Keys to Success For Managing Change in Purchase to Pay

At our recent summit for Leaders in Finance Shared Services, Deborah Moehlich, Director, Financial Systems and Shared Services at Fiserv gave us some excellent insight on how they managed change and, believe it or not, how they made change management fun!

Here are some of their keys to success

1. Deploy a survey to assess readiness and progress
Fiserv deployed surveys that led them to understand how ready and aware people are of the change management project at the beginning and end of each implementation phase, They defined about 30 questions grouped into several factors including

• Communication and awareness of programme
• Overall perception of leader’s support
• Overall willingness to adopt the new program and overall willingness to support

The surveys also help develop a quantifiable baseline to target communications and change management efforts and gather feedback and suggestions directly from associates.

2. Designate champions to help support the transition
Fiserv used champions and held regular meetings to educate and empower them. Crucially the champions provide site coordination and act as a general point of contact through the change process. They promoted the important role of champions and even made a Procure-to-Pay Expert flag that people could have on their desk that said “Procure-to-Pay Expert. Shopping? Buying? Paying? Ask me How”.  The flags helped promote pride in their role and encouraged associates to ask questions.

3. Train the champions
Fiserv used several methods to train the champions including classroom training, webinar and video conferencing, workshops, and manuals. Alongside the training, they made up a checklist with questions along the lines of

• Do all associates within your location and business know you are a champion?
• Are you familiar with who the other Champions are? Network with at least 2 other Champions
• Facilitate a meeting with requisitioners to discuss the change
• Mark all of the webinars, training, interactive working sessions in your calendar and take up all computer based trainings

4. Identify stakeholders to help manage change
Not all of your stakeholders will necessarily support the change. You will need to understand if they are a “fighter”, “fence sitter” or “fan”. At Fiserv they identified about 8 key stakeholders and created a Leadership Action Plan to capture updates and progress. They assigned the stakeholders a coach, gave them homework and held individual meetings with them regularly, trying to make it fun, and keeping the conversation upbeat and positive.

5. Provide plenty of communication
If you carry through all of the above, including stakeholder meetings and change readiness assessments, you will likely find that associates are eager for more communication. Ensure you implement formal communication email updates – focusing on progress and future milestones. In addition to a network of champions, make other information available on your Intranet.  Maintain this and include links to it in formal communications. Have a group email box that associates can contact if they have a question such as projectname@company.com and iinclude this in all communications and collateral  

In sum, ensure you have and document a compelling reason for change that is pitched to the right people at the right level. Work closely with your stakeholder and influencers; find strong supporters and include resisters.

Change management will be a major theme addressed at our European Summit for Leaders in Shared Services and our forthcoming US Procure to Pay Leaders Summit, so book today!