There are some clear tactics needed to make the secret sauce required for a successful technology implementation.

IT managers in the mortgage industry are constantly evaluating the capabilities and performance of their technology infrastructure to determine if it effectively supports their company’s business objectives. These professionals look at things like the total cost of their current systems and business operations, time-to-market for new products, what is required to accommodate the company’s evolving business or market strategy and what alternatives are available in the market.

A critical part of the decision to implement new technology is the potential risk associated with that implementation and how to minimize it. Since most implementations take place in an active operational environment, it is essential that they be managed so there is minimal disruption to workflow and no negative impact on customer experience. This requires a high level of expertise.

There are five key areas that are essential for seamless implementations that enable organizations to quickly maximize the benefits of their new technology. These vital factors can make the difference between a well-managed, successful implementation and one that fails.

1. The Cross-Functional Team
Especially in complex conversion projects like a servicing platform transition, a cross-functional, high performance team can make the difference between a trouble-ridden implementation and a seamless project. That’s why it is so important for organizations to assign their most knowledge-able team members to work side-by-side with onsite experts from their technology partner’s firm.

While financial institutions may assume that lower-level employees can effectively serve on this core team, the reverse is often true. The best projects are those that involve the most knowledgeable personnel. By drawing upon the expertise of the technology partner and combining it with the company-specific knowledge that in-house subject-matter experts bring, an implementation strategy can be developed that incorporates industry best practices while accommodating the unique needs of the institution.

A strong cross-functional team can help ensure that the implementation plan meets the business and IT needs of the organization and that timeline dependencies – things that must happen before others can proceed – are identified. These team members can also identify areas of potential risk.

2. The Due Diligence Process
Depending on the type of technology that has been acquired, a professional due diligence process usually includes a comprehensive review of workflow, business processes, interfaces and external vendor relationships. Everything must be re-evaluated in light of the capabilities and functionality of the new technology to make sure that operational procedures originally developed to accommodate the limitations of older technology are either updated or eliminated as appropriate.

During the due diligence phase, it is also critical to trace the way data moves across the institution, not only within a department but out to other corporate level departments and customer facing applications. Every touch point and hand off must be identified and either accommodated or modified based on recommendations for work-flow and process changes that will allow the institution to better achieve its ROI on the new technology. In addition, downstream business partners may be required to modify their own processes to accommodate changes the institution is making and updated interfaces may also be required. Fortunately, the growing adoption of Web services and service-oriented architecture has made this connectivity generally easier to accomplish, but these steps must be anticipated and planned for. It is important to contact vendors as early as possible to share new technical requirements with them, map out workflow and business process changes that will affect them, and outline the implementation timeframe.

3. End-to-End Testing
As the implementation project proceeds, it is imperative to create a test plan that includes an end-to-end testing phase. End-to-end testing is necessary to verify that all new hand offs, downstream interfaces and inter- and intra-departmental workflow and processes changes are functioning as they should. This “day-in-the-life” testing approach encompasses everything that the new technology will support in the operating environment, allowing organizations to identify areas that need additional fine-tuning.

End-to-end testing also helps assure that the new technology is set up properly for maximum efficiency and performance, that all touch points are operational and that there are no surprises when the technology goes “live” in the actual operating environment. This global approach leaves nothing to chance and helps organizations get comfortable with the performance of new technology before final launch.

4. Lab-based Training & Mentoring
One of the most challenging areas of any new technology implementation is helping users learn how to use that technology without adversely affecting their ability to perform their jobs efficiently. One of the best ways to do this is to set up a lab-based training and mentoring environment. This allows the organization to take tasks a user performs in the old system, and move those tasks to the lab so the user can learn how those tasks are executed in the new system. This allows users to gain experience doing actual tasks from their job instead of going through hypothetical training.

Once the technology goes live, it is also very helpful to provide users with a functional area mentor to help them make faster progress. The technology partner should provide the customer with knowledgeable support experts who understand both the technology and the underlying business issues users are faced with. By working side by side with users in a lab setting as well as in their work areas while they conduct business, these mentors help keep user productivity high and frustration low.

5. Asking Good Questions…Up Front
Mortgage companies that are contemplating a significant technology implementation must ask the right questions up front to make sure they understand and agree with the implementation approach proposed by the vendor under consideration. These include: 1. What is the provider’s track record with technology implementations? Do the references provided represent companies of similar size and implementation complexity? 2. What are the qualifications of the staff members the provider will have onsite working with the institution’s personnel? How experienced are they in functional areas? How will these staff members contribute to the evaluation of existing workflow and processes and in identifying areas for improvement? 3. How will user training be conducted? How long will users receive onsite support during their learning curve? What training methodology will be used?

Mortgage and servicing companies can experience professionally managed technology implementations that minimize business disruption, is invisible to the customer and meets cost, timeline and ROI expectations. However, these five key areas are essential elements for achieving that outcome.

Successful technology implementations are engineered by experts who leave nothing to chance and have developed proven approaches that can work for any organization. By ensuring that their technology partner has the proven expertise that is required and by dedicating the right internal experts, companies can expect their new technology implementation to deliver improved performance.

Darlene G. Strickland is SVP, implementation services at Fidelity Information Services. She has 34 years of mortgage banking experience, 25 of which are with FIS. Ms. Strickland is responsible for strategic business planning for all activities within implementation services; management oversight for all implementation services business critical initiatives, including new client conversions; works closely with all FIS business units to develop new services to enhance FIS’ goals and objectives; and communicates with all levels of a customer’s organization.