SaaS is Vital to Mid-Market Companies, But Change Management Challenges Loom

Software as a service (SaaS) solutions have had an increased prevalence in mid-market companies. Cloud-based technology provides access to technology services for small and mid-market companies that was previously out of their price range. One example of this is in the area of business process or workflow automation. In the case of financial operations, such as accounts payable automation, the ability to gain the advantage of paperless workflow and data capture and scanning is now affordable for many small and mid-market companies via SaaS.

While SaaS has dramatically lowered the price point for financial automation, this opportunity brings with it fresh challenges, the biggest of which we believe is change management. Capturing the benefits of automated workflow requires helping your employees, vendors, channel partners and other stakeholders to both understand and embrace the changes being proposed to them. In some instances, management sees the opportunity and moves quickly to embrace it; other times they move too quickly and find that their team has not bought into the change and is not supporting it. How can you avoid these pitfalls?

• Work within your organization to help develop a clear case for change, whether comparing performance to industry benchmarks, solving significant issues, or seeking to establish a more competitive offer in the market.
• Identify "what's in it for them" as part of developing the new process—many companies undertake these initiatives to have their staff focus on higher value activities or to provide increased capacity for future expansion. If you do not articulate your goals, people will automatically assume the new process will eliminate their position, and that will harden their opposition to the project.
• Engage the people who will be affected by the change in the design of the new solution—they understand the daily frustrations and wasted efforts, so their insights will be very helpful in your process redesign. You will be relying on them to implement and use the new system, so your odds of a successful transition are greatly increased if you include the people responsible for using the new system in its design.
• Find the right vendor to support your efforts—your vendor should not only provide a functional solution, but it should also be invested with you in seeing that the system gets used by your people and works the way it is intended. Areas to look for include the vendor’s ability to tailor their SaaS functionality to your organization’s specific needs and also offer more than just standardized training. They should be willing to adapt training to your unique use of the software platform and the needs of your organization.

These are some of the tips we have implemented with our clients to help aid them in a successful transition from a paper-based process to a SaaS-based purchase to pay solution.

Have questions about change management and AP automation? Contact us.