Software woes
While rebranding the company and getting everyone working together was a major part of the process, gaining efficiencies from the newly united companies was the other part. And those efficiencies were only going to happen if people were using the same software systems, and that meant a major conversion project.
But what made the rebranding effort such a smooth process was exactly what made the software conversion a disaster: communication, or lack thereof in this case.
The need for the software change came about after the company realized its software for its different departments was inferior compared to the industry’s best.
Outside experts told Crum he needed to make the software changes all at once, but his management team was telling him to take it slow.
“I believed they were the experts, and my management team was shaking their heads no,” he says. “It was probably one of the poorest jobs I’ve ever did in managing anything.”
The results were disastrous. “It caused our employees to be stressed out because what used to take our employees 35 hours a week to do their job, they were working 45, 50 or 55 hours in the month of January to deliver the same product,” he says. “Even though they were getting paid for it,it was very stressful to work that many hours. We had no anticipation it would be like that. All at once, we became slower and less efficient for about a four- to six-week period. If you’re a client or an employee and everything takes you longer, everything is harder and your reports are coming slower, then everything we do for you is slower. (Clients) come to us to solve problems, not to add problems.
“You really are chiseling away at the good will you developed for25 years. Now, I’ve spent the last four months trying to rebuild the good will. It’s been a tough and painful process. There’s never a day that some client doesn’t bring up January, and I have to write them a letter of apology to assure them that things are good now. They’ll call and complain about something that happened in January, and I’ll say, ‘But how is it today?’ It’s excellent today, but they are still remembering their problems in January.”
To make up for his blunder to employees, Crum did little things to show them he appreciated their extra work through the difficult change.
“We would have our chef here make hot cookies and juice and milk,” he says. “I would go around the floors to every employee one or two afternoons a week and deliver hot cookies to them with something to drink, and thank them for their effort, and tell them I realize I put them in a hard spot and do appreciate them going the extra mile. Just any corny thing you can think of just to let them know I cared and I realized I put them in a hard place.”
Crum says, if he had to do it all over again, he would do the software conversion in parts and wouldn’t start the next step without the first step running smoothly.
“I was told if you do it all at once, they’ll all be linked together,and you’ll bite the bullet all at once and you’ll be over this painful process faster,” he says. “But, in looking back, to have every area of your business in a learning phase all at the same time is not a good thing.”
He also says he would have trained every employee on the new software and certified him or her before putting the software to use.
Then, during the employee training, Crum would have gotten client feedback on the new system, including bill and report layouts, so the company could customize it.
“With clients, they got reports, and the reports, even though they were more detailed, they looked different and the columns may have been in a different order and the headings may have been slightly different,” he says. “As people are, we don’t like change unless we buy in to the change and understand. Even if it would have taken me another six months to turn the green light on, it would have been good to do it.”
Crum says for both the rebranding and especially the software conversion, it was key to get people involved early to help fend off any problems in the future.
“Communication is everything, and I had to learn it the hard way,” Crum says.
He also says you have to be careful about where you get your advice.
“Dance with the one that brung ya,” he says. “In other words,never forget who brought you to the dance. It was my management team that brought me to the dance and helped me learn to dance. If I should have been listening to anybody, it should have been my management team. Instead I listened to the experts.”
How to reach: FrankCrum, (800) 393-0815 or www.frankcrum.com
