Organizational Change Management for SAP EPM and BPC Implementations

Written by Connie Folk | Tue, Sep 16, 2014 @ 19:09 PM

Successful delivery and adoption of any project requires a partnership between the business, IT, value chain partners and end-users to ensure the solution delivered meets business objectives and return on investment. Collaboration is required to make certain:

Executive support is ongoing and evident throughout the entire organization.
Project Vision, Goals, Success Criteria and Scope are broadly and consistently communicated across populations from stakeholders and end users.
Scope is realistic. Requirements are adequately articulated, documented and approved. Change Control Process has been implemented.
Effective Project and Organizational Change Management Methodologies are employed.
User Involvement – timeline, detailed feedback on deliverables is received during the development process to minimize or eliminate rework during testing.
Solution knowledge is transferred on a continuum paralleling the project phases.

While each of the items listed above is critical to the success of an EPM project, today we will focus on the “human element” as a critical success factor. Active and visible sponsorship is the number one success factor for change. Effective sponsorship creates credibility for the project and shows the organization’s commitment to the change. Sponsors often associate their role with decision making around strategy, resources and schedule. Great change sponsors also embrace an active and visible role throughout the project to drive the change. Great leaders build coalitions by communicating directly with and engaging employees and the project team.

Managers and supervisors can present a unique challenge in that while they can be most resistant to change, they are recognized as extremely influential for managing the speed at which employees travel along the change continuum. They are critical liaisons to the project team and their employees. If the people impacted by the project do not understand, support and are engaged in the change, then the new processes, system and changing job roles will not be embraced. If those areas are not embraced, then we fail to achieve the business objectives of the project and the intended return on investment.

Large-scale transformational change in organizations is difficult when an Organizational Change Management process has not been consciously considered and developed. At Column5, we use an integrated Organizational Change Management process to ensure the “human element” is considered and planned for throughout the entire project lifecycle. Through the integration of project management and change leadership, we can approach change armed with a concrete set of deliverables that can guide our decisions and actions to not only ensure project objectives are met, but also to ensure the intended return on investment through high adoption of the EPM solution.

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