This week on
Buzzkill, Jay and Hunter discuss what it means to successfully roll out
technology in today’s climate. We discuss traditional IT success criteria,
budget and time, but then dig into adoption and value. We posit that a modern
IT rollout must consider adoption and value across the entire project, from
planning through implementation to training and metrics.

Finally, we define
success as including the following three success criteria:

* Traditional Success: Was it completed on time and within budget?* Adoption: Are people using the new solution? This is quantifiable over time and should not be a one-time measurement.* Value: Is there both perceived AND quantifiable value shown?

One big question
that comes up time and time again: how do you prove value?

This requires
understanding and planning. Understanding of what the GOALS of the project are
– can we compare licensing of old product vs new?

Is this project
going to make a job easier? For whom, and how? Let’s use that information to
figure out some ROI.

Is this a Security
solution? Perhaps there are studies and examples of the cost of NOT
implementing this solution.

Perception is in
question too. If something is effective at securing information, but people do
not understand the reason they have to spend an extra 20 seconds performing
multi-factor authentication, your perceived value may be much lower.

Another way to define value is through surveys & the feedback loop. However, you need to stay away from open ended questions. From survey to survey you should ask the same questions; while you can add and remove questions, this changes your tracking over time. Also, explain the scale clearly – you do not want any chance of someone selecting 1, which may mean the worst result, but meaning 5, the best.

We’d love to hear how your organization is approaching technology rollouts these days – do you see a difference between now and 5 years ago? 10? Do you see them providing a clear understanding of value?