Project Description
Assessing an organization’s readiness for change and uncovering anticipated organizational challenges to ensure the delivery of desired business benefits of an order management system implementation.
The Client
A $2.5 billion, multi-banner specialty retailer of baby and children’s clothing, gifts and accessories.
The Challenge
The client had recently selected an order management system that would enable them to replace antiquated systems, dramatically improve highly inefficient business processes and support their growth into international markets. The transition to this new environment represented a significant change in the way the client operated.
The client wanted a clear understanding of stakeholder expectations and concerns as well as possible implications prior to commencing the implementation.
Additionally, the client had recently moved away from internal business groups making singular focused system decisions, by adopting a more enterprise-wide focused mindset regarding business systems and implementations.
The Parker Avery Solution
The Parker Avery Group provided change management and retail order management industry expertise to perform the stakeholder assessment, as outlined below.
Identified 24 key stakeholders to represent the following impacted areas of the business.
- Planning
- Sales and operations
- Sourcing
- Finance
- Wholesale and retail support teams
Conducted and documented stakeholder interviews.
Assessed and summarized findings, outlining recurring themes and identifying the related impacts relative to:
- Overall risk to the project
- Risk of achieving benefits
- Risk of "Paving the Cowpath"
- Adoption of new systems
- Developed a high-level communication plan
Recommended action items necessary to improve the success of the order management project and deliver desired business benefits.
The Result
Parker Avery's assessment revealed the client's stakeholders strongly believed a formal change management process was needed for a successful order management system implementation. Furthermore, they agreed that communication and active visibility to project progress and decisions were critical success factors for the impending transformation; the business looked forward to creating a change management framework and approach for future initiatives.