Change Management - A Key Ingredient to Deployment Success
TLDR: Software companies have an opportunity to influence change within their customer organizations
Change management is a crucial part of software deployment success, as it involves helping customers adopt new processes and technologies. Software companies have a responsibility to influence change management within their customer's organization, by setting early expectations for customer ownership, onboarding the right customer leadership voice, utilizing end-user proof points, understanding how technology is adopted today, and ensuring the change is necessary and desirable.
Learning and modeling from formal change management frameworks such as ADKAR, PROSCI, Kotter, or Lewin can also be beneficial. Planning, communication, training, support, and monitoring are essential elements of any successful change management process. By understanding and influencing the steps that customers need to take to adopt software, companies can ensure its long-term success.
How do software companies influence change management?
The reality is that software companies are responsible to influence change management within their customer’s organization. This can mean taking an active role in areas that feel slightly out of scope. Luckily over time, influencing a customer organization becomes part of a software company’s core customer operations process.
While there’s no one size fits all approach to technology change management, there are a few areas to consider as you build out your customer process:
Set Early Expectations for Customer Ownership - Starting in the sales process, begin educating the customer about employing best practices to achieve the benefits of your software solution
Influence From Top Down - Onboard the right customer leadership voice that sets organizational standards through
Influence From Bottoms Up - Utilize the voice and proof points from end users to provide data driven influence and buy in
Understand How Technology Solutions are Adopted Today - Put yourself into the customer organization’s shoes, and understand their current processes to inform your change management strategy
Ensure Sure the Change Is Necessary and Desirable - This is a great opportunity to exercise intellectual honesty and continue to feed back into the product process
Learn and model from more formal change management frameworks
There are many different change management frameworks available (ADKAR, PROSCI, Kotter, Lewin), and they share similar themes and sequencing:
Planning - The first step in any change management process is to plan for the change. This includes identifying the need for change, assessing the impact of the change, and developing a change management plan.
Communication - Communication is essential for any successful change management process. This includes communicating the need for change, the benefits of the change, and the timeline for the change.
Training - People need to be trained on how to use the new processes or systems that are being implemented. This training should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
Support - People need support during the change process. This support can come from managers, colleagues, or a change management team.
Monitoring - It is important to monitor the change process to ensure that it is on track. This includes monitoring the progress of the implementation, the level of user satisfaction, and the impact of the change on the organization.
Conclusion
Achieving customer deployment of software solutions is a critical milestone for success. However, it requires more than just delivering the software to the customer. It requires understanding and influencing customer change management processes, setting expectations, onboarding the right leadership voice, utilizing feedback and data, exercising intellectual honesty, and modeling from formal change management frameworks. By taking these steps, software companies can ensure long-term success and customer satisfaction.
