When it comes to technology transformation, the go-live date isn’t the finish line – it’s a checkpoint on a much bigger journey.
For Bronwen De Abreu, Audit Data & Analytics Director at MHA, and Kate Brooke, Firmwide Resource Management Leader at Moss Adams (at the time of her firm’s implementation) leading a major rollout brought valuable lessons about what it takes to get this right.
During our webinar: Strategic tech investment: from cost to catalyst, they shared their experiences – the highs, the hurdles, and the insights they gained along the way.
Here, we’ve distilled their advice into 10 proven insights to help you get beyond go live and set your own resource management software project up for long-term success.
Jump to section:
- Listen to the pain points
- Communicate the cost of inaction
- Start with your vision before talking to vendors
- Involve the right stakeholders early
- Executive sponsorship is essential
- Timing is everything
- Train everyone – not just the frequent flyers
- Be honest about the journey
- Keep the momentum going post launch
- Measure ROI beyond the numbers
1: Listen to the pain points
The first step in any successful technology transformation is to listen to the pain points across your firm. When you listen closely, pain points become signals – guiding where to focus your technology strategy and how to create lasting improvements.
Kate describes this “always-on” approach to listening as essential:
"We were facing challenges on multiple fronts – reporting inefficiencies, lack of data integration between our tools, and difficulty aligning employee skill sets with the right job requirements. Different areas of the business were beginning to seek out their own resourcing solutions, which signaled a growing need for a firm-wide approach." - Kate Brooke
For Kate, it wasn’t just about fixing today’s pain points, but about linking them to a broader vision—one centered on supporting people, modernizing processes, and laying the groundwork for future growth.
"We also saw an opportunity to better support our people – improving career growth, keeping teams energized and up to date with technology, and giving the business more insight into staffing decisions.
When we stepped back, we realized the struggle to produce consistent, reliable data and the gaps in our processes pointed to a bigger issue: our current tools weren’t serving us well and weren’t equipped to serve us in the future. That was the moment we knew it was time to seriously evaluate new technology for resource management." - Kate Brooke
✔️ Tip: always-on listening turns everyday pain points into a roadmap for innovation – showing you where to focus investment to create meaningful, long-term change.
2: Communicate the cost of inaction
Once pain points are clear, the next step is showing leadership why addressing them matters. As Bronwen explains, there’s always a cost. Investing in new technology requires time and budget but doing nothing comes at a price too. The question is which cost your firm is willing to carry.
"Once you acknowledge those key pain points, it becomes much easier to justify the investment to stakeholders. Either way, there is going to be a cost –you move with the times, or you take on the cost of inaction." - Bronwen De Abreu
That cost of inaction shows up in two key areas:
"The main risk of inaction in audit is losing your competitiveness when going out to tender for new client work. Clients expect us to work with their data quickly and efficiently, and if they’ve experienced that elsewhere, we risk losing them.
There’s also a huge impact on staff retention. It’s already a scarce market for skilled people, so if your systems aren’t keeping pace, you’ll struggle to attract and keep talent." - Bronwen De Abreu
Bronwen also highlights a third driver for technology investment:
"We’re seeing more from our regulator and our boards indicating that investing in certain technology is becoming an industry expectation. They’re not explicitly mandating specific systems, but they are suggesting vendors that work well. If they’re signaling this is the direction to go, why wouldn’t we act on it?" - Bronwen De Abreu
✔️ Tip: frame technology investment as future-proofing not just fixing today’s issues. Make it clear that standing still carries its own cost, whether through lost clients, reduced quality, or talent attrition.
3: Start with your vision before talking to vendors
With many technology solutions on the market, it can be tempting to dive straight into demos. But Kate highlights that the first step isn’t looking at vendors – it should be defining what success looks like now and in the years ahead.
"By taking the time to evaluate our processes and systems, we were able to create a structured plan and clear criteria to find the right fit for us. We did all of that work before we sent our RFPs. It made it very easy to center around criteria before any demos." - Kate Brooke
To define these future-state criteria, Kate’s team ran design thinking sessions and empathy mapping exercises to explore how their processes should evolve, helping them pinpoint the capabilities needed to support the firm’s goals.
"With those criteria in place, we built a scorecard for the vendor selection process. As we went through each demo, stakeholders rated how well each vendor met or didn’t meet our agreed-upon criteria.
That approach made it easy to compare systems objectively and pull all the feedback together after the demos. It was a deliberate, careful approach that really paid off." - Kate Brooke
✔️ Tip: put your vision first. Define your future-state processes and success criteria before you consider sending out an RFP, so your criteria reflect where you’re going – not just where you are today.
4: Involve the right stakeholders early
Rolling out new technology is a team effort. Involving stakeholders early builds shared ownership and sets the stage for stronger adoption.
Kate explains how her firm was intentional about involving a diverse group to shape decisions and secure buy-in – from leaders in different business units to informal influencers with strong peer networks:
"We brought in stakeholders from across our organization to be involved in system selection and implementation.
It’s not just about including them, but showing that their voices matter. When you emphasize the importance of their feedback and contributions throughout the process, it amplifies their impact and builds stronger buy-in, which ultimately drives adoption." - Kate Brooke
Building on this, Bronwen highlights two essentials for supporting stakeholders through change: preparation and communication.
"One of our first hurdles was ensuring the IT infrastructure was ready and everyone had the right access. If you get this wrong, it can delay deployment and frustrate teams before you even begin. Clear communication is also critical and there are always more stakeholders involved than you initially expect." - Bronwen De Abreu
And it’s not just internal teams that matter. Bronwen reminds us that clients are critical stakeholders, too.
"It’s so important to empower your staff to help onboard clients and make sure they feel comfortable with the new process and supported in the using the software." - Bronwen De Abreu
✔️ Tip: map out every stakeholder group, including clients, and ensure the right access, permissions, and training are in place well before launch to avoid delays and build trust from day one.
5: Executive sponsorship is essential
Executive sponsorship is essential for connecting the dots between a new technology and the firm’s bigger picture. Kate reflects on how executive leaders brought the vision, journey, and firm-wide benefits to life.
"Executive sponsorship is absolutely crucial. Executive leaders can help speak to the larger vision of your firm and where the business wants to go in the future, help set realistic expectations around the challenges of change, the change journey and the long-term benefits.
This can really help connect the dots between what might feel like an administrative change when implementing a new technology, the importance and value that it’s bringing to the firm on a larger scale, and communicating to employees how it’s really going to impact their career and their ability to serve external clients." - Kate Brooke
✔️ Tip: have executives consistently reinforce the “why” behind the change.
6: Timing is everything
Timing sets the tone for your rollout. Kate and Bronwen stress that success depends on more than having the system ready – it’s about making sure teams have the capacity, willingness, and headspace to adapt to new ways of working.
Bronwen cautions that launching at the wrong moment can derail even the best-planned rollout:
"You might be excited about the project, but if it’s their busy season, you’ll hit a brick wall. Just because the tool is ready doesn’t mean the timing is right." – Bronwen De Abreu
Kate echoes this, adding that timing is also critical for managing change fatigue and balancing other major business priorities.
"The nature of our business means there are so many high points throughout the year where the workload is large. Look at your workflow across the year –are you asking people to make a big change at the same time as another major business event?
If there’s any way you can reduce that pressure, do it. Timing and prioritization can reduce change fatigue significantly." - Kate Brooke
✔️ Tip: align rollout plans with quieter periods to maximize engagement. Factor in competing priorities so teams aren’t overwhelmed by too many demands at once.
7: Train everyone—not just the frequent flyers
When planning training, it’s natural to focus on the “frequent flyers” – the people who will use the software every day. But Bronwen highlights that overlooking occasional users, including senior leaders, can create gaps in adoption and limit the overall impact of the rollout.
"Sometimes we focus on the frequent users of the software, but not so much on onboarding and training the infrequent users, such as senior leaders.
They may feel, ‘this training isn’t for me.’ Even if they aren’t in the software all day, they need to understand the impact it will have to really drive its use, and to build long-term investment and commitment to the change." - Bronwen De Abreu
For senior leaders, training isn’t about step-by-step tutorials. It’s about showing how the system supports the wider business, and them specifically, by highlighting the new data, insights, and capabilities they didn’t have before. When leaders see this value, they’re more likely to champion adoption and help the firm realize its full return on investment.
✔️ Tip: tailor training to different user groups. For occasional users and senior leaders, focus on how the technology supports strategy and decision-making, not just day-to-day tasks.
8: Be honest about the journey
Technology rollouts are rarely seamless. Being transparent about both the challenges and the benefits helps build trust and keeps teams engaged throughout the change process. Kate stresses the importance of setting realistic expectations and preparing people for what’s ahead:
"People want to authentically understand what the reality will be, not just be sold a future vision of perfection. Not everyone will navigate the journey easily, so you have to be transparent about the challenges as well as the positive outcomes.
And technology change doesn’t solve process issues, even with the best plans and change management in place. You still need to do the work to fix those processes and be upfront about that part of the journey." - Kate Brooke
✔️ Tip: build trust by being open about the change journey, not just the destination.
9: Keep the momentum going post launch
To build a long-term culture of change, you need to keep people engaged, supported, and confident in the system as it evolves. Kate shares two ways her firm has sustained that engagement over time.
"We’ve been engaging people through champion or super user groups who gather feedback from their peers and bring it to the teams who can make changes – whether that’s process improvements or requests for our technology supplier. This makes people feel heard and invested, especially when they see their input shaping updates to the tool and workflows.
We also provide streamlined, self-serve training materials that are continually refreshed. This gives everyone access to the latest guidance, building confidence and preventing people from slipping back into old habits." - Kate Brooke
Alongside this, Bronwen stresses the need for ongoing communication and regular touchpoints, especially as new hires join or new offices come on board:
"It’s important to keep your foot on the pedal and make sure the message doesn’t fade over time. We run regular CPD sessions and check-ins to remind people of key functionality and address any dips in adoption. It’s also worth involving your vendor in training to keep content fresh and relevant." - Bronwen De Abreu
✔️ Tip: partner with your vendor to create champion groups, keep training materials up to date, and schedule regular touchpoints that reinforce adoption and prevent backsliding.
10: Measure ROI beyond the numbers
When rolling out new technology, one key measure of success is the ripple effect it creates: fewer frustrations, better decisions, and stronger outcomes across the firm. These indicators might not show up on a balance sheet, but they’re essential to track alongside financial gains.
Kate shares how their rollout created a step-change in transparency and decision-making:
"We’ve created a ton of transparency in our process as a result of the technology transformation. Leaders now have data they never had before, and they’re using it to make better, more confident decisions – not in isolation, but alongside other information to guide business conversations." - Kate Brooke
Bronwen adds that the benefits were quickly felt in day-to-day operations and in leadership confidence:
"The noise of challenges and pain points from our people has reduced dramatically. Other teams are now asking to access the system because they’ve seen its impact. Even partners have said they feel a sense of peace of mind knowing the process has gone through the correct channels.
And in a highly regulated market, value isn’t just about reducing costs or increasing efficiencies. Achieving higher quality and consistency in our outputs is just as important to leadership as the commercial metrics." - Bronwen De Abreu
✔️ Tip: measure success holistically, look beyond cost savings to improvements in quality, confidence, adoption, and decision-making.
The payoff
Kate and Bronwen’s firms are now seeing their efforts pay off, with resource management technology at the heart of a transformation that’s delivering new insights, efficiencies, and opportunities for innovation.
"Our new resource management solution has become a single source of truth for resourcing data. It’s already influencing other tax and assurance systems, giving us a holistic view of firmwide performance and opening up exciting possibilities for future innovation." - Kate Brooke
Technology may be the spark for change, but it’s the people, processes, and decisions around it that determine whether it truly delivers. Successful implementation takes planning and commitment well beyond go-live. From listening to pain points and setting a clear vision to timing, training, stakeholder alignment, and honest communication, every step helps turn technology from a cost into a catalyst for change.
Done well, the result isn’t just a new system – it’s smoother processes, greater transparency, and happier teams, creating a better way of working that truly improves people’s working lives.
Want to hear the full conversation?
Watch the webinar with Kate and Bronwen to explore their insights in more detail and learn how to set your own tech rollout up for long-term success.
Watch the webinar
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