Implementing enterprise technology is hard, especially when it comes to ensuring your HR records talk to your LMS — which often informs business intelligence tools. From the different entities to the multiple languages to all of the items that have to communicate together, it can be like drafting an international peace treaty.
At Degreed, we’ve been around the block a few times; enough to learn how to get these complex technologies to play nice with each other. That means our Technical Solutions team has achieved the hard-to-believe feat of getting multiple HRIS, identity management, and learning management systems as well as business intelligence tools to talk to each other to ultimately drive the learning transformation needed for our customers’ business objectives.
Over the course of these complex technology rollouts, we want to share four valuable lessons we’ve learned from our most successfully-implemented clients.
1. Implementation is where your strategy and technology meet.
We know from our previous post by Lindsay Euller, Degreed’s Director of Client Engagement, that a technology-first mindset limits the creativity needed to drive bold changes. Start by defining your strategy and goals, but know that introducing technology is where the rubber really hits the road. As much as we all like to believe otherwise, even the best products don’t implement themselves. Starting with a strong foundation to set you up for long-term success is the core of our implementation strategy. This often means integrating Degreed with your team’s other existing products and implementing our platform to match the specific needs of your internal processes and standards.
2. Focus on your users and their experience.
Our clients with the highest engagement lead with an obsessive focus on the user experience. Utilizing information from your HRIS tool is the key to creating a personalized and positive first experience that forms continuous habits. How your users log in, where they are in their current skill development, what their career plan looks like — obsessing over these details and getting them right for each individual will present a memorable first-time experience to your learner.
3. Get the right systems to talk with each other.
One of the most crucial aspects of a successful implementation is system integration. Your LMS working in a silo will not deliver the same impact to your business objectives as it will when integrated with Degreed. With Degreed, you can make sure your content is appropriately curated, pushed to the right audience, and glean meaningful insights into the metrics you care about. The most effective learning experiences span much farther than just your LMS to draw upon your HRIS system, identity management system, skills and talent management processes, and business intelligence tools. Fortunately, our technical solutions experts have been to this utopia a few times and know how to build you a path tailored to your goals.
4. Emergencies happen … but we’ve got your back.
Technology breaks, bugs creep into production, and Degreed is no exception. But we’ve got your back. We’ve consistently built great relationships with our clients based on our strong commitment to being your trusted technology partner. This obsessive focus on prioritizing our customers, especially during a technology emergency, starts from the top. Every employee — from our support team and beyond — is empowered to make the right decisions and resolve emergencies quickly and painlessly. In fact, we now offer 24/7 customer support, so we’re here whenever you need us.
Here’s what a few of our clients have to say about Degreed support:
“Degreed has provided excellent response to the team’s questions both in time and getting to a conclusion.” – Anonymous NPS Response
“The support team has been very responsive when sending questions. I really like the fact that they tell you where they are in the progress so you don’t feel like your email is being ignored.” – Project Leader, Insurance Industry
“It’s important to recognize good quality customer support and [we] are blown away at the quality service the technical support team provides.” – HR Support, Financial and Credit Services Industry
So where do you start when you think about implementing enterprise technology? The good news is you don’t need a Ph.D. in foreign policy to pull it off. All you have to do is reach out to us here at Degreed or schedule a demo. We’ll be happy to get the ball rolling for you.