Implementation Insights Blog

Implementation Management Associates help organizations around the world achieve large-scale, complex change. This blog discusses our insights into organizational change.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Driving Accountability in the Business for ERP System Implementations

It’s typical for large-scale technology initiatives such as Enterprise Planning System implementations (ERPs) like SAP and Oracle to be driven by the IT organization. The question is, who owns the initiative? Are these IT initiatives, or strategic business initiatives. Does ownership shift at some point in the SAP or Oracle project life cycle? The reality is that IT can’t be solely accountable for ERP implementation success, and accountability must be shared between IT and the business.

In the early stages of the ERP project life cycle, IT is the driver of the technology selection, analysis, design, and testing processes. Clearly the business end-users must be part of the process. Together, the IT and business owners define the business requirements and design an ERP system that meets the business needs. But it is the business owners who must start to build readiness for the SAP or Oracle implementation by communicating a compelling business case for action and getting the concerns of users out in the open so the inevitable resistance to the ERP implementation can be managed.

IT then takes the lead in making sure the system is “up and running” and meets the “go live” target date. This is what we term
“installation,” and it’s a critical step in implementation. However, when you stop at the point of installation, you are still short of achieving adoption for a system like SAP or Oracle, and therefore, Return on Investment. And even though the IT responsibilities are essentially completed at the point of installation, the project is not yet complete until you get users to adopt the new processes that are driven by the ERP technology. This responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the business.

While it’s typical for the project team to be disbanded at this point, the project is in fact not yet complete. Business partners, or what we term the reinforcing sponsors, must consistently and actively express, model, and reinforce the new behaviors, and you can teach them what good
sponsorship requires. IT is in no position to address the necessary modeling and reinforcement because they have no positional authority over the users (or what we call Targets).

Providing the appropriate reinforcements is the most important of all business partner (sponsor) responsibilities. Reinforcing sponsors should be applying three essential types of reinforcements at the right time and at the appropriate level of intensity. These can be categorized as positive reinforcement, negative consequences, and degree of work effort.

Most Reinforcing sponsors understand that there is power in positive reinforcement. It’s much more difficult, though, to apply negative consequences for users who work around the ERP system and new processes. For many organizations, corporate cultural norms are powerful influencers of sponsor actions, meaning that it’s culturally unacceptable for business partners to provide direct negative feedback to a Target. It’s simply not done.

Few reinforcing sponsors understand the role of controlling work effort in driving the SAP or Oracle implementation. How difficult is it for Targets to use the system to perform work in the old ways? Is the old system still available? Are “work-arounds” acceptable”? While IT can be helpful in ensuring that these work effort issues are addressed, the accountability for this aspect of the ERP implementation rests primarily with business partners.

By building a partnership based on shared accountability, project teams are far more likely to be positioned for full ERP implementation success.

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Monday, October 5, 2009

Getting Buy-In for Business Change Projects

If you are dealing with a business change project that requires people to adjust their beliefs as well as actions, you’ll need to generate commitment to the change. You can’t hit people over the head and make them do what you want them to do. And just because your Sponsors express their personal commitment to the change does not mean that your Targets will follow. You’ll only be successful if you take people through the commitment building process, aggressively using communication and reinforcement to motivate people to leave where they are (the current state) and move to where you want them to be (the future state.)

When you need to win hearts and minds in order for your business change to be successful, you need to manage the 3-stage process of “unfreezing” the behaviors of the current state, transitioning, and “refreezing” the behaviors of the future, desired state. This type of change takes longer, and requires more resources.

While there can be other motivators to change from the present way of doing things, the most powerful are pain and need. If it’s easier, and more comfortable, to continue to do things in the same way, you can anticipate that this is exactly what people will do. So the first critical task is to make certain that the personal motivation to change must be greater than the motivation to stay the same.

Once people begin to move out of the past, there is a predictable period of time known as the transition state. This is a time of high uncertainty, and as Change Agents and leaders, you have to provide your Targets with structure and support so that they can move through the transition to the desired state. Otherwise, you can expect that people will slip back into the old ways.

We’ve all witnessed this. We get through the “installation” of a new system, or a new process, only to find that within a short period of time people retreat back to the old way of doing things. Our change stalls out, or worse, fades away.

What to do? How do you counter the predictable and inevitable downturn in productivity and morale?

This is the point in time where you will really see the benefit of skilled Change Agents and educated Sponsors who can impact the depth and duration of the “valley of despair” of the transition. A well-managed transition can minimize the pain and actually accelerate the change through to adoption and behavior change.

Here is where your investment in educating your Sponsors can really pay off. Sponsors who are able to express, model, and reinforce their commitment and who understand the importance of Frame of Reference can bring Targets through the transition period more quickly and with many fewer “human casualties.”

It’s a time for ensuring there is an abundance of two-way communication so that sources of resistance can be identified and managed. It’s a time for diligently monitoring your change, and making continuous adjustments as situations change.

You can’t ignore the transition state, but when it’s planned and managed correctly, it’s a time of great learning.

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