9. Update Your Software and Technologies
When I first became an Operations Manager for a small HVAC company, everything was very “pen and paper” if you know what I mean. I knew we couldn’t fight over the service calendar for much longer (yes, it was a physical calendar and no, the year was not 1978). I set to work getting a free program to track employee hours and gradually migrated the service calendar into a Google calendar. If you’re anything like me, chances are you have cobbled together a host of different programs and apps that were free or nearly free to get the job done. But if you plan on growing past the 3-5 million mark, you need to start considering upgrading to new platforms that will serve the company more holistically.
Make sure your data is yours, and they are easily accessible and transferrable
There are many different platforms out there for contractors. A few that I am familiar with are FieldEdge, Davisware, Successware, Freshdesk, Hubspot, and ServiceTitan. As a previous user and a current certified provider and coach for ServiceTitan, I highly recommend ServiceTitan for a number of reasons but there are a lot of different companies that may be better for you. This isn’t an exhaustive list of recommendations; this is a prompt to get you thinking about upgrading your software to something that will grow with you for the next 3-5 years. Here are some things to think about while you do your research.
- Make sure your data is yours and is easily accessible and transferrable
- During one software upgrade, we needed to hire a team of people for data entry and migration
- Designate a champion (or two or three)
- Your champions should be your most well-trained project managers, and best promoters of the transition
- If you or your leaders resist the change or allow backsliding, you risk implementation failure
- Don’t pitch the new software as great for accounting and reporting unless you’re talking to your accounting team. Nobody wants to hear how learning something strange and new is going make someone else’s job better
- Offer incentives and gamify the transition