Technology Change Management: 5 Steps to Success

Change can be hard for people, so it makes sense that you wouldn’t just throw a new piece of tech into the business and expect employees to embrace it wholeheartedly without any support.

The most successful technology implementations are underpinned by well-considered change management strategies, with strong leadership driving the change. These leaders understand the impact the new technology is going to have on the business, taking pre-emptive efforts to effectively manage that change.

How PM-Partners Group successfully migrated to Lightning

Specialist project management consultancy PM-Partners Group recently undertook an organisation-wide migration from Sales Cloud Classic to Lightning. They wanted to implement the technology to unlock greater insights about their customer base and improve the use of data across the business.

But before they started moving full speed ahead with the technology migration, they very smartly paused and carefully planned their next steps, with change management a priority from the start.

“Change management is crucial to the success of any technology implementation.”

Using PM-Partners’ Lightning migration as an example, we explore the five key steps to successful technology change management.

1. Identify and understand your end user

In order to build the best user experience that’ll facilitate adoption, you need to first understand who the end user is and what their needs are.

PM-Partners created a user matrix, with relevant personas rated using the ADKAR change management model – tracking the five outcomes people need to achieve for lasting change: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.

This matrix helped PM-Partners identify the level of training and communication required for each persona to successfully transition to Lightning. Then referring back to previous successful technology implementations, they were able to determine the most effective form of communication for each persona.

2. Categorise your users and find your champions

It’s natural for change to be met with both acceptance and resistance. Individuals within the same team and with the same system permissions, so who are experiencing the tech in the same way, can respond entirely differently.

To help the technology implementation run smoothly, PM-Partners identified a ‘super user’ group. These individuals then acted as Salesforce champions, assisting throughout the migration to drive change in their individual teams.

3. Implement and manage the change

PM-Partners approached the migration in phases, initially rolling out Lightning to pilot users by creating custom profiles and permissions that allowed access. This approach enabled the business to determine how the change was being received and work on any necessary adjustments on a smaller, less disruptive scale.

After the successful pilot stage, Lightning was eventually rolled out to the whole organisation, segmented by department, with the entire process taking three months.

4. Continually train all users

Of course, you can’t just tell people that the new way is better, you need to show them how it’s better. And this starts with good training. It’s also particularly important that the team leading the migration has the right training, so they stay engaged throughout the project.

PM-Partners used Success Cloud resources, such as Accelerators, and a Lightning Workshop at Salesforce World Tour Sydney to develop a quality training plan to assist in preparing its users for change. The result was seven different training sessions created for the persona groups, along with accompanying training videos, face-to-face workshops and user guides.

5. Drive adoption and optimise

One of the biggest challenges in rolling out an enterprise-wide technology solution is how to drive sustained adoption. Change must be deployed, but ongoing support is essential to guide users along the way.

PM-Partners took this challenge on by establishing a baseline for user activity, which was then measured via Salesforce Adoption Dashboards. It also tracked adoption rates via the Lightning Usage App, in which daily and monthly users are tracked and presented in chart-form. This helped PM-Partners better understand usage and optimise the experience for users.

PM-Partners also regularly sent users tip-based emails, which kept encouraging the adoption of Lightning. A feedback tool was used to capture user sentiment, allowing the experience to be further fine-tuned, with any gaps resolved.

Ultimately, with careful planning and a well-considered change management strategy, PM-Partners saw the successful transition from Classic to Lightning throughout all user groups within the organisation.

Lightning is the next generation of Salesforce, and a quantum leap forward in functionality, usability and speed. Learn how Lightning can help boost productivity, optimise operations and build apps faster by watching the Lightning Demo.