Bringing new technology to a team is always going to bring a set of challenges. As humans, we are creatures of habit, but we also have the ability to understand the logic behind adapting to the needs of the future.
When the Dark Cloud of Change is Already Looming
For any business to succeed long-term, change is inevitable. However, some industries have more regulations to follow to stay compliant.
Buckingham Strategic Wealth was in the last stages of another technology deployment that proved to cause skepticism amongst its primary stakeholders – many of whom would be primary stakeholders within the Salesforce Financial Cloud project Perficient was selected for.
Training has always been a pain point for Buckingham, with concerns around enough relevant sessions and the potential lack of a solid, methodical, and well-thought-out plan. There was also no real training repository at that time where users could easily retrieve materials.
Adopting Salesforce Financial Services Cloud
By combining the science of our OCM methodology with the art required for the Buckingham culture and Salesforce technology-specific needs, we were able to successfully prepare Buckingham’s users.
BONUS: See more Organizational Change Management insights here
Communication Plans are Key
Everyone committed to clear, transparent, and timely communications throughout the engagement and we established two-way communication channels to ensure we were meeting stakeholders where they were and were responsive to their needs.
Maintaining close ties with the technical project teams lead to proactive (vs. reactive) communications and we were able to leverage all of the communication vehicles available for a multi-channel approach.
Role-Based Training is a Must
Perficient helped Buckingham address training concerns with specialized, role-based training that could be repurposed for future use, complete with customized presentations, supplemental communications and training collateral relevant to the Buckingham environment, by role. Additionally, Salesforce libraries were leveraged for quick access to standardized training and other useful user information.
Clean Data Offers Accurate Insights
Before applying the OCM techniques gained the Salesforce implementation, there were questions of where data came from and how it was assembled, which was taking the time away using it to drive business decisions.
After Perficient, there was transparency into data that led to more productive conversations, collaboration between advisory teams and other departments, and clear metrics and reports paired with more proactive coaching and guidance.
Change Management Lessons for Everyone
Our Organizational Change Management Chief Strategist, David Chapman, examines the role OCM played in Buckingham’s Salesforce implementation in the webinar, Perspectives on a Salesforce Financial Services Cloud Implementation. Below are some of the takeaways everyone can apply.
- Expectation setting is important
- Communication and education is key
- There is no such thing as too much training
- Users will always want more
- Users will always have issues
- Team members personally succeed when thinking bigger than themselves
- It is never “done” – product ownership and constant evolution keep momentum and usage going
