Presentation describing effective change management strategy and methodologies specific to organizations which have or are planning to implement enterprise management software.

1. Enterprise Software
Business Transition
AST Change Management
Robert E. Henry
Director of Marketing & Communications
AST Corporation
APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Copyright © 2008 AST Corporation. All rights reserved.

2. THIS MATERIAL IS PROPRIETARY OF
APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY (AST) CORPORATION
EFFECTIVE THIS 17TH DAY OF NOVEMBER 2008
AST CORPORATION
1755 PARK STREET
SUITE 100
NAPERVILLE, IL 60563
1755 Park Street, Suite 100
Naperville, Illinois 60563
Phone: (630) 778-1180
Fax: (630) 778-1179
Email: info@astcorporation.com
www.astcorporation.com
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3. Overview
Change is an emotional process that is different for each individual, regardless of the
person’s position or intelligence. Our change process ideally provides space for each of
your employees to go through their own personal process to get to acceptance.
Understanding the concerns of each person allows us to position our Change Management
strategy in a way that is relevant and meaningful. We cannot “logic” people through the
change process, but we can and will listen to, document, and respond to every question
and concern in an authentic manner.
MAKE THE CASE
FOR CHANGE
Manage opposition and resistance
CHANGE
COMMITMENT &
EVALUATION
TRANSITION
Formal education and training End of project feedback
Policy and Procedure
The primary purpose of AST’s Change Management strategy is to facilitate a smooth
transition to your new system by informing user and project stakeholders of the changes
that will occur as a result of the new system, and by communicating the project status on a
regular basis. Given the indeterminate nature of change, there is no single best approach.
However, a structured approach does allow an evaluation of the potential consequences of
the change. The resulting strategy and adaptation of methods and communication patterns
will guide the people impacted in a well-planned and meaningful change approach.
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4. Executive Governance & Support
Change of established business practices, tools, and beliefs is almost always resisted, and to be effectively
implemented needs a champion. The more powerful and visible the champion, the more likely the change will
be successful. The project Steering Committee, along with your and AST’s project management – the
“Project Leadership” – will be the most powerful communicators of the importance and necessity of this pro-
ject and the associated changes that are brought to your user community. Therefore, it will be the
responsibility of the Project Leadership to govern the change management efforts and establish an overarching
communication and control model where three main elements of effective change management governance are
defined and enacted.
Events, Literature & Media Roles & Communication
Structure
These are the tools that aid in the crafting of
change management policy an in its execution. The selection of personnel and how they
Our Change Management Communications participate in delivering change managemet
Plan details the tools used to communicate with procdures is a critical component in the
project stakeholders. successful delivery of each change manage-
ment component. Your project will need to
communicate with a diverse end user commu-
nity. End users will need to understand how
they will be involved in and affected by the
implementation, and what they can expect.
Creating that understanding and managing
expectations requires both well-planned and
excuted change management policies and
procedures, and well-defined roles in
communicating project information. See
details on Roles and Communication
Structure.
EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE & SUPPORT
Policy and Procedure
Policy & Procedure
Change management policies will reflect the rules governing how change management events, literature and other
forms of communication are implemented in conjunction with the Oracle E-Business Suite project-related imple-
mentation processes. Change management procedures are the execution of such policies and will evolve during
the project as change management strategy responds to stakeholder feedback on the acceptance and effectiveness
of change management tools.
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5. Change Management Approach
Three distinct phases that comprise the AST Project Team’s Change Management approach include: Make the
Case for Change, Commitment and Transition, and Change Evaluation. Detailed planning and execution of
all three of these phases are the most important and effective methods to minimize the disruptive effects of
change and facilitate Change Management during an Oracle
E-Business Suite Implementation project.
Make the Case for Change
Change involves moving from the known to the unknown.
An uncertain future may affect people’s competencies,
worth, and confidence about their role and duties, so compel-
ling reasons must be delivered in order to gain the support of
members of an organization from the start. Organizations,
especially when it comes to enterprise technology and the
business processes surrounding it, are heavily invested in the
status quo and resistance can be heavy in relation to uncer-
tain future benefits. The task at hand, with these points in
mind, is to make the case for change and motivate people in
an organization toward continued interest and acceptance.
Explain the Need for Change
It is very difficult for Project Management to be able to ensure successful completion of a project and then proceed
to make successful project changes happen. A major aspect of the change process often involves overcoming
obstacles. Most obstacles are quot;ownedquot; by different people or departments associated with the change. The need for
collaboration is essential to make the change happen. People adapt to change more readily when they have “bought
into” it — that is, when they think the change is a good idea and want the change to occur. When getting buy-in is
an after-thought or a weak effort at best, the outcome of the change initiative can be disappointing.
The willingness of people in an organization to buy in is parallel to the need they feel for change. Generally, the
organizations’ management-level decision makers that seek to update or completely change parts of or an entire
enterprise system have already experienced enough dissatisfaction that they have bought into the need for change
and are motivated to seek new technologies and business processes. However, the widespread effects of change to
existing enterprise technology and business processes touch nearly every person within the organization, and a
clear need for change may not be as apparent to those who have not participated in discovering new technologies
or analyzing those proposed to the organization.
A significant discrepancy between actual and ideal states must therefore be shared with organization members in
order to positively orient every person who will be affected by the change. One main goal of this phase in change
management is to provide organization members with statistics or analysis of the current organizational
functioning so that this information can be compared with the organization’s goals and intended business and
technology state.
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6. Motivate Toward Commitment
Expectations play a crucial role in creating and sustaining a motivation about change, and organization members
will invest themselves in projects they expect will succeed. Such positive expectations, in turn, are likely to
develop in people a greater commitment to the change process, and direct more of their energy toward constructive
actions that are needed to make it happen. The key to motivate people in this direction is to communicate realistic
expectations about the project, including expectations regarding project schedule, individual and group
participation, and identification of project leadership personnel from both the organization and AST sides.
Manage Opposition & Resistance
Even with the prior two steps, there can still be considerable anxiety and therefore resistance in an organization.
Such resistance can be technical, where the habit of following common procedures and the status quo is being
changed, and cultural, where conformity to existing values and assumptions about how business is done are being
changed. Throughout a project, AST seeks to engage in joint problem solving with a client in developing the
solution to its technical and business process issues. Managing organizational resistance is no different. We seek
an open relationship with our client, to actively listen and constantly view the project from the client’s perspective.
Commitment & Transition
In this second stage of change management, the Project
Leadership, project team and all users and stakeholders
move from the existing technical and business process envi-
ronment to the new environment. Since an implementation
of Oracle E-Business Suite will involve a substantial shift in
how you transacts your business, special structures and ac-
tivities are required to facilitate the transition.
Identify Key Stakeholders & Users
Critical in the earliest stage of the project will be to identify the key stakeholders and groups with an interest in the
changes: staff groups, departmental managers, and executives. These key stakeholders can slow an effective
change process if their broad-based support and is not gained. Once these stakeholders and groups are identified,
creating a map showing who will experience the most or least change will be useful for the project leadership to
determine how much change management assistance will be required for each group and/or person.
It is important for the project leadership to note that identifying stakeholders is not limited to the above-identified
groups. Stakeholders are found in a variety of functions and levels, ranging from your executive level to
department heads to Subject Matter Experts and specially-created teams. Each is responsible for ensuring that the
message for change is communicated to the community within their sphere of influence, and therefore it is the
responsibility of the project leadership to correctly identify all the groups and people who will be targeted during
the entire change management process.
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7. Activity Planning
Activity planning involves making a road map for change, identifying specific activities and events that will occur
to make the transition successful. These activities can occur before and during the formal training classes, and are
designed to promote continual buy-in from your stakeholders and user community. These activities should gain
top-management approval, be cost effective, and remain adaptable as feedback is received during the project. By
ensuring that top-management is comfortable with the change, the project leadership can ensure that the members
of the top-management act as leaders of change. These leaders will then encourage the buy-in from their immediate
circle of influence, eventually ensuring and expanding an across the board buy-in to the Change Management
process.
In order to effectively communicate to the end user community and manage their expectations, the Project Team
can select from the following activities and customize them to the project:
• Communication Campaigns
• Implementation Survey
• Focus group meetings
• Conference Room Pilots (Solutions Demonstrations)
• Production Readiness Review
Formal Education & Training
A key component of implementing change is training users on the new business processes and application func-
tions. Projects may successfully finish their implementation tasks and yet fail to meet user objectives – many
change management issues arise because improperly trained users cannot execute their new business tasks. Most
users characterize this failure to be an IT system problem while it is possible that the failure is actually a training
issue. Therefore, our change leadership and the project team work closely together to identify the training and de-
ployment plans to facilitate a smooth transition to the new Oracle system.
Change Evaluation
ion
Ev
tat
The third and final phase of change management activities
alu
en
involves assessing the core and selected activities to deter-
ati
lem
mine whether they have been implemented as
on
intended and if they have delivered the desired results.
mp
po
AST incorporates two types of live implementation
gi
st-
change management evaluations into its overall change
rin
im
management strategy: evaluation of change management
du
ple
interventions during project implementation, and post-
n
m
project evaluation to assess overall impact. A final
tio
en
evaluation element, end of project feedback, is reserved
a
alu
tat
for a short period time after the new system for is live.
ion
Ev
Evaluation During Implementation
Most change management evaluations are done after implementation; however such a practice is only partially
useful since it assumes that change activities have been implemented as intended and that the key purpose of
evaluation is to assess their effects. Effective change management activity evaluations during implementation can-
not be taken for granted since most activities seek to change people’s behaviors and the way they think about their
job and organization. Implementing new business technology and processes requires considerable learning and
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8. experimentation as employees and managers discover how to translate new business concepts and tasks into
sustainable behaviors. This learning process involves much trial and error and needs to be guided by information
about whether behaviors and procedures are being changed as intended.
Your project’s plan will be a critical tool in monitoring task performance, and it is an equally valuable tool in
evaluating the effectiveness of communication. As with monitoring task performance, change management
evaluation will lead to adjustments in the overall strategy and chosen communication methodologies. Gathering
and assessing evaluation will be the responsibility of AST which will report its findings and confer with the Project
Leadership. Implementation evaluations can be sought in a number of ways, and will result in a formal change
management status report that will be delivered according to the change management deliverables defined in the
project plan.
Evaluations can be gathered through a number of tools, including:
• Formal sign-off processes or surveys after workshops and key events.
• Requests for feedback on all mass communications.
• Questionnaires.
• Agenda items in formal meetings, such as Department Sponsors Meetings and Steering Committee meetings.
• Random contact with representatives from all groups to follow up specific issues or key events.
• A dedicated comments area on a Web page.
• Dedicated e-mail address.
• Informal day-to-day discussions with end users.
Evaluation Post-Implementation
Post-implementation evaluation of change management activities are designed to discover the immediate outcome
of the project implementation. As data about change management is collected during the project implementation
repeatedly at designated intervals, the summary of this data can provide, first, a clearer understanding of the
project’s success and, second, a change management plan for the next implementation phase. This evaluation
cycle can proceed for several rounds, with each round providing the Project Leadership knowledge about the
project and ideas for its following stage or phase.
End of Project Change Management Feedback
Post-project evaluation of change management is concerned with the overall impact of the project and whether
resources should continue to be allocated to it or other change management activities. Feedback at this point takes
longer to gather and interpret than that during the project, since it will include a broad array of business
performance and project outcome measures:
• Knowledge of new technology
• Ease of use of technology within job tasks
• Sustainability of business processes surrounding job tasks
• Departmental performance
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9. Change Management Communications Plan
Communications is the key to a successful project. Our Project Team will work with the Project Leadership
and your Project Team members to develop a comprehensive Change Management Communication Plan. It is
absolutely critical that your organization, AST, and key stakeholders are kept apprised and knowledgeable of
change management activities during the project. The Communication Plan will include regular planning and
status meetings with the Project Leadership, the AST and your team members, as well as regular communica-
tions with your stakeholders (department personnel, end-users, etc.).
The purpose of the Communications Plan is to define and document:
• The communication methodologies – events, literature and media – and structures used to disseminate
information throughout the change management effort.
• The roles and communication structure that will be used to exchange relevant change management infor-
mation between the Project Leadership and AST/your Project Teams.
• The regular meetings, reporting, and other communications that take place during the project, and identify
the type of information, the medium for communicating, and the audience to whom information is di-
rected.
Methods for Disseminating Information
A combination of direct and indirect communication mechanisms can be employed during the change manage-
ment effort. Indirect methods generate awareness and interest, while direct methods will be used to generate
desire and action. No one method is suitable for all users from your organization or for all purposes, and each
has its advantages and disadvantages, so a combination should be used to reach all end users and managers.
Some types of communications will be more effective than others during the three stages in the change man-
agement process. Indirect or one-way communication in the form of e-mails, notices, and intranet are effective
in generating awareness. Direct or two-way communication in the form of interactive workshop sessions, road
shows/presentations, or interviews are generally more effective in generating interest or motivation and getting
end users to participate.
Stage Objective Type Mechanism
Make the Case for Change Create the need or the want to Direct Seminars, site visits, demon-
try strations, high-level training
sessions
Create interest or information Indirect Newsletters,
seeking behavior brochures
Gain attention Indirect E-mails, notices, announce-
ments
Commitment & Transition Motivate usage Direct Seminars,
training, change advocates
Reinforce usage Direct/Indirect Web sites, Help desk, E-mail
contacts
Change Gather change management Direct One-on-one or group meet-
Evaluation implementation feedback ings with users; meetings with
Project Leadership
Indirect Surveys, website, E-mail
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10. Staff Roles In Communications
The Change Management methodologies will need to communicate with diverse end user community. End
users will need to understand how they will be involved in and affected by the implementation, and what they
can expect. Creating this understanding, and managing expectations, requires both a well-planned and exe-
cuted communication strategy, and in particular well-defined roles in communicating change management
information.
The table below defines the roles that will be distributed among your and the AST Project Team members in
disseminating relevant and engaging change management communications.
Communication Audience Frequency Primary Providing
Mechanism Responsibility Assistance
Oracle E-Business End Users Monthly Project Assistant Project Managers,
Suite Implementation Project Team Leads
Newsletter
Official Memos, Department Sponsors, As Needed Project Managers Project Assistant
Letters, and other Department Directors,
Correspondence and Vendors
E-Mails Department Sponsors/ As Needed Project Managers Project Assistant
Subject Matter Experts and Team Leads
Workshop Sessions Department Sponsors/ As Needed Team Leads Team Members
Subject Matter Experts
Roadshows / Department End Users As Needed Project Managers Team Leads and
Presentations Project Assistant
Training Sessions End Users Per Training Training Lead Team Leads and
Schedule Project Assistant
Functional & Technical Team Members and Weekly Team Leads Team Members
Team Status Reports Team Leads
Project Manager Status Team Leads and Steer- Weekly Project Managers Team Leads
Reports ing Committee Chairs
Team Meetings Functional & Technical Weekly Team Leads Team Members
Team Members
Team Leader Meetings Team Leaders Weekly Project Managers Team Leads
Department Sponsor Department Sponsors Monthly Project Managers Team Leads
Meetings
Steering Committee Steering Committee Monthly Project Managers Steering Committee
Meetings Chairs
Steering Committee Steering Committee Monthly Project Managers Team Leads
Status Reports
All Project Team Project Team Members Monthly Project Managers Team Leads
Meetings (including
Consultants)
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11. Sample Change Management Plan
Project Action Resources Milestones Deliverables
Activity
Project Kick-off Users will be briefed on the imple- Client Project Delivery of Change
mentation process and methodology Team, AST Change Management
Meeting
to be adopted. The focus would be to Team Management Strategy
emphasize continuity and preserva- Strategy
tion of all the system functions from
the existing applications, in the new
modules. Project phases and the
participation of the user community in
each of the phases will be discussed.
Finally the communication and feed-
back mechanisms available to the
users will be reviewed.
Focus Group Interviews to gather requirements Client Project Completion of Organizational
give the project team an excellent Team, AST
Meetings Change Impact
interviews
opportunity to interact with the end Team Document
users and document their issues.
The project team will encourage Focus Group
wider participation of the user com- members se-
munity in these meetings. All proc- lected by the
ess and system related changes client, with rep-
would be reviewed in detail. The new resentation from
features and enhancements available every depart-
in the new release will be discussed. ment and
All user concerns and request for agency
enhancements will be documented
as part this process.
Collaborative The Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Client Project Completion of Organizational
approach to De- and the full time project team will Team, AST Implementation Change
liverables jointly prepare all the deliverables. Team, Other Deliverables Impact
This would ensure active user partici- SMEs, if neces- Document
pation and ownership of the process. sary (Updated)
During the Design phase, the project Client Project Completion of
Overview Demo script
team is scheduled to conduct demos/ Team, AST overview/demos
overview of the new release of the Team SMEs,
Oracle applications with the client representative
data. This will give an opportunity for applications
the users to identify any potential users from all
system issues with the new release. departments
and agencies
(Table continued on following page.)
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12. The new Oracle applications mod- Client Project Making the
User Labs Organizational
ules with the client data will be avail- Team, AST system available Change Impact
able for users to browse and self- Team, SMEs, to users Document
train after initial testing. This will en- representative (Updated)
able the early adapters to get used to applications
the new user interface and system users from all
features. The project team will be departments
available for support as needed. and agencies
SMEs will be encouraged to actively
participate in the testing of standard
Oracle functions.
Comprehensive testing of the client Client Project Completion of Organizational
Testing
business processes is planned for Team, AST Change
testing
the test phase of the project. User Team SMEs, Impact
participation will include unit testing representative Document
of individual modules, integration applications (Updated)
testing and acceptance testing. The users from other
project team will encourage wide departments as
participation of users in all the testing needed
activities. The system test results will
be documented and any issues will
be added to the issue log and re-
viewed.
Training is a key component of the Client Project Scheduling and Training Docu-
Training
change management process. There Team, AST completing training ments, User
is a major emphasis on end user Team SMEs, all of all end users Procedure
training as part of the implementation end users Documents
project. The training sessions will be
used to introduce the users to the Support and
new system. The training material will Maintenance
include process details, job-aids and (Technical)
user documentation. The training Document
process will include feedback on the
effectiveness of training.
1755 Park Street, Suite 100
Naperville, Illinois 60563
Phone: (630) 778-1180
Fax: (630) 778-1179
Email: info@astcorporation.com
www.astcorporation.com
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