Five Reasons Technology Implementations Fail for Security Companies

Facilities management companies like your face specific hurdles when it comes to implementing new business-level software.

For any business sector, implementing new technology will always bring a distinct set of challenges for managers to overcome if the implementation is going to be a success. The fact is, most organisations have experienced projects that were not on time, budget or met the defined scope.

A recent survey found that only 29% of software implementations are considered successful, with 19% considered failures. Among the ones that aren’t successful, reasons for failure include not meeting desired ROI, needing to major rework and lack of motivation to change the status-quo. We’ve put together a list of five reasons why technology implementations fail for facilities management companies.

1. Short term, site-based thinking

When it comes to your facilities management business, both problems and opportunities present themselves every day. Often times, your site-level workforce is tasked with handling things that can be dealt with quickly I the field as a means of providing customer service and public safety. This short-term focus prevents organisations from looking at the bigger impact across their own business and identify areas of added value or issue avoidance across the enterprise.

Solution: When considering technology, facilities management companies should explore the wider-reaching benefits of a technology, so the entire business can find value and be agile and efficient when presented with new challenges.

2. Your technology is not suited for your needs

Choosing a technology that does exactly what you need it to do is vitally important. Within the technology space, there are many solutions that promise to do what every other competitive solution does — but ultimately might not, causing re-work, increased project costs and extended timelines.

When it comes to the specific needs of facilities management and security companies, the choices in technology might seem vast at first glance, but the reality is most available solutions are not suited to your specific industry needs. Things like contact management, pay calculations and client specific SLA’s can be promised by a generic technology solution but are actually difficult to deliver.

Solution: When looking at technology, search for evidence of its successful track record in the industry. Request references across your industry peers that support its ability to suit your business needs.

3. Underestimating cost, time and resource

In facilities management, cost is a critical factor of operations. It’s very easy to be tempted to opt for the cheapest solution without first considering the total cost of a project. Added costs can also mean added time and resource requirements.

Solution: Cost, time and resource are always tight for facilities management organisations. So, it is important that real planning and consideration goes into a technology project. In addition, consideration should be taken specifically for the who, when and where’s of the project so it has the best chance of success.

4. Lack of top-down sponsorship

Too often, technology projects are deemed “IT projects” and relegated to the IT department, regardless of what the project is. For a project to work, executives, managers and employees throughout the business need to be behind the project unanimously. In facilities management where employees can be spread across the world, it’s important that the technology project is a business-wide improvement project and not just the responsibility of IT. It’s also important that high-level execs and senior managers are onboard and have belief in the project’s ability to meet any internal challenges head-on.

Solution:  Top-down sponsorship is key for project success. Unless all executive members and senior management teams are on board with the project, the success rate will dramatically decrease. Before agreeing to any project, executive teams should all agree that the project is worthwhile and will benefit the overall success of the business.

5. Unclear objectives

Organisational change is often complicated by poorly defined objectives, milestones and metrics. Within all projects, it is important to remember the reason behind the project in the first place. Is it to enable to business to scale effectively, to control costs, to be more competitive, or something else? For project success, it is vital that these questions are asked before the project begins and are measured before, during and after the project is completed.

Solution:  Define and measure. When starting a project, ensure that all objectives are clearly defined and communicated throughout the business and project teams. The methods and frequency of measuring these factors should be implemented alongside the project, so they can be continually monitored to ensure the desired deliverables are achieved.