IT lays the foundation, but people are the key to a successful ERP implementation. We believe that if you want to successfully shape your own future and get the most out of the S/4HANA transformation, you need to focus on people right from the start.
And we are not alone in this opinion. In an SAP study on the challenges of an ERP transformation, people-related issues made up the majority of the results at over 60%*.
There are a large number of stakeholders involved in an SAP project: IT managers are concerned about the impact and dependencies of S/4HANA in their systems, business units are worried about changes to their business processes, management is concerned about strategy and efficiency or costs and the end user may simply be worried that the software interface they have known for 20 years is now set to change.
In an SAP project, the common denominator between all these groups is that everyone cares about something and that something will change for everyone. Without a comprehensive Change Management , the multitude of different perspectives and interests inevitably leads to a major discrepancy between the expected and actual results of the S/4HANA transformation.
A precise analysis is the central step for good Change Management
What do the individual changes look like? What specifically changes per group? A combination of different tools is available within the CPC CH/4NGE approach to answer this important question. We call the totality of these tools CPC.fit. Our approach provides insights that form the basis for setting up effective Change Management in S/4HANA transformations together with our customers.
The CH/4NGE analysis as the basis for sustainable Change Management
- Change analysis of affected transactions: Who uses the transactions that will change, be eliminated or replaced with the move to S/4HANA? Where are these people geographically and hierarchically located in the organization? Based on the results of the S/4HANA Readiness Check, this is processed with the help of transaction analysis data from SAP. In large projects in particular, this allows us to gain a precise picture of where the biggest areas of action for Change Management lie and who the largest target groups are. For example, we can recognize early on where the project needs to place a special focus on building a change agent network.
- Qualitative change analysis: The second pillar consists of interviews. They are conducted with the help of standardized interview guidelines with the program managers, sub-project managers, project sponsors, selected managers or affected employees. Together with the program managers, we select the appropriate interview partners. With the help of the interviews, we want to find out, among other things What is the (perceived) extent of the changes to everyday working life on the part of the employees? Do they have experience with past change projects? What other strategic issues are there that are influencing the changeover to S/4HANA in parallel? What are the basic contextual framework conditions? Which starting points are the most promising in terms of change interventions?
- Quantitative change analysis: If required, larger groups of people from the company can also be surveyed using the Roadmap Pro® tool from ChangeFirst™. What is the understanding of the changes? What are the subjectively perceived effects? What experiences have been made with past change projects?
We can also analyze these and other facets in large groups.
We summarize all this information in so-called "change items". These are descriptions of specific changes that need to be addressed as part of Change Management. They are presented in detail along various dimensions.
More transparency with the Change Kanban Board
Each change item is an element on our change Kanban board. With the help of this tool, everyone in the project can see what the current status is for each specific change item. This is done along a predefined process flow. To further increase transparency, we can add further information here, such as next steps, relevant risks and associated countermeasures.
We also create a risk matrix. This shows where major risks lie in relation to the sustainable success of the change. This is always done by weighing up the perceived impact of the change on employees and the experience gained from previous change projects.
Based on all this information, we can effectively and efficiently design and place appropriate change measures in a targeted manner. These are then summarized for each relevant target group as part of a change architecture. The development of an effective change network is also possible on the basis of the analysis results. In this way, personal contacts can be placed where they are most needed for those affected.
Together with our customers, we focus on people right from the start and get the best out of the S/4HANA transformation.
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