When considering new education technology for any department in a school district, it’s best to have a well-thought-out introduction. New software often drives amendments to old processes and requires a significant amount of adaptation on individual employees as they use the software. As such, many organizations delay the implementation of technology and opt to remain safe with manual processes or dated software.
However, school districts and specifically transportation and facility departments operate under public scrutiny to ensure they operate with transparency and effectiveness. As such, delivering a great parent and student experience might necessitate introducing new technology and facilitating employee’s learning of new technology.
App-Garden is a product suite of K-12-focused software providing school districts throughout North America. School districts using TravelTracker routing software gain the flexibility to become more efficient in routing and facility operations. In its 25-year history serving school districts, App-Garden has developed a set of guidelines to support school districts through implementing change. This blog shares the time-tested steps for successfully introducing new technology in K-12 school districts.
Steps For Introducing New Technology to Employees
- Gather feedback from everyone, including those staff that will use the tools and services in their day-to-day activities
- Provide ongoing communication about progress to implementation and the impact this change will have on your team’s work lives
- Having a vendor implementation team work alongside your team will ease fears and will assure your software is up and running much quicker and smoother
- Appoint a single implementation contact from your school district or department during the initial implementation phase
- Consider how intuitive the software is, so users aren’t overwhelmed
- Be sure your software provider offers in-house support to you and your employees
- Ask your provider to show you their support database and what their customers are saying about their support
Ensure Your Software Partner Provides Access to Live Support
App-Garden understands that live support is critical in meeting a district’s mission for operational success. No two districts are alike, and therefore cookie-cutter software will always burden a district implementation team without a live, dedicated support team. Using software in new ways can elicit questions you had not thought of when your staff went through training. App-Garden customers enjoy unlimited support and dedicated live team members to help solve issues, train new staff, and learn new skills in your software – without incurring extra costs.
