Migration from Microsoft to SAP CRM – managing change

There are number of software products supporting specific processes and each having some edge on other, hence, its often difficult to decide on their features.

For organizations it is often challenging to switch from one to another tool for very obvious reason i.e. existing tool’s maturity in supporting certain process(es) and its adoption across various level of users. Therefore, the customer departments take considerable amount of time in deciding on whether and when to shift (completely) to an alternate. For IT, on the other hand, the challenge is to align the solution landscape to ensure all of the tools are well integrated with each other.

Our challenge: Migration from Microsoft to SAP CRM

We had a similar situation; our CRM processes were being supported by Microsoft tool and all other processes by SAP Solutions. Both of the teams, at business & technical levels, were concerned and wanted to make a shift (for having clear visibility of benefits i.e. TCO being low) but how, no one had a final answer until integrating Change Management function.

Solution: Structured Change Management Approach

To tackle the situation, it was decided to apply a structured Change Management approach. I was engaged in the project, had my input and worked with both teams to incorporate, track & monitor individual change management activities to ensure that the migration to SAP CRM is smooth. A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated successful implementation of one of the tool’s components (billing) and last week after receiving good feedback on its usage I thought to share my key finding here at the forum.

Finding: Communication – Frequency, Source & Tone

I learned that regular communication at all levels throughout the project phases from a unified source & with set tone helps a lot in getting everyone ready for the change. In our scenario I, being Change Management Lead, assisted fellow CRM Consultants in dealing with project related communication and am happy for having the solution accepted by user community.

The project isn’t over; we are implementing additional components in phases and I hope the other features of the solution excites our end-users more & they adopt it quickly. I’d be happy to share the progress, as soon there’s any, and in the meantime would welcome your comments on (my) our recent project.