You’ve built the business case, secured funding and have kicked off the implementation. Weeks/Months later, and well beyond the planned go-live date, you still haven’t launched. This can happen unfortunately; especially with more complex solutions (HR, Finance etc). Reasons can include, but aren’t limited to, 1) Misunderstanding the implementation effort required, 2) Project management challenges, 3) Change management challenges, 4) Unexpected surprises during testing, and many more.
The problem is that you (business owner) are now left with a “solution” that has cost a lot of implementation time/dollars and has yet to start solving the problem you defined in the business case. Additionally, it calls into question other often overlooked factors such as when to train your staff (with the hope that they won’t need to be retrained in the future as you approach the new go-live date)
When signing up for subscription-based software, it’s important to be abundantly clear on the implementation timelines in relation to when you will start paying for use of the service. As with many things, this can be negotiated. A technology provider who touts the success rate of their implementations should have no issue bearing some of the risk associated with yours. This concept should be made apparent through the pursuit of an invoicing schedule that starts at go-live vs at-purchase. The reality is, if you’re knees deep in implementing the solution, it likely means you’re not really/fully using it yet, which calls into question why you are paying for something that you have yet to attribute any value to (rather, can attribute potentially increasing costs to).
While some technology providers may not see eye-to-eye with you on this, it is easily arguable that it doesn’t make sense for you to pay for a solution while waiting for it to be usable. Find a way to share the level of implementation risk with your technology provider. This could be via 1) Invoice upon go-live, 2) Invoice after first X number of months based on the average typical implementation time-frames or even 3) A reduction in the cost of implementation services to help offset the monthly subscription fee for the first year.
The point here is to ensure this is a topic of discussion and get creative with approaches that are mutually beneficial. Own your side of the responsibility and help the technology provider own theirs. Realizing value can only be done once the solution is in place. Implementation schedules have enough milestones at which all groups involved should be able to come up with a model that holds everyone accountable and ties a financial incentive to the success of the project.
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