trying to turn off the heater, and turn on Howard Stern. Just then, it begins to rain, and you realize that the windshield wipers have not been coded yet.
Dear Larry Ellison, please forgive me if my sense of irony has inadvertently presented what could be perceived as an unflattering commentary. It is merely intended to make a point about proper planning for transition of technology. After all, you do build a beautiful engine.
So, what should we do?
1) Be Aggressive
It is appropriate to be aggressive when implementing new technology that provides a competitive edge. The competitive edge may be related to overall system performance that empowers employees to become more productive. A competitive edge may be a utility that empowers clients and customers to become more self-sufficient, like installing the ATM machine outside the bank for customer self-sufficient convenience. The competitive advantage may integrate multiple functions, partners, or streams of data that allow for more intelligent decisions or effective business. If the implementation, integration, or transfer to new technology is going to have a substantial and measured competitive advantage, then be aggressive about the pursuit of technology.
2) Be Cautious
If the transfer of technology touches upon the core competency or revenue of your business, then be cautious about making any significant changes. This does not mean that you avoid improving technology. It merely implies that it is appropriate to be more cautious in studying the ramifications and ancillary applications which may be impacted by even a subtle change to the code. There are horror stories from companies that implemented seemingly innocuous changes to billing, and then failed to produce invoices or statements for the clients. During this period of the transfer of technology, revenue was suddenly reduced. The result created financial hardship for the billing company, and for the disgruntled customers who suddenly received several months worth of accumulated billing once the invoicing system issues were resolved. Not only was this an impact on cash flow during the interruption in billing, but it impacted the relationship with the clients as well. Be aggressive about competitive opportunities to grow your profit and performance, but be cautious when it comes to implementing changes that may impact your core business offerings, clients, or billing.
3) Be Quick
Be quick to implement minor changes, and carefully monitor the impact. When it come to performance enhancement, internal suggestions for simplifying routines, or improving the customer experience, do not delay. Design the small changes, test the changes thoroughly, and create a schedule to consistently roll out enhancements. Quite often, the little enhancements have the biggest impact to business performance.
4) Be Slow
When it comes to major changes in the architecture or systems that sustain your business, be slow in implementing change. Frequently, the core architecture and functions of the business are the most efficient and streamlined. The processes that get the most use are the ones that get the most attention, and are often the most highly evolved. Unfortunately, these are also the processes that typically are selected for the first priority when it comes to implementing a transfer in technology. On the contrary, avoid the allure of focusing on familiar ground, and preserve the primary processes until the transition has been tested on some of the more complex, and less often utilized, utilities. By focusing development on the most complex and least used functions, there is tremendous knowledge to be gained by the experience, and the least amount of impact to the business. There are too many horror stories of companies that eagerly transferred the main processes, and then spent months or years working out the bugs that could have been identified by developing a much less needed or impactful part of the process.
5) Be Safe
There is no better time to address the vast array of potential security needs than during the design, development, and implementation of new technology. What personal data to you manage, process, forward, or store? This is not limited to credit card transactions or bank account numbers for wire transfers. Somewhere in the enormous archives of data, you are probably holding precious private information on every one of your own employees. Employee records contain social security numbers, bank accounts for direct deposit, names and addresses, and possibly even reference to medical coverage. Quite often we think about the pipeline to our customers, and forget about the goldmine of private information inside our own facilities. Don't we owe the same protection to our own employees?
Privacy data can include medical records, financial records, and personal information. Driver's license numbers, credit card numbers, or even matching email address with telephone numbers, are all potential risk to privacy. The threat is not limited to how people access the information from the outside, or the number of firewalls that you put into place. The threat is also from the inside, and what kind of information is available to employees and associates. How easy it is to look up client records and download the information to a thumb drive? How easy is it to copy the entire company database of customer information, account information, or intellectual property? What would it be worth to a disgruntled employee to take valuable client information to a competitor?
There is no better time than the present to have a security expert evaluate the potential breaches of privacy in your organization. If you have customers, credits cards, customer accounts, client information, intellectual property, financial information, medical information, or employee information stored electronically, accessible on a network, or printed in files, then it is time to consider security.
If you are in the midst of preparing for a technology transformation, design, development, integration, or implementation, then it is the perfect time to review all of the related documents with a security and privacy expert. If you are organizing all of this information, then why not take advantage of your efforts to protect your customers, your employees, and your business? Executives and management are increasingly being held responsible for ignoring or overlooking the potential security breaches in their respective organizations, both from protecting customers from external threats, and for controlling the actions of disgruntled employees. Mitigate risk to the company, and the executives of the company, by taking appropriate and reasonable precautions for expert analysis, controls, and privacy.
Words of Wisdom
"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand."
- Putt's Law
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three."
- Alice Kahn
"There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good."
- Robert Pirsig
"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons."
- R. Buckminster Fuller

John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to achieving extraordinary sales and sustaining loyal customers. This revolutionary book applies peak management techniques and leadership skills, with common sense and practical applications to grow business, sustain loyal customers, and use personal talents for personal success.
John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity. The book that is changing everything by reawakening personal values in business as a competitive edge

Implementing New Technology at Your Site

My primary care physician, the last time I was in for a checkup, had not adopted ePrescribing or started using an electronic health record (EHR). My understanding is that the medical group to which he belongs had not rolled out these capabilities to him yet but was planning to do so. Hopefully, this summer when I see him again he will be plugged into the electronic health record that the group is adopting. Although he may not be happy about having to adapt to this new way of working, I will be happy because it provides another layer of safety for me as a patient. For instance, the risks of miscommunication between my doctor and my pharmacy will be greatly reduced. From my experience as a quality and productivity expert, I know that there will be many benefits for his practice group. As the American Medical Association has shown in a white paper my physician may not be spending much less time handling prescriptions, but his office staff surely will. Overall, there will be a significant gain in productivity and safety for the office.
After examining this example of the adoption of technology at my physician's office group I recognize several challenges that the group faces, many of which are common to any enterprise adopting new technology faces, including not just healthcare providers but also small businesses and nonprofit organizations:
· Will the new technology increase productivity?
· Will there be a positive return on investment?
· Will the new technology improve patient safety?
· If the technology is adopted, how should it be rolled out or implemented?
These challenges and questions should not be faced by just one person. Rather, a team with effective leadership should undertake the responsibility. The team should use a formal problem solving approach such as Plan-Do-Check-Act to insure success. One of the first things that the team should do is determine why the technology should be adopted. That is, it should clearly state the goals for the adoption. Perhaps the technology is mandated by an accrediting body or government body. This is the case for ePrescribing as CMS has mandated its adoption by the beginning of this year or physicians will be penalized. Another example is the case of my auto mechanic, Arie Nol Auto Center; his business is adopting new technological tools so that he can repair newer autoes that have many complex computer-based electronic components, thus remaining competitive.
The technology should not be adopted if a good case cannot be made for doing so. This is the approach of Toyota Motor Systems, which first maximizes the effectiveness of any of its manufacturing processes that use human labor before adopting any robotic machinery on the floor. Using this approach it has stayed atop of quality when compared to other auto manufacturers. This year Consumers Reports placed Toyota first in 6 or 10 of categories of autoes.
If a team decides to adopt a piece of technology or software it should next set up a detailed plan for adoption. One of the elements of the plan is the identification of measures of success. In the opening illustration I identified two measures: will the technology increase productivity and will it increase patient safety? The AMA stated that it would but each site should go beyond the research reports and measure its own success in implementation. Another measure that a team may want to examine is patient or customer satisfaction. Physicians implementing an EHR should see how it affects patient satisfaction.
Next the team should create a detailed plan for implementing the technology. The plan should include collecting baseline data for the measures of success that it has identified, a detailed listing of steps in the implementation and the identification of a leader of the implementation. For larger businesses or medical groups the steps of implementation should focus on first having a limited rollout of the technology to a group that is eager to try it; this way, if the rollout cannot reach the goals that it has set the failure will be much less costly. Imagine the cost to a business if it does not experiment first and the supplier of the technology mislead the group on the capacity of the technology!
During the implementation of the technology the leader should continuously collect data on the measures that the team has identified. This way adjustments can be made to the implementation if necessary or the project can be terminated if it can be seen that it will end poorly.
If the implementation goes well, the team should celebrate its success and then plan how it can make better use of the technology that it has adopted while it rolls it out to the rest of the business or site. Most new technology is complex and fully implementing its features takes time. In fact, a business or healthcare provider may never use all of the capabilities of a product. For example, I purchased an iPad2 several months ago and I am still learning about some of it capabilities for my business. I anticipate learning much more so as to increase my own productivity.
Before I close, I would like to mention a couple of sites that review medical apps for physicians, not for patients. One that I recently found and recommend is imedicalapps.com. It reviews apps not just for Apple products but also for Android systems and Blackberry. One feature that I found at this site was that the newest iPad will record dictation and add it to documents. This may be very handy for physicians who do not want to enter data into an EHR during a patient encounter. Apple in its App Store for iPad and iPhone has identified what it considers the top 50 apps for medical professionals. You can find out more about it at http://mobihealthnews.com/13638/.
In conclusion, the adoption of new technology can be daunting. However with effective teams and leadership along with good problem solving techniques the adoption and implementation is quite manageable. Identifying goals and measures and creating a detailed plan of adoption will make the process much smoother, especially to those who are being asked to use the new technology.

Are You Struggling With New Technology?

I got an ipod for Christmas this year. And at first my reaction was,
"Me? An ipod for ME?"
You see, I never really thought that I could figure out an ipod. It's small and I wouldn't know how to put music onto it, let alone be able to make that music play. I've always thought that they were really neat and cool but would I be able to use it and enjoy it??
My realization was that YES, I could figure out this ipod. I just needed to stop procrastinating and actually try it out. At first I found it a bit difficult but after getting some help and instruction on how to use it, I really like having it. I've actually been skating around my community lake listening to some of my favorite artists.
Are You Struggling With Technical Self- Doubt?
When I think about my experience with my ipod, I know that a lot of you can relate. There is a lot of new technology out in the world that is supposed to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. But the thought of using some of this technology leads to self doubt and excuses.
Am I tech savvy enough to be able to use this thing?
Will they laugh at me if call customer support and ask a question?
It'll take too long for me to learn this.
I'm too busy to figure this out right now.
Sound familiar?
I Love To Hate It
I think a lot of us have a love/hate relationship with technology. We love it because it does make life easier, but we hate how complicated learning new technology can be and we get frustrated easily.
When you're considering incorporating new technology into your company the scariest question you ask yourself is,
"How am I going to show other people how to use this?"
When there's A Will, There's a Way
That's why I really think that customer support and training is so important when introducing new technology into a company. Technology can be frustrating but it's soooo much easier to sort out when you can ask questions and experiment.
Pilots are an excellent opportunity to experiment and test out new technology before you completely commit to it. A pilot gives you the opportunity to get a feel for the equipment and the software that you will be using and learn at your own pace rather than feeling like everything is depending on you understanding this new technology right away.

Jane's Tech Advice
I suggest that the next time you're interested in taking on a new piece of technology that you create your own personal pilot program. Whatever the technology, I advise you to jump in and really sort things out. Give it a try and seek the help you need along the way. You'll be thrilled with the result!
Yours in Technology,
Jane Glendon