Jeremy Hyman Associates anticipate that more than half of their clients will change their practice management system in the next three to four years. This software is a like a decades-old, life-expired sofa: comfortable and reliable, but now the original material can’t be seen through the patchwork of repairs that keep the stuffing in.

A lot of firms don’t even want to replace this core system, but are being forced by suppliers who are collapsing their product catalogues to eliminate duplicate and competing systems. Although they have given you a couple of years notice, that is barely enough given the magnitude of change.

Jeremy Hyman see many poorly executed migrations because firms lack the resource or expertise to make the most of the opportunity. They frequently encounter new practice management systems that have simply inherited the poor data and working practices of their predecessors. What a waste, given the spend and disruption involved in the change!

So what can a firm do to minimise risk and maximise benefit? Here are four tips.

Describe exactly what you want

Firstly, build a set of requirements that describe how the firm would like to work. Most practice management systems bear the mark of successive changes of IT and executive leadership decisions, with haphazard initiatives becoming ingrained over time.

A fresh set of eyes and proper analytical review of data, data processes and integrations will result in a precise and comprehensive specification for a new system. The more detailed and comprehensive your specification, the better. Both you and the potential vendor will have a clear understanding of your needs, facilitating a reliable selection process and eliminating doubt as to the deliverable you are seeking.

Decide what your new system should be

It is not at all clear that the best replacement for a practice management system is another practice management system. The niche suppliers that write these are serving a very small market, resulting in constrained investment budgets, tiny resource pools, long product lifecycles and protracted delivery times. The products themselves are often quite poor in features and have creaking user interfaces when compared to general-market alternatives.

Might a finance package mated to a modern CRM be a better alternative? The answer will vary from firm to firm and an external view of the “art of the possible” will certainly help here.

Negotiate from a position of strength

You rarely buy big systems like this, and inexperienced buyers can fail to get the best deal particularly when it comes to paying for extra modules, services and features. It isn’t the commercial negotiation that is the issue – you should be fine with that – but rather what we refer to as the technical negotiation.

Vendors love change orders that broaden scope once you’ve signed the core contract. If you went to buy a second-hand car, you’d take an engineering-savvy friend with you, wouldn’t you?

Do you what you need to do before engaging the vendor

Lastly, do as much improvement work as you can before migration, not during it. Processes can be improved, data cleaned and tidied, operations standardised.

Doing this during migration increases risk, and also tends to rely on the incoming vendor for expertise. Their expertise is in their product, not your data or process. Optimising these first will lower the cost and risk of migration, as well as ensuring the vendor is focussed on their job, not yours.

Changing practice management system may not be something that you want to do, but it will probably be something that you will have to do as systems become end-of-life. Rather than being forced to go down the route prescribed by a supplier, seize the opportunity to take control of the situation and use the next couple of years to redesign your approach and working practices to maximum effect. Then you will be empowered to confidently choose and implement the right solution for your practice.

Jeremy Hymans are pleased to continue offering a one-hour complimentary consultation session to managing partners or IT partners, as a gesture of our ongoing partnership with them.