Making the Decision to Implement an FIS
Making the Decision to Implement a Faculty Information System
When managing faculty affairs processes, do you find yourself continuing to deal with endless paper, lengthy spreadsheets, and numerous voicemails? Is the phone persistently ringing with people asking for status requests? Talk to the Mountain Pass user community and you’ll hear similar stories. The good news? Our Faculty Information System (FIS), SmartPath, solved many of their frustrations.
If you are considering an FIS, we know it takes time and backing to get your institution to agree to make an investment. Here are a few tips to help you get started and expedite the process.
Understand the Issues
Of course, the first step is to gather requirements and understand how you can solve organizational challenges. It is imperative that you involve the right people to ensure you’ve identified the key pain points. Share your pain points and findings with your vendor partner; they can support you in building a strong case for change, and knock down potential barriers that can make this process tedious.
Engage Key Stakeholders in the Process
Implementing a major system like SmartPath requires broad support from several key stakeholder groups: the faculty affairs team, HR, leadership, and of course, your faculty. Take the time to involve participants from each of these groups and bring them into the decision by listening to their thoughts and capturing their ideas. Spending some quality time with the right people early in the process can avoid big problems down the road and dramatically increase buy-in. One of the most important stakeholders in this process will be your executive champion – somebody who can see the benefits and knock down barriers for you.
Develop a clear vision for the future
Using the input captured through team engagement, create an effective elevator pitch for what the FIS can do for your institution. It’s not necessary to design the final solution up front, but you can create a compelling vision for how work will be done differently in the future. Tie your vision to the captured input so that individuals can see how their thoughts helped with its development. Capture the essence of this vision in a short set of talking points and elevator pitch. This will help immensely as you have both formal and informal conversations to generate support.
Document Benefits
Senior leadership will want to see clear benefits for the proposed investment. Many of our customers have seen big benefits by addressing issues such as:
- Time-consuming signature processes
- Wasted time with manual emails, notifications, and reminders
- Time spent collecting and organizing materials into review packages
- Rework associated with revisions or poor quality
While it can be difficult to quantify dollar savings if these issues are solved, think about the impact on time and what the value of that found time represents – can you now focus on more strategic issues? Can overtime be eliminated? Will employee satisfaction be increased?
There’s certainly much more to discuss on this topic. Need assistance with this decision process? We’re here to help you every step of the way! Simply give us a call, and be sure to download our Buying Guide.
Tom Simon is the Chief Executive Officer for Mountain Pass Solutions.
A growth-focused startup software executive, Tom has a proven history of success working with industry giants, including Intel, Kellogg’s, Deloitte Consulting, and Valassis. Developing strategy and tactics to strengthen the internal team and its roadmap, Tom has successfully used his leadership to advance core customer relationships and generate sustainable growth for Mountain Pass Solutions.
