Why Your Facility Needs an Empowered Software Champion
Enterprise software like Mosaic Vivarium plays a crucial role in keeping lab animal facilities running efficiently and in compliance with organizational and governmental regulations.
Over the years, we have observed a few key factors distinguishing high-performing animal facilities from the rest. In this article, we’ll explore one of those factors: the presence of a software championduring the implementation/deployment phase.
Facilities that have a software or digital transformation champion are able to extract the fullest value from Mosaic Vivarium resulting in significant improvements in their operations.
What is Enterprise Software and Why is it Important?
We refer to Mosaic Vivarium as “enterprise software” because it’s software that is designed to meet the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Here are some key characteristics:
- Scalability: Enterprise software is designed to scale (as needed) to support large organizations with multiple users, often spread across different geographical locations.
- Integration: It can integrate with other systems used within the organization to ensure seamless data flow and process automation.
- Customization: Enterprise software should offer a high degree of customization to cater to the specific needs of the organization.
- Security: Given the sensitive nature of data handled by enterprise software, robust security measures are a critical feature.
- Support: Enterprise-level software usually comes with extensive customer support, including training, troubleshooting, automated backups, and regular updates.
Mosaic Vivarium is designed to handle the complex and varied needs of laboratory animal facility management. The needs arise from diverse stakeholders, such as research scientists, IACUC compliance officers, cost recovery managers, animal ordering managers, breeding managers, etc.
Because no single stakeholder group will be expected to use all aspects of the software, the successful enterprise deployment of Mosaic requires an overarching management role.
The Role of a Software Champion
A software champion is a top-level leader empowered to orchestrate the implementation of enterprise software. While each stakeholder group has their own interests, the software champion considers the interests of the organization as a whole.
The software champion:
- Has a vision for the organization and its goals in deploying the software
- Has the authority to direct resources
- Establishes the desired high-level outcomes for each stakeholder area
- Holds managers accountable for achieving the outcomes
The Risks of Not Having a Software Champion
Without a software champion, staff may only use the software for data entry, data entry may become sporadic, and the facility will not fully benefit from the software’s capabilities. If the driving force is the facility manager, positive outcomes, such as improved and accurate billing/cost recovery, can still be achieved.
However, stopping there leaves out key stakeholders such as the research scientist themselves. The entire design goal of Mosaic Vivarium as an enterprise solution is to provide all stakeholders with useful tools based on a “single source of truth.”
The pivotal role of a software champion in the successful deployment of Mosaic Vivarium within laboratory animal facility management cannot be overstated.
The presence of a software champion ensures that Mosaic Vivarium is utilized to its full potential, leading to enhanced efficiency, compliance, and overall operational improvement.
Without such leadership, facilities risk underutilizing this powerful tool, missing out on the comprehensive benefits it offers. Therefore, identifying a software champion is not merely an optional step but a critical strategy for unlocking the full potential of Mosaic Vivarium.
Ready to learn more about how Mosaic Vivarium can help your facility?
Schedule a free demonstration today!