Change Management Checklist: How to Spearhead a Technology Adoption

Adopting accounts payable (AP) automation doesn’t have to be challenging. A technology investment provides a rare opportunity to streamline processes, reduce manual work, improve team morale, create more visibility, and achieve time and cost savings. But it has to be done with thoughtful planning and a clear purpose.

And change — even for the best reasons — can cause uncertainty and stress for your existing team. Change management is critical whether you are simply upleveling existing tools and processes, rebuilding your tech stack from the ground up, or streamlining departments or entities post-merger or acquisition.

For successful change management, a new approach is needed in leadership training and development, there must be a change in the mindset of the employees, and there must be room for active communication and feedback.

It’s “easy” to make strategic choices about which markets or products to enter or leave. The hardest part is to change the culture.  Making a large-scale technology change is stressful for everyone involved, and if it's not handled correctly, it can lead to delays, unnecessary costs, and even total project failure. 

With that said, change management is a necessary part of any business, and must be approached strategically with a clear purpose and full transparency. Here's what you should do before, during, and after a change.

Are you prepared for technology changes? 

Start planning early

Start by communicating early on with everyone on your team about the planned change, technology investment, and potential transition timeline. This includes getting team buy-in and ensuring people know they are a valuable part of the selection process. Consistent communication regarding the future vision, implementation plans, and upcoming decisions will demonstrate leadership cares about transparency and welcomes feedback and insight along the way.To maximize productivity and savings gained from the new software, you’ll need positive support and engagement from the team.

If exploring an AI solution, make sure to think through specific onboarding and adoption best practices to ensure a successful implementation. This particular article covers four key considerations.

Make a decision

Once you’ve collected feedback and met with your team, it’s time to decide. Many AP software solutions are on the market with varying features, functionality, and automation capabilities. Traditional AP automation tools leverage template or rules-based technology, such as optical character recognition (OCR) or robotic process automation (RPA). The more advanced and progressive solutions take automation a step further and use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to ingest and process data, continuously learning and improving their models. This can have a transformative impact on manual accounting, such as invoice processing and bill pay.

Research leading solutions and look for a technology provider well-suited for your organization's size and needs. It’s crucial to read reviews, demo the software, look at its integration capabilities, and understand the functionality before deciding. Also, look at how the provider partners with their customers over time as far as offering maintenance and support. A technology adoption typically takes time to scale and evolve throughout an organization, and knowing what services are provided ahead of time can be a game changer.

Make sure to clearly understand the onboarding and implementation process from start to finish. Third-party technology consultants can also be a helpful, unbiased resource when deciding on the right tool.

Prepare the internal team

Next, prepare your team for the upcoming change and software implementation. Try to select an ideal timeframe for the disruption against other work in progress. Work with the new vendor to map out an implementation timeline and plan, and start an internal committee or champion group to help spearhead the technology adoption. By selecting enthusiastic individuals close to day-to-day processes to help lead the change, you’ll have advocates at the frontline helping guide others along the way.

Make sure to keep communication consistent, with recurring updates on plans and progress, and reiterate the essential reasons for the change and the future benefits to the team. Many companies believe that employees are change-phobic, but that’s the contrary. Most team members are willing and want to see technological changes — as long as they understand the “why” behind the decision and“how” it will impact their daily tasks and areas of responsibility.

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Offer training and support services

Training is critical to ensure the long-term adoption of new software. Work with your new technology vendor to design and lead training sessions to ensure everyone is up-to-speed using the new technology. Ask your vendor for best practices and use cases regarding onboarding.

Also, clearly understand the support and services available to you and your team once you are up and running. Is there a help desk? A support chatbot? Hands-on training whenever needed? A user forum or group? These are all essential to have access to beyond the initial implementation and go-live.

Ensure ongoing oversight and communication

Lastly, monitor how well employees adapt to the new change and provide support as needed, even well beyond the initial implementation. Meet regularly with the champion or committee group to check in and see how things are going. Be aware of the customer service relationship with the new vendor to have a pulse on day-to-day challenges, issues, or support requests to see if there are any trends or patterns.

Also, partner with your new vendor to ensure your AP team gets the most out of the new investment. Could the software be scaled to a new functional area or to fill process gap? Are there more capabilities to onboard and take advantage of? Is the team aware of and using all features and functionality? A technology investment should have a roadmap that extends well beyond the go-live phase.

Ongoing communication is critical. As a manager or upper-level executive, you should encourage recurring updates and training sessions with team members to ensure that no one feels “left behind.” Everyone wants to feel heard, and it’s important to keep a line of communication open for anyone who needs it. Every software technology has nuances, so patience and understanding are vital to help scale the adoption.

Simplify and streamline AP with advanced automation

Automation has been an integral part of invoice processing over the last decade, and with the help of AI-powered technology, you can reap the full benefits of hyper-automation to revolutionize invoice processing and bill pay, unlocking more accuracy and maximizing human potential.

This article originally published June 2022, and was updated July 2024.