Unfortunately no. It isn’t easy. Nothing good comes easy. It won’t be the hardest thing you do, but the journey will be worth it. Implementing an automated system into a business, is an arduous, time consuming and frustrating process.

Why? Because the system supplier will need to understand your whole business structure and be able to ‘map it out’ into a logical flow before being able to implement it within the new automated system. If you find it difficult to get a new employee trained in one day, you should not expect that of your system supplier either.

Our best advice is to make sure you look for a supplier that can distribute the ‘big picture’ into small bite size deliverables and milestones with shorter time frames while maintaining a firm understanding of the bigger picture.

Unfortunately not true either. For this to be a successful transition, you will need to be involved every step of the way. You will need to know (or delegate staff), how to operate a custom system. Remember, just because you have been doing it a certain way does not always mean its the best way.

This is also true from the system supplier’s side as they are not familiar with the nuances of your business or industry. Your system supplier should ensure regular meetings, transparency and collaboration between both parties to achieve the outlined deliverables. Team work is paramount.

Yes you do. A training budget is key. Employees will come and go (it happens!) and more than likely your schedule will be too busy to train every new employee as they’re hired. Training could be in-house, either way make sure that regular and refresher training sessions are maintained and budgeted for each year.

If your system supplier doesn’t initially offer this, request and plan for it. You won’t regret this decision!

Very few services these days come with a one off cost. A system needs maintenance beyond implementation. Don’t be fooled in thinking any different! Not only does a system need maintaining, as your business grows, so too does the amount of data you save, your system will require more storage, more employees require more power for the servers to accommodate for increased transactions.

All this comes at a cost. If your new supplier has not communicated this, ask the questions and get a quote.

This probably should be #1 as it’s the most common assumption. Your business operates based on the environment, the market, the economic viability, industry competition and various other factors.

With the implementation of an automated system, you should expect expansion and plan for it. Expansion requires thinking differently on how to generate more income and naturally that may require additions to your system.

This can happen just 3 months into implementation! A worthy supplier is one that recognises this and will work with you, customising your system as you grow.