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Tag: change management

  • Change Management Best Practices for your Dynamics 365: Create a Change Management Team

    Change Management Best Practices for your Dynamics 365: Create a Change Management Team

    To help your organization embrace the change that comes along with a Dynamics 365 project or enhancement, make sure that you have established an internal Change Management Team. This team should be comprised of champions, end user and organizational culture experts and anyone who handles corporate communications.

    time for change

    This is the second article in a series on Change Management in Dynamics 365 projects and enhancements. First, we talked about understanding change as a process, specifically looking at how a simple CRM project lifecycle may look when overlaid on a standard Change Curve.

    Let’s look at a few areas to consider when you begin to think about creating a Change Management team at your organization.

    What does the Change Management team do for a Dynamics 365 project?

    This team is tasked with:

    • understanding the corporate culture and user groups
    • collecting end user feedback
    • designing the change management plan and strategy
    • designing a communication plan and execute the plans and related activities

    How does this relate to the standard Dynamics 365 project team?

    Your Change Management team should be involved in any regular project meetings and have an agenda item.  A representative of the Change Management team should report on the action items: end user feedback (survey results), development of the change management plan and updates on the communication plan.

    What roles should be represented on my Change Management Team?

    When selecting your Change Management Team, you should consider participation at the following levels:

    • Change Champions: These individuals will write and execute the change management and communication plans. There should be at least one expert in your organization’s culture and users included on the team.
    • Change Sponsor: An executive team member who can champion the plan throughout the leadership team.
    • Steering Committee: If this change is in conjunction with a Dynamics 365 project, this can be the same Steering Committee. Depending on organization size, a separate Change Management Steering Committee may be appropriate.
    • Corporate/Organization Communications: If your organization has a team member who handles all communications, (s)he should be a part of the Change Management team to facilitate delivery of the Communication Plan.

    More on Change Management

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

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

    Need help crafting your plan? Contact the Dynamics 365 experts at Reenhanced today!

  • How to Adopt Change Management Best Practices into your Dynamics 365 Project: Understand Change as a Process

    How to Adopt Change Management Best Practices into your Dynamics 365 Project: Understand Change as a Process

    • 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:

    Dynamics 365 Project life cycle applied to 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!