Five Best Practices for a Successful Recreation Software Implementation

Introduction

Your local government parks and recreation activities occur year-round, so there’s never a time to entirely focus on implementing a new recreation management software. It also means that if switching software systems takes too long, you could be stuck managing duplicative systems, which is time-consuming. Even worse, a poorly managed data migration could leave you attempting to manually manage activities, facilities, leagues, members, and volunteers until your vendor can untangle their mess.

Apprehensions about implementation risks should not hold you back from migrating to software that can benefit the effectiveness of your recreation management processes in the long term. Successful implementation is well within your reach if you take the necessary steps to get it right. For a successful project, follow these five simple steps:

1. Start by Defining Success

How will you know if your recreation software implementation was successful if you never defined what constitutes success? What is your goal in implementing a new software? Are you:

• Looking for an interface that is easier for residents to use to increase activity enrollment?
• In need of a cloud-based system to eliminate manual data management?
• In need of software that can integrate with existing systems, like your accounting software or social media platforms, to streamline your operations?

Decide on one single factor that will determine success (20 percent increase in enrollment, elimination of all manual processes and spreadsheets, implementation of an integrated point-of-sale system), and keep that goal constantly in the forefront of every decision you make throughout the implementation process.

2. Outline a Timeline with Key Milestones

This process should be a collaborative step led by your recreation software partner. A reputable partner that has worked with other cities, counties, and public-sector entities should have an established process that has been proven successful. They should also be able to outline the key milestones and help you stay on track and on target to meet each one. With an implementation process that could take a few months, focusing on smaller milestones helps you avoid being overwhelmed by the larger project’s details.

3. Consider a Phased Implementation

Since you’ll never have a season when you’re not managing parks and rec activities, any implementation will occur when activities, leagues, and classes are ongoing. Depending on the size of your community or your staff, consider implementing the new software’s features in phases so as not to disrupt too much of your ongoing activities or put too much pressure on your staff to rush the training process.

Civic Tip: The City of Kirkland, WA, took a phased approach to its CivicPlus® Recreation Management software implementation and saw a 32% increase in online enrollments on day one. Read the full story.

4. Establish New Procedures and Workflows

Just because you’ve managed your parks and rec activities using specific processes in the past, it doesn’t mean you should continue to do so once you have access to enhanced solutions. As part of your planning process, meet with your staff and the leaders of any impacted departments and take the time to reconsider workflows, routing procedures, and assigned tasks to make sure your ongoing processes are fully leveraging the new tools available to you.

5. Choose the Right Partner

A well-planned implementation won’t succeed if your software vendor doesn’t have the experience or staff to enable you to meet your goal. When choosing a partner, ensure they have experience in local government parks and recreation departments and understand their unique needs. Ask to speak with other clients whose solutions they have implemented or ask to see case study examples of successful projects. Finally, ensure you can access a dedicated project management team with a trainer and long-term strategic account manager. Remember, you need a partner, not just software, to be successful.