business plan software

Upgrading your company’s business software doesn’t have to be a stressful, last-minute scramble. By taking a few steps earlier in the year, you can make the process of upgrading your software as seamless and worry-free as possible.

The first step in planning your business software upgrade is to create an action plan. This may sound obvious, but the fact is that most businesses don’t have any type of written action plan for how to proceed with the upgrade. They typically wait until the last minute and then frantically attempt an upgrade at the exact moment when both suppliers and vendors are on vacation and when support staff are already at maximum capacity, trying to answer customer’s technical questions about managing year-end processes.

The fact is that upgrading your business management software takes a lot of time in planning, research, training and transferring data. That means you should be creating an action plan at least several months ahead of time. Such an action plan should outline who will participate in the upgrade process as well as what will be the time frame for each person’s role in the upgrade. And don’t forget — any software upgrade may also require a hardware upgrade as well as serious thinking about how to import and export data. However, if you’re currently using BusinessVision, switching to Spire is quite easy as their built-in import tool will allow you to convert all of your BV data.

The second step in planning your business software upgrade is to start researching vendors as soon as possible. There are a number of software vendors, so you have plenty of options when making a choice. Before committing your business to a specific vendor, you should do live demos of every system you are considering, just so that you and the vendor are on the same page about functionality and capabilities. If possible, you should make your finance team also part of this process, since it is they who will be responsible for making all the software and hardware work well together.

The third and final step is to make sure that you sign up employees for training. No matter how intuitive and easy-to-use a business software package claims to be, the fact is that hands-on training for employees always makes the transition as seamless as possible, especially if you have been using your current system for a relatively long time. Getting hands-on training well before the transition really helps employees feel comfortable with the system and gives them the confidence they need to begin using the system. You can also build momentum for the new software internally if everyone is onboard at the start.

Don’t forget, the end of the year is also the time of the year when other companies are also thinking about upgrading their business software. Why not get a jump on the competition and make the process of upgrading your company’s business software as seamless and worry-free as possible? By following the simple three-step plan above, you can start the planning process early and make sure that your company’s embrace of a new business software upgrade goes as smoothly as possible.