THE CLIENT’S PERSPECTIVE
A healthcare organization recently implemented a customized Salesforce solution to better manage the lifecycle of selling insurance to large employers. Having relied for years on often inconsistent paper-based processes, the Salesforce implementation represents a huge advance for the insurer-as long as employees are motivated to adopt and use it properly. Eager to gain the full benefits of its Salesforce investments, both today and as the system evolves in the future, the healthcare organization turned to Eagle Hill for help managing the change.
A NEW VIEW
Eagle Hill helped to support a key user segment in understanding and using the Salesforce solution. Our task was three-fold:
- Support end user adoption of the system as it rolled out in staged releases
- Inform users of impacts to their daily work and help them prepare for upcoming change
- Design future state processes that align with the new way of conducting business
We first worked closely with management to gauge where different user groups were in terms of commitment to the change and actual adoption and use. A combination of quick-hit “pulse” surveys and a series of working sessions with various user groups culminated in a comprehensive implementation plan that drew together training resources, communications, tech demonstrations, and workshops on the new business functionality for each release.
THE TEAM IDENTIFIED KEY “SUPER-USERS”TO AUGMENT OUR SUPPORT WITHIN THEIR OWN TEAMS.
The staged releases came rapidly: as frequently as once every two months. Keeping pace with the implementation required close collaboration with the development team and agile change management practices to keep all user groups aligned and moving forward as desired. A key factor in our success was to connect with “super users”. The Salesforce platform touched approximately 20 different user groups and over 600 individual users. Extensively tailoring resources for all these groups represented a formidable time burden. Instead, the team identified key “super-users” – open and confident technology adopters – whom we could enlist to augment our support within their own teams.
Given the unique challenges posed by the iterative development cycle, communication was an elevated priority. Not only did we need to capture the attention of busy people in the midst of their day-to-day workloads, but we had to educate them on often highly technical details. We employed a multi-pronged strategy aimed at getting the right messages to the right people through best-fit communications vehicles. Beginning with pulse-check surveys to identify the type of information that would be most valuable, we created timely newsletters and presentations to push out information to all impacted users.
Finally, as the healthcare organization continued to envision how its Salesforce platform could decrease account implementation timeframes and improve overall quality, we conducted working sessions to reimagine the future state of six targeted processes. Our facilitated working sessions helped bridge the gap between different perspectives. For example, while IT users tended toward a logical system from an IT perspective, the business side wanted customization in detail. We started from desired outcomes, and worked closely with both sides to map out how to feasibly achieve those end results, while meshing well with the culture.
UNCONVENTIONAL CONSULTING-AND BREAKTHROUGH RESULTS.
Eagle Hill’s support led to an increase in clarity of communications and user engagement. One recent survey revealed that the users’ commitment to the program’s vision increased on average by nearly 30 percent.
As the organization continues the system rollout, we provide user adoption support while helping leaders and management build their own internal change management capabilities.
