Being an early adopter of certain technology or not depends on, among other things, goals, attitudes.
Like in the consumer world, treasury technology buyers can be lumped into two categories: early adopters and those who wait. Of course, there are merits to both approaches, which was a recent topic of discussion at two separate NeuGroup peer group meetings.
At one meeting, which was a gathering of The NeuGroup’s Global Cash and Banking Group, members agreed that one of the most important aspects of this choice was to first define the company’s technology vision and then decide on the level of participation. This was part of the group’s ongoing World-Class Cash Management project (see related item here).
Most observers would likely agree that the early adopter can end up carrying the heaviest burden. But in some cases, being an innovator or early adopter allows a company to modify technology or customize it to better fit its needs. But these modifications can drag out over several months, particularly if they are reactive modifications, i.e., something didn’t work so something different had to be tried.
The dragged out process was the case for one member of The NeuGroup’s Internal Auditors’ Peer Group. In this case, the implementation of a new governance risk and compliance system (GRC) got off to a decidedly rocky start. So much so that the first phase of implementation had be stopped and then postponed for several months (and in the meantime, the functions that were to be automated ended up having to be done manually).
Further to this, the member was asked by the Board’s audit committee about the wisdom of being an early adopter. His explanation was that the early pain was going to be worth the later gain. Also, there were several other reasons why the company went with the system:
- The company already had been using the GRC maker’s other systems, so it would be an easier transition.
- The price was right: for the most part free.
- The company was very attentive to getting things fixed so was thus always available.
To be sure, despite some of these pluses, many still feel it’s best to let innovators and/or early adopters work out the kinks first; to wait for the software to mature before implementing. But one must keep in mind that even mature systems can have glitch-filled implementations that stall, restart and stall again. Perhaps then being the tech progenitor is the right move.