There are several steps governments and agencies need to take to ensure a successful software implementation.
Before new software can be implemented, it’s important to identify what pain points the new systems aim to solve. This way, departments can determine how to measure the success of the new software and determine metrics to review along the process.
Departments must determine who needs to be involved in the implementation process within their government or agency. Chief building officials, permit technicians, clerks, inspectors, and code compliance officers are important participants who need to be involved in learning how to use the software.
Key builders and contractors in a community who regularly submit applications to their government are important stakeholders who can be invited to learn how to use new community development software. This can be done by holding lunch-and-learns or video conferences to show key stakeholders how to use the software, answer their questions, or address any possible concerns.
It’s important to make the time to implement new software in a timely manner. It can be challenging to juggle current tasks and new software at the same time, but it is worth it. The inconveniences that might arise during the short term are outweighed by the benefits that departments and citizens gain in the long term. The better staff know the software during the onboarding process, the better they can use the software once it launches.
Government and agency departments can benefit from having two separate software launches for its community development software. An initial internal launch can give staff time to adjust to a new process before involving the public. Since staff already have the necessary software experience from an initial launch, a secondary public launch allows them to easily answer questions from their community.
After a public launch, listening to the public and answering their questions is important. Staff can educate the public on how to use the software by sharing their software provider’s support resources, like how-to guides and step-by-step videos on how to use the software efficiently.
Cloudpermit has best-in-class software solutions for community development. We have helped hundreds of governments and agencies quickly and efficiently start using our software for over a decade. Set up a demo to talk more about how we make implementing our software easy.