Software Conversion

 

   I'm grateful that I was at work yesterday. I wasn't scheduled to be there but Jill wanted to take a day off and asked me to cover. Part of the reason I was grateful is because we got a shipment of Covid vaccine in. Since I'm the assistant vaccine coordinator, one of my jobs is to receive the order (it's a bit of a process). If I hadn't been there the vaccine would have been received by one of the techs but neither of them has done it before.

   I also found out that the go live date for our software conversion is in two weeks. Two Weeks! I thought it was farther out. Then I realized that our conversion was to happen the first week in October and we are nearing the end of September. Yikes! 

   I have been working on the assigned training modules, but was told to try to do them at work. That way I would get paid for my training time. It's been pretty busy the last few weeks that I've worked. There  hasn't been much time to log in and work on training. I'm going to have to work on it at home.

   This is not my first software conversion. I've been through two. I've also had to learn seven different pharmacy software systems. Every time I changed jobs, I had to learn a new system as pharmacies usually have their own system.

    The experience of having to learn all these new systems has given me a bit of an advantage. Although the systems are different, there are some similarities and with my variety of experience I'm likely to find something familiar to hold on to while I learn the newer things.

   One of the things I learned about software conversions is that the key is training. The training should be thorough. There should be enough time to do all available training, but not be so far out that you forget what you learned when the go live date approaches. That's why I'm a little nervous right now. I'm maybe a quarter of the way through the training. I like to be farther along than that. 

   The other key is good support. The first conversion I was part of was a good experience. We had good hands on training and a trainer was on site for a week or two after the go live date.

   The second one was a nightmare. The new system was clunky, inefficient and slow. It was clearly chosen by a group that didn't have to work with it on a daily basis. The training was minimal and there wasn't a whole lot of support.  The day before we went live, I had to stay in the pharmacy until 3 AM to wait for a tech to dial in and do some things with our software. Then I could go home, get a few hours sleep then go back to work. It was a terrible transition. For nearly a year my manager and I worked six days a week to keep up with the work. It was not uncommon for one of us to come in an hour or two before the pharmacy opened to get caught up.

   I'm much more optimistic now. The little bit I've seen of the new software looks a lot like something I've worked with before. I also like the fact that all my information is on one screen and I don't have to jump screens to find things. Navigating looks like it will be fairly simple too.

   However, I need to work on my training. So, I'm going to stop writing and get to it.