The Fatal Flaw of Addressing People Problems with Technology

A conversation with Cherie Zydel, Microsoft Practice Director for Kraft Enterprise Systems


Cherie Zydel
Microsoft Dynamics Practice Director

It is a common scenario in the consulting business. Expensive consultants are brought in to implement what the client sees as a "magic bullet" technology solution, only to find that technology was only part of the problem and that personnel or corporate culture issues were the real guilty party. Microsoft Dynamics Practice Director for Kraft Enterprise Systems, Cherie Zydel, discusses the problems faced by clients who use technology to address people problems.

Technology will not make inefficient employees efficient

We often deal with clients who, despite being great at what they do, they have employees causing inefficiencies and they think that technology will make those employees more productive. Unfortunately, these employees are often underperforming because of inexperience or a reluctance to learn new skills and implementing new technology only worsens the problem. An employee who barely knows how to turn on his computer cannot be expected to do complex functions within a new ERP system. First of all, that employee needs to be technologically proficient for a new system to make him more effective. Secondly, a new technology solution will often change the nature of that position from a role focused on execution to one focused on strategy. So if the employee is really only qualified to be a "clicker," technology in this case will not fix the people problem.

Technology will not enable communication between departments that do not already communicate well
Some departments simply don't communicate well with other departments. And clients often deal with this kind of communication issue by bringing in technology solutions that automate or enable communication through data sharing or document portals. The problem is that when technology is doing the talking it is essentially acting as a boundary and no technology solution can address the underlying issue behind the lack of communication. Often the situation requires doing the hard thing from a management perspective which is getting people in the same room and simply addressing the problem. Management needs to ask “What is the appropriate use of technology to facilitate communication?” When a problem occurs such as a customer reaching their credit limit or a shipment not happening, your system should be configured to communicate that event to the people who need to know. But at that point, a human being still has to take over, make a decision, and execute tactically. Most of the problems we see in systems today are caused by a lack of communication.

Technology will not compensate for insufficient resources Ideally a technology solution will make your people more efficient. We are currently working with a client who is implementing a new solution to streamline the handling of customer support issues. It is a fine solution and the kind of solution that we have successfully implemented for dozens of clients. In the case of this client, however, they just do not have the staff to handle all of the support issues. So the technology solution puts some structure around the process and removes a bottleneck, but there simply aren’t enough people to handle all of the support issues. Technology won’t fix that. For many, the solution is to have the system send a notification when a support issue arises. But there is a limit to how much email a person can consume. Eventually they just stop paying attention to it. The logic is sound but the way the information was presented was ineffective.

Technology works best when it is a result of change, not when it forces change
A lot of times, we'll be approached on the front end of a project by clients who say "We know that this implementation is going to cause some things to change." But they don't realize how much change. And for a company that is already averse to change, technology will not magically make them open to change. The organization must first be open to change for the technology solution to be properly adopted and successfully implemented. This especially tends to be a problem for smaller companies that do not have the structure to handle or consume that amount of change.

Ultimately technology is only a tool and there is much more involved in a successful implementation than simply getting the technical details down. That is why the value of a technology partner is not based solely on their technological expertise; it also comes from their ability to understand your business and all of the idiosyncrasies of your business—like people problems—that can derail a successful implementation.

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