Use organizational change management to transform business

Key to the wholehearted adoption of a business solution – which can determine its success in transforming business – is organizational change management. For that reason, the impact that the new solution will have on employees, suppliers, customers, and management must be identified early in the project. This helps ensure that appro­priate training and communication strategies are selected to prepare users to embrace new ways of working. The person responsible for organizational change management should be a long-standing member of the project management team to make sure change management is started early and no later than at the beginning of the project. Leadership sponsorship with visible involvement and – in large projects – motivated change agents for the relevant business areas are essential to drive change. Prioritize change management areas that have high impact on business results to achieve success with the business transformation and its new processes.

Standard Bank won Gold in the Business Transformation Category in last year’s SAP Africa Quality Awards and was also one of the 2019 Regional Winners and Finalists across Europe, Middle East and Africa. One of the judges noted that this Programme was a catalyst for a significant culture change, shifting Standard Bank from a command-and-control culture to a culture of empowerment and agility which itself was a major innovation for a 150-year old, traditionally risk-averse institution.  Change Management played a significant role in transforming this business into a modernized platform supporting real-time processing.