Author: Heidi Neuhauser

• Understand Change as a Process
• Create a Change Management Team
• Assess change readiness
• Include a Communication Plan as part of your CRM project
• Incorporate Change Management into your Training Plan

This blog kicks off a series on Change Management in Dynamics 365 projects and enhancements. When you are planning for a Dynamics 365 project or enhancement, change is coming to your organization. That change won’t be a one-time thing and then your users simply move on. To properly address change, you will need to be able to adapt and accept change as a process and not a one-time event.

Let’s look at a standard, simple CRM project life-cycle and overlay it with a standard Change Curve:

• Project Kick-off: You’ve invited stakeholders, end users and management to help kick off the project! Expectations are all over the place: excitement, fear, confidence, uncertainty. Performance and motivation are at the start of the standard Change Curve.
  
• Requirements: You’re being heard by your Partner and Project team! All of your wish list items are being captured. Excitement is high!
  
• Development: Your partner and project team are busy building the system per requirements in the prior stage and working off of a mutually-approved project plan. As development begins and continues, you wonder if the requirements gathered were correct? Confidence begins to wane.
  
• UAT & Testing: You’re in the system doing User-Acceptance Testing. You’re running through test scripts, documenting where items pass and fail. Why are there failures? The Change Curve reaches its lowest point in performance and motivation for users.
  
• Training: As users go through training, they will increase the confidence with the CRM system, learning new areas and seeing new features. If you have followed some basic User Adoption tips, you have successfully used the technology of Dynamics 365 to create a system that will aid users in their daily job, building confidence. We’re heading back towards our starting point in the Change Curve of performance & motivation.
  
• Go Live & Beyond: You’ve returned to your starting point on the change curve and surpassed it!

Remember – change is a PROCESS. It is continuous. While the graphic above represents one cycle, be prepared for the curve to ebb and flow as your team continues to use and enhance your Dynamics 365 system

Stay tuned for more blogs in the Dynamics 365 – Change Management series! The next articles will focus on the following topics:

• Create a Change Management Team
• Assess change readiness
• Include a Communication Plan as part of your CRM project
• Incorporate Change Management into your Training Plan

Ready to learn more? Contact Reenhanced today to learn how we can assist with your project!