SAP - Organisational Change Management History

[Former Member]

Having been involved in many SAP Projects as a change management specialist, I have often wondered how either the consulting house I am contracting to, or the client get their ideas about change management in SAP projects.

Some believe it lies in the domain of industrial psychologists who want to help people 'embrace change'. Others believe that it is mainly about communications.

I would love to hear different viewpoints about how SAP Change Management developed over the years and why people have gotten so confused about the role change management plays in SAP projects.

For me SAP ASAP details the Change Management deliverables, however very few people actually know how to execute these plans or what they are supposed to achieve.

I think the problem with how people view change management, is that it is a soft subject and is therefore highly flexible and can be done by anyone.

I listed the Change Management deliverables in my blog /people/swen.conrad/blog/2006/06/01/business-analyst-133-aris-for-netweaver-133-business-process-expert-133 .

Why is it that people do not adhere or use these deliverables?

With Kindest Regards

Paul Wilson

[Former Member]

Ellen and Faisal - great points and seems we have all had similar experiences whilst working in the ERP change space. I am not convinced the value OCM brings to an ERP implementation is understood even at the Executive level. It is a neglected strategic imperative that ultimately if not addressed adequately can lead to the demise of the ERP transformation pogramme. Will be good if we OCM professionals can raise the profile of OCM even further in the SAP world. I am ready and keen to collaborate further.

[Former Member]

Hi Paul

Brilliant topic and one that in my experience is still not understood completely by clients and SI companies alike. My fundamental belief is that until an ERP implementation is viewed as a business transformation initiative, then change management is always going to be a 'nice to have' work-stream heavily focused on project communication and training. This is only the 'tip of the iceberg' in change terms and often projects start stalling or experiencing difficulties across the stakeholder landscape as other key areas of change management have been completely neglected. My experience in developing and executing the CM work-stream for an ERP project is outlined below:

1. Defining the scope of the ERP change programme and clearly articulating why the ERP implementation is taking place.

2. Starting Business Engagement and Business Readiness activities at the beginning of the ERP implementation is a key success factor. In many instances I have seen this activity either done poorly or not done at all until later on the project, creating a completely dis-engaged Key User community.

3. Developing a detailed definition of the changes that the new ERP system will introduce into the organisation and conducting a high level Change Impact Analysis to determine the degree of change coming in respect to people, processes, technology and infrastructure.

4. Designing and building the ERP solution so that it can deliver the strategic goals of the organisation. At this stage it is vital to involve the business in designing a 'fit for purpose' ERP solution.

5. Vitally important is getting the business to work with the ERP core project team to prepare adequately for go live. Making sure that all activities for cutover are completed in a timely manner, the business is engaged and the end users are aware of post go live support arrangements is a key role of the change management function.

6. CM is then fully involved in supporting post go live activities. Working closely with the business to identify business as usual owners is an important activity for the CM team. Measuring the system performance and ensuring business benefits are being realised is an ongoing task of the CM function until handover to the BAU teams.

7. Documenting the lessons learnt and manage the transition from the Programme to business as usual is the concluding stage for CM activities.

These CM themes are fundamental in making the ERP change programme a true success but can only happen if there is total commitment from top leadership to run the initiative as a proper business transformation effort..

[EGKumar]

Vellendra, you make many excellent points that I agree with based on observations working with organizations in this capacity. Not only are business involvement and engagement key, identifying and mentoring internal CM (and training) champions early on, and throughout the project timeline, is a a critical success factor. That way, when the CM and training consultants begin succession planning and propose a post-go live sustainment strategy, there will be both sufficient internal support as well as capability.

[fim]

Hi Vellendra,

Its interesting to relate my experience with how you described the general understanding of OCM as Communication and Training; at an assignment of deploying a SAP E-Recruiting Solution, when I was asked to assist technical team in managing the organizational change (on top of what I had already) I was also told "anyways you only need to communicate with & arrange some training for some of the stakeholders".

It was hard to convince my lead that OCM wasn't ONLY about these two activities (even though they are major areas with the work stream), as it wasn't seen as a transformation initiative anyways.

I believe PEOPLE element is the core and if its not addressed in an implementation, the risk of solution's rejection remains high.

Thanks for summarizing the key points and hope to hear more from you on the subject.

[marilyn_pratt]

Paul,

You did indeed do an excellent job of enumerating the deliverables in your <a href="https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/cs/user/view/cs_msg/11321">comment to Sven Conrad's blog</a>.

Might I suggest your creating your own blog further developing the discussion about Change Management deliverables. It sounds like a topic that would warrant its own dedicated blog and you could surface more information (and be credited for it ) if you wrote that as a separate entry. In fact, there is a blog topic called <a href="https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/topic/51">change management</a> and I'm betting you could launch some very interesting thoughts there.

You asked in the blog comment about essays concerning development of change management. That led me to find an interesting "historical" research document describing the impact of an ERP implementation in the telcom industry in Canada, entitled:

<a href="http://edu.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/63DuaneTruex.pdf">ERP Systems as Facilitating and Confounding Factors in Corporate Mergers: the case of two Canadian telecommunications companies</a>

This research essay happens to specifically describe an SAP implementation.

Thanks for starting this thread.

Marilyn

[Former Member]

Paul

I will give you my point of view based on my experiences gained over the last 10 years working on SAP implementations

1) Fundamental lack of understanding of the key role that Business Change Management plays in determining a successful SAP implementation project.

2) Misrepresenting the operational impact to an organisation that the system brings once it has gone live (ie training of end users-key users, business impact of end to end process chains ) and underestimating the amount of organisational change that typically an SAP implementation brings. (organisational alignment of newly created business roles for example)

3) As you also allude to, the quality of resources deployed to the area or the lack of business leadership assigned to the area may be inappropriate "it is a soft subject and is therefore highly flexible and can be done by anyone" or misaligned with the degree of organisational transformation being effected

4) Differences in methodology approach to ERP implementations. Many of the major SAP implementation partners consider themselves both organisational change management experts and SAP implementation experts. They believe that their way is the best way based on "industry best practice and typically sell their value add as additional skills, capability or methodology around perceived ASAP shortcomings.

5) Supporting business cases that just don’t reflect the reality of the business transformation that needs to occur to realise the benefits. Where are the real savings coming from, how do we save costs when implementing the project, what was the originally agreed scope?

Lastly its the most difficult part of the implementation, paradoxically this is more of a reason to follow a standard methodology however as we all know, ASAP is just a suggested methodology. Its not mandatory so people have the option of not following it or they just can't find it hidden amongst Solution Manager toolset.

I guess its symptomatic of the problem that the Business Change Management forum has not yet attracted a large following, everyone seems to be interested in the tools or general BPX forum. Perhaps we need to do a marketing job on the subject to raise the profile!

Cheers

Paul T

[Former Member]

Hey Paul T,

Excellent review on where things go wrong. The biggest culprit I believe is not setting the correct expectations up front with the client. Your point on operational impact is key on this one.

For sure we need to market SAP OCM better! Let us begin by providing people with sufficient consistent material to understand what SAP OCM is all about.

Remember the movie field of dreams?

"Build it they will come"

With Kindest Regards,

Paul W

[marilyn_pratt]

Paul W. just created a blog to that end

<a href="/people/paul.wilson2/blog/2006/06/27/introduction-sap-organizational-change-management-ocm">Introduction: SAP Organizational Change Management (OCM)</a>

Take a look all!

Marilyn

[Former Member]

Great job Marilyn to start with a blog on Change Management and Paul to pursue the same. Change Management is something which has been neglected off late as the speed of business as well as IT initiatives have multiplied over the years. During the start of the ERP days BPR was given its due importance and which in turn took necessary care of the organisational changes.

Managing changes approriately allows business leaders to derive expected results from the IT initiatives, thus business process experts are expected to own and educate change management as well. Though, a lot of it comes from project experience and the BPXs personal skills, it is indeed good to see SAP's solution manager streamlining the whole process.

[Former Member]

Hi Paul

Further to my response I am very keen to team up with fellow OCM professionals like yourself to develop better and more informative materials around the value CM brings to a SAP ERP implementation.

Regs

Vellendra