In parts one and two of our Implementing Audit/Inspection Software blog series, we cover the planning and solution design stages. Part 3 starts with systematically working through your Solution Design roadmap to address the requirements that will be fulfilled with configuration and, if necessary, those that require customization.
Part 3: Configuration & Customization
Part 4: Training & Going Live
Configuration – Settings and Personalization
Configuration generally refers to adjusting all the “out of the box” capabilities. While some of your requirements will be fulfilled immediately upon logging in, others will require the software to be set up or “configured” first. Most SaaS products have settings which can be set to allow the software to be implemented in different types of businesses and personalized for your requirements.
Using the Solution Design Roadmap from the previous step, you will need to work your way through the software and set up each of the relevant configuration elements. Depending on your level of technical expertise or familiarity with software, you may look to your audit/inspection software provider to help you work through each of the critical settings.
For instance, with The Checker, locations, assets and personnel need to be set up. We recommend doing this early in the process to and in some cases work with customers to get this done for them.
This is the time to fix your workflow
One of the most common mistakes we see at this stage is to try and configure the system to match their existing workflow. Often audit/inspection software allows you to be more efficient and effective and it actually makes sense to implement new workflow instead of replicating the old.
A good example of this is checklist formats. In some traditional paper-based processes, auditors are required to check everything rather than simply note deficiencies. The Checker allows users to decide which type of checklist (points scoring, positive, negative, etc.) they want to use and implement it directly in the software.
Customization – Only if it is mission critical
Customization adds unique capabilities that are not available natively to software. In our experience it is important to ensure any customization requirements that need to be coded or developed are absolutely critical to your business. There are well-documented risks to over customizing a system and making it difficult to use and/or difficult to upgrade.
Customizations should only be used when they provide quantifiable business value and return on investment. If a customization is overly complex, expensive or does not provide enough value, then alternatives should be considered. These include enhanced configuration, workarounds, or integrations.
At this point your audit/inspection software is ready for testing by users to see just how intuitive and powerful it is. In the final blog of this series we will talk about the testing and training elements of implementing audit/inspection software.
