The How-to-Guide for Your AP Automation Plan

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Infuse Project Management with Change Management to Exceed Expectations

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You built a strong business case, and (hooray!) your AP automation

project has gotten the blessing of your IT Committee and executive

leadership. Getting through the project selling phase is a big

accomplishment. But now it’s time to refocus your efforts and use

your outperformer’s mindset to ensure you have a successful

implementation that is recognized as such by your organization.

It shifts a traditional project management mindset into

one that infuses change management and puts processes and the

humans that will be following them at the forefront. In other words,

it gets people, process and solutions all working together to achieve

the same goal.

Meeting the expectations that were set when you presented that stellar

business case can seem daunting as you head toward implementation.

But carefully crafting a seven-step framework for your AP implementation

plan will get you the kudos you deserve when all is said and done.

Let’s get started.

Pick a Highly Effective (and Available) Team

S T E P 1

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The key here is choosing the right people to make up your core team

and enabling them to work quickly. While the team should include

managers of various departments, workers that carry out the day-to-day

processes in your finance department should also be involved to help

build confidence and keep the process transparent. The transition to

an automated system often leads to role reassignments and changing

responsibilities. A straightforward approach will keep workers in the

loop from the beginning and lead to a smoother transition in the end.

Team members should have expertise in their various areas and may

hold roles such as:

• Shared Services Manager

• Finance Director

• AP Manager

• IT technician

• AP staff member

• Project Manager

Also, it’s important to clear schedules and pinpoint any potential issues

up front. After all, you don’t want to find out a team member is tied up on

another project or has a valid conflict that can’t be resolved.

Communicate Early and Often

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Communicate action items from your implementation and change

plan well before they are rolled out.

“Often” is the most critical word in this step. Communicating “often”

may feel like you’re pestering everyone, but in reality it keeps people

engaged in the project, sets clear lines of status communication,

and enables faster identification and resolution of issues that could

slow or halt progress.

S T E P 2

Choose Scope Wisely

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Don’t bite off more than you can chew. A phased rollout can be more

effective than a global or “big bang” rollout. If you do set a goal for

a unified global design, don’t neglect to engage all stakeholders up

front. It’s easy to paint yourself into a corner if you only have

requirements from one geography.

Likewise, be careful about the scope of the solution itself. Instead of

aggressively seeking customizations and add-ons right away, implement

your solution around a core set of requirements. This allows you to get

acquainted with what it can really do and understand how your team

can use it. Then you can re-evaluate the “nice-to-haves”—the custom

features you were considering adding at the start. You may find those

needs are met with out-of-the-box functionality you didn’t realize was

there at first, or it may be coming out in the next software update.

S T E P 3

Align with Your Solution Partner

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A start-of-work meeting will get your team and your solution provider

working together by defining the project scope, project and change

management plans and a working timeline. It’s important to identify

any needed enhancements or scope changes before rollout starts. It’s

more expensive and stressful to find out a solution needs vendor support

during user acceptance testing (UAT) than it is during design.

S T E P 4

Tailor Training to Your Organization

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Think about where your users live. Are they in an office or in the field

daily? Are they concentrated in one time zone or global? Training should

be in the right format and schedule for your users to consume – and

it must be made a priority by their management.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (now Marriott), staggered

the rollout of pilot testing programs to its North American locations

“to tweak its procurement processes and develop training programs,”

according to an article from Supply and Demand Chain Executive. Other

customers with successful implementations created super users within

important stakeholder groups who were empowered to train others. And

companies that establish help desks give users a central resource to go

to with their questions.

S T E P 5

Manage Change and Track Progress

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There are many factors to consider when putting a change plan into place.

You’ll need executive support, of course, and the support of stakeholder

groups throughout the organization, such as:

• Procurement

• IT

• Accounts Payable

• Customer Service

• Executives/Managers

• Communications

But for your plan to be successful, it’s critical to focus on teaching new

processes rather than just implementing new systems. Perhaps you’re

using a Gantt chart to track the completion of tasks against your timeline.

But does it measure anything other than go-live dates? What about

training completion or percent of user adoption?

More importantly, you need to know if the project is actually

accomplishing its goals. Implementing a solution and process change

effectively requires mapping current and future automated processes,

identifying potential interim process bottlenecks up-front before the

rollout and designing the appropriating metrics to measure success

before, during and after go-live. These metrics should be agreed upon

by the stakeholders and be measurable and realistic.

S T E P 6

Measure Results, Reap the Rewards

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Accountability is one of the toughest elements of projects. You made

a compelling case to your executive leadership and got the funding

you needed. But when it comes time to measure the success of the

overall project, you might feel a few butterflies about matching actual

outcomes with expectations. However, post-project measurement is

critical for two reasons:

• It sets up a culture of accountability to ensure future projects are

evaluated fairly.

• It begins a continuous monitoring culture that ensures project

continue to provide benefits over the life of the application. Without

continued reporting, user adoption can quickly drop off and go back

to the old process as soon as the project is over.

S T E P 7

The Outperformer’s Checklist for a Highly Effective Automation Rollout

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Use this checklist to stay on top of important project and change management action items that will put you on the right path to making lasting improvements to your AP Automation processes.

You’re ready to affect positive change for your AP processes and your organization as a whole. With this checklist in hand, you can remain confident in your ability to engage the right

stakeholders and cross key tasks off your list as you plan for a smooth automation rollout.

Selection of results-driven Project Manager with proven experience delivering change, process adoption, and managing technical teams

Detailed stakeholder assessment, followed by process design and user feedback

Training assessment identifying gaps between existing and new skills and competencies

Executive review of your change management plans

Project phasing to build support from users for adoption

Create specific training materials relevant to stakeholders

Executive steering commitee including sponsors, PM, and vendor(s)

Involve suppliers and procurement as key stakeholders and work with them to create shared value

Identify super users amongst key stakeholder groups and have them support/train others

Identify, measure, and monitor success metrics

Identify key behavioral changes, set new daily targets, and develop adoption plans and communications

Involve key users in initial process designs and user acceptance testing new solutions

Executive communications plan supporting project goals

Identify champions, communicate facts, and extol the benefits

Focus training on both the process change and the new system

Continuously measure, improve, and celebrate process performance

F R A M E W O R K C H E C K L I S T

Process Adoption

Training

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