How to Run a Pilot Program For Mobile Forms Software
There are many warning signs that a new technology will fail at your company that you should watch out for—but one way to reduce the risk is by testing any new technology with a pilot program.
What is a Pilot Program?
A pilot program, also called an experimental trial, is a small-scale, short-term experiment that helps an organization learn how a large-scale project might work in practice. If you’re thinking about implementing a mobile forms solution, replacing paperwork and manual processes with with digital forms and automated workflows for an entire organization can be daunting. Running a pilot program with a single team or single employee is a lot easier to swallow.
There are two primary advantages to running a pilot program:
- It proves to management and decision makers that implementing your idea is technically possible.
- It serves as a credible model for other teams within your company.
By the end of your pilot program, you should be able to demonstrate the value of the new technology, like a mobile forms software, to both upper level decision makers and end users. After their initial mobile forms trial, Restaurant Equipment Service Group began using new technology with 40 users, which soon grew to 90, and have saved over 12 hours a week and between $15,000 and $18,000 a year.
Clearly demonstrating the value should help to minimize resistance to change while also creating a blueprint for how you can implement the new technology successfully on a much wider scale.
How to Choose Goals for Your Pilot Program
Before you can test a new technology, you need to know what you’re testing.
What do you want this new app or system to accomplish? Why are you even trying it in the first place?
Many people are susceptible to “shiny new thing” syndrome—they see something new and want to have it, so they spend time and money to test it out and see how it works.
But they never stop to think about what they want it to do.
As a result, there’s no way to decide if that new technology was even worth it. This often leads to decisions being drawn out or not being made at all. Pretty soon, that shiny new thing has lost its luster.
Therefore, before establishing a pilot program you should sit down and write out in a few goals or ideas of what you want it to accomplish.
If you are testing out a mobile forms software, you might be interested in…
- Eliminating paperwork backlog & saving time on data entry
- More accurate data collection & no more illegible forms
- Automating invoicing with PDF outputs
Once you know what it is you’re hoping to accomplish, you can begin to set up a pilot program to test your hypothesis and see if that new technology actually accomplishes what you’re hoping it will.
3 Tips For Choosing The Right People To Test Technology
So, who gets to try things out? Choosing the right team or employee to test out a mobile forms solution is more complicated than it might seem.
Don’t Choose Your Most Tech Savvy User(s)
Choose someone generally viewed as tech-savvy, and your results may be flawed. Things that seem easy to these users may not be as easy to less tech-savvy teams and team members. This could lead to problems when you do a full scale launch.
Choose someone not tech-savvy enough, and they won’t be able to get over any initial hurdles that come with implementing new tools.
Instead, you’ll want to choose someone who is not afraid of new technology but who is also a good representative for the rest of your team.
…But Do Choose a Champion
At least one person in your pilot program should be someone who can champion the new solution with other users.
They need to be well respected by their peers, not just by upper management, and they need to understand what benefits the new tools their testing can offer.
That combination will allow that user to serve as a champion for the solution, working as salesperson, diplomat, and problem solver from within the company once you’ve decided to roll out the new tool to other users.
And Make Sure to Balance Risk vs. Reward
It’s also important to make sure your pilot program takes into consideration what the risks and rewards are of testing technology.
If you implement the new tool and it’s a bust, who suffers? If it provides a high level of value, who benefits?
Testing technology with the team or employee who has the most room for improvement might make it appear as if the technology offers a greater benefit than it actually does, but testing it with the team who has the least room for improvement might lead it to underperform.
Make sure to consider this when establishing your pilot program so you can get an accurate picture of the benefits and risks of the new technology you’re testing.
Reviewing Your Pilot Program & Determining Success (Or Failure)
The results are in… should you implement the new technology company-wide?
After successfully completing a pilot program, it’s time to go back to those goals you set out before you began. Talk to the users you included in your pilot program about each goal and see how well they feel the new tool performed.
You should also be sure to ask if any unexpected challenges occurred during the testing process or any benefits that might not have been anticipated.
Compile all the information you collected into two lists.
The first list will be distributed in a report to key decision makers within the company, and should focus on the benefits the new technology provides for the company as a whole and to them specifically.
The second list should be selling points to convince team members who may be resistant to change of the benefits a mobile forms software solution offers for them and will be shared either before or during the process of training these additional employees on how to use the new technology.
Ready to start your own pilot program? Start a free 14-day trial of Device Magic and use the tips from above to try rolling out a mobile forms software to your organization.