Asked and answered: How to properly introduce a new SaaS tool

Don’t let anyone tell you that software-as-a-service (SaaS) is just some dull cloud-distribution model that solely sends company tools to employee PCs.

No, no. SaaS has high drama. What if your favorite chat tool disappeared (gasp)? What if your email suddenly gained a new GenAI feature (double gasp)?

An attendee of our recent IT Brew event asked: When a new tool is introduced, how do you overcome the emotion?

What kind of emotion exactly? For Dave Wagner, senior research director at Avasant, there are two questions that employees want answered: Am I going to lose my job? And is this going to make my job harder or easier?

“If you don’t answer those two questions very fast in the process, that’s when you’re going to lose the emotional battle,” Wagner told us.

Korea Gilreath, associate director of organizational change management at Avasant, has steps for the introduction of a new tool:

• The vision: Six months to a year in advance, companies should build a “brand awareness” campaign, creating a sense of urgency and highlighting why the change is necessary and why it will help to achieve strategic business objectives for the year and years to come.
• The collaboration: Employees should be brought into the preparation phases, Gilreath said, to provide insights about impacted processes.“You’re giving them a vein to provide feedback,” she said.
• The (ongoing) communication: An essential aspect of change management, according to Gilreath, is leaders’ clarity about key milestones and their deadlines.
• The resources: At least four weeks before release, employees should have training, Q&As, and easy-to-find guides on how to use the tool. “People need to understand that the organization has a plan for supporting me through this change,” Gilreath told us.

Tool is the rule. According to BetterCLoud’s 2024 “State of SaaS” report, companies, on average, use 112 different SaaS tools—down from 130 the previous year.

A recent World Economic Forum study found that orgs are increasing investment in GenAI in the next two years “by as much as 94% in manufacturing, 91% in energy and utilities and 90% in healthcare,” which may impact that State of SaaS. (Triple gasp?)

When Nick Kennedy, partner at West Monroe, first learned process flows, his instructor asked him to map not a business task, but his morning routine at home. Kennedy said the same “personal” approach can be used effectively for an emerging, mysterious technology like generative AI.

Show employees how to use a GenAI tool to plan their next vacation, he suggested. “Then I can understand my business applications because you’re trying to help me understand a new tool,” he said.

Brian Westfall, principal HR analyst at Gartner-owned Capterra, advised companies to map out the impact scope of a new tool’s introduction. An accounting software choice may only impact the accounting team and not require all-HR-on-deck support. A time-tracking app that could mess with paychecks, or a tool that crosses the whole organization, however, has a higher risk of disruption and will require more resources.

Westfall also recommended companies finding a “super user” for any new tools—someone you don’t need a help-desk ticket to find.

“I think this idea of super users is really, really important, especially in these large, large enterprises where you’re trying to find at least one employee in every location you have that can just be the boots on the ground to say, ‘Hey, if you have problems with the software, I’m really good with it. Talk to me. Slack me. Whatever, I will help you,’” he said.

“Whatever,” because who wants drama?