How do I increase end user adoption for BI software?” is a question I get asked quite frequently by customers.  Resistance to change is a common workplace occurrence.  Folks prefer to continue to do what they have been doing for months or years without paying heed to how the business model or the market place has changed.  When executive sponsors decide to implement a BI solution, it is typically driven by a strong desire to change the way they do business.  They want to rely on fact-based decision-making rather than use gut instinct.

This strategic intent of the executive team needs to be shared with the whole team so they understand and align with the management’s direction.  Resistance to changes in business process and the way reporting is done at a company, can be “positively” influenced by using a couple of tools:

• Educating the entire team about Management’s desire to change direction – how and why they are choosing this BI solution.
• Creating a culture of open, honest feedback where everyone’s opinion feels valued and given due consideration.
• Regularly scheduled BI training sessions go a long way in generating and sustaining a buzz around a new BI tool
  • Most end users cannot carve out an entire week or even a whole day for training due to other work commitments
  • To solve this scheduling conflict, Versa Shore recommends doing some of the following
    • Lunch and learn programs on Fridays from 11:30 AM-1 PM
    • Targeted training sessions for each user community
      • End user BI training sessions
      • Super user BI training sessions
      • “Train the trainer” BI training sessions
      • IT/configuration training sessions
      • Troubleshooting and performance tuning training sessions
      • By creating a weekly or bi-weekly training touch point, one can increase the buzz and sustain the level of interest in a given user community
      • Based on our Rapid deployment methodology, Versa Shore also recommends doing the training in parallel with the project phases before deployment.
      • This allows the users to give additional feedback to the team while the design and configuration phases are in flight, resulting in a more user centric end product
      • It allows the end user to feel valued and that their feedback was taken into account while designing the new system