onboarding and training plan for new digital tool
TRANSCRIPT
ONBOARDING AND TRAINING PLAN FOR NEW DIGITAL TOOL
IMPLEMENTATION (webshop)
Case Company X
Master’s thesis
Visamäki, Business Management and Entrepreneurship
Summer 2021
Lenka Michaliková
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Business Management and Entrepreneurship Abstract
Author Lenka Michaliková Year 2021
Subject Onboarding and training plan for new digital tool (webshop) implementation
Supervisors Kyllikki Valkealahti
This study aims to develop and co-create an onboarding and training plan for new digital tool
(webshop) implementation of case company X. This task will be supported by
interdisciplinary research of relevant theories – digital transformation, change management
and business process management. Most relevant theoretical findings are incorporated into
the onboarding plan.
This research is a combination of case study and action research. The empirical part
represents an overview of the onboarding and training plan that is created for the very first
phase of the digital commerce tool (webshop) project and should serve as a template for the
next phases and next steps. The thesis contains also two Appendices: Price management
process and Awareness Session presentation, those are only for the utilization of the
Commissioning Company.
Conclusions concentrate on collecting lessons learned from the plan creation process as well
as complete project implementation from a theoretical point of view. Lessons learned
should serve as development ideas for the next phases of the project and further tool
implementation. They can also serve as an example for practitioners, who are planning
similar tool implementation.
Keywords onboarding, digital transformation, processes, change management
Pages 56 pages
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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Problem statement and research objectives ................................................. 3
1.2 Research methods ........................................................................................ 4
1.3 Data collection and validity ........................................................................... 6
2 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ................................................................................... 8
2.1 Digitization vs digitalization vs digital transformation ................................. 10
2.2 Digital strategy as a roadmap to digital transformation ............................... 11
2.3 Challenges and benefits of digital transformation ....................................... 14
2.4 Impact of digital transformation on workforce ............................................ 16
3 CHANGE MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................... 20
3.1 What is change management? .................................................................... 21
3.2 Change resistance and how to overcome it ................................................. 24
3.3 Digital change ............................................................................................. 26
3.4 Leadership during DT as a principal part of change management ................ 30
4 BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT ..................................................................... 33
4.1 Business process design and mapping ......................................................... 34
4.2 Business process management and digital transformation .......................... 36
5 THE ONBOARDING AND COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR NEW DIGITAL TOOL IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................... 38
5.1 Project for new digital commerce tool ........................................................ 39
5.2 Onboarding and implementation plan ........................................................ 40
5.2.1 Roadmap for onboarding and training activities .............................. 41
5.2.2 Target groups/scope for onboarding................................................ 42
5.2.3 Identification of processes that will require training ........................ 42
5.2.4 Structure and content for support materials .................................... 43
6 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 46
6.1 Lessons learned .......................................................................................... 46
6.2 Thesis evaluation ........................................................................................ 48
6.3 Reflections .................................................................................................. 49
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1 INTRODUCTION
“Going digital” is a slogan frequently used today in business and it encompasses all different
steps starting with digitization and ending with digital transformation. Digital transformation
is a question of survival for businesses today. Adjusting to the new normal of Industry 4.0
where new business models need to be created, customers are expecting a multichannel
experience and high visibility and collaboration exchange between customers and business
are established. To achieve all this, companies need to change the traditional models,
structures and tools. However, introducing new digital tools in the company always poses a
challenge. Challenging a status quo of established processes and making employees
understand the benefits of new digital tools is not an easy task and requires the involvement
of all management levels.
Introducing the digital tool and onboarding people to use the new tool should start with a
better understanding of the tool itself, better understanding how it fits the current digital
portfolio and business models, what steps it represents in the digital journey of the
company. No digital tool can be successful without clearly understanding the process it
should replace/support and probably the most important to the success of the tool itself – it
has to be accepted by the users, employees. Without their acceptance, no matter how good
and effective the tool is, the benefits will be tenuous at best.
1.1 Problem statement and research objectives
Company X is a Nordic-based large enterprise operating globally in the industrial market. The
company decided to create a digital channel for selling its products. Starting with sales of
ready-made products sold from stocks and ramping up to include made-to-order products,
through all sales channels and all regions globally.
The aim of this study is to coordinate and co-develop an onboarding plan and various
training/awareness materials needed to support end-users and customers during new
digital tool implementation.
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It is a development project, which draws on background relevant theories to support
successful solving of the task. The process and theoretical outcome of this development task
is described in the empirical part of this thesis, however, practical outcomes in the form of
supporting materials will be attached only in anonymized form.
This thesis is an interdisciplinary paper that combines several theoretical concepts. As most
relevant theories supporting this topic were chosen digital transformation, change
management and business process management. All of these aspects were deemed relevant
in building a proper understanding of how to create a plan and materials that would bring
clarity on the objectives of the digital tool project, achieve buy-in and acceptance from the
end-users and help to identify and coordinate important training/awareness activities.
1.2 Research methods
Tools and techniques for conducting research are called research methods. Choosing the
particular research method determines rules of conduct of research, strategy, data
collection and data analysis method. Due to the nature of the data used in this thesis cannot
be quantified and also based on the character of the research goal, qualitative methods
were chosen. As best possible approaches for this thesis was chosen a mix of case study and
action research.
A case study is a type of research, that focus on existing phenomenon within its real-life
environment and seeks its in-depth understanding. (Yin, 1984, p.25) Case study research
does not have specified methodologies, it is limited to a particular case and it is not a
method in itself per se, but more a focus/scoped topic that is studied using certain methods.
(Thomas, 2011, 516-518) In this particular case, on-the-job action research was chosen. For
both case study and action research, often indicated weak point is their generalizability and
high level of subjectivity, however, Yin argues that outcomes of this particular type of
research can provide a „broader implication to similar context outside“ (Roller, 2020) and
therefore a valid research method.
According to Avison et al. (1999), action research is an iterative process, that involves
researchers acting together with practitioners on a particular cycle of activities, that includes
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problem diagnosis, action intervention and reflective learning. Action research is a self-
directed method that aims to eliminate the present problem, develop understanding and
improvement of social practice. (Routio, 2007) The goal of the action research is to develop a
holistic understanding of a project in its complexity. (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002, p.223)
The researcher, in this case, is not only the observer but an active participant and co-owner
of the problem that is researched/developed, so collaborative work is the essence of action
research. (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002, p.222) Action research is a collective learning process
where also researcher contributes to his own professional learning and development.
Action research is a repetitive cycle and ever-present element is a change. The cycle phases
are planning, implementation, observation and reflection. The simpler cycle includes only
planning, action and monitoring. (da Silva et al., 2010,p.5) So in practice action researcher is
testing the theory with research participants in real-life situation, collects feedback and
adjust the theory, then start the cycle over. Each cycle contributes not only to the quality of
the solution/theory but is more likely to be suitable for a broader variety of situation (Avison
et al. 1999). The action research project is not conducted to create universal knowledge, it is
focused on knowledge in action. (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002, p.223) The focus of action
research is a specific case and the outcomes of the research will be mostly valid only for this
case.
Figure 1 The four main phases of the Action Research cycle. (da Silva et al., 2010, p.6)
Action researcher should have prior knowledge of the organization, as there is a need for a
certain level of understanding of the environment, business conditions and organizational
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dynamics. (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002, p.223) If the researcher has a pre-understanding of the
organization and uses the research of his/her own personal and professional development, it
is the so-called first-person inquiry/research. Second-person research is then focused on
working on practical issues with collaboration with colleagues and others relevant to co-create
knowledge through dialogue and shared action. (Coghlan, 2019, p.60) Both types of inquiries
are relevant in this thesis.
1.3 Data collection and validity
As typical for action research, qualitative methods were used for thesis data collection. The
main methods were interviews, informal conversation, workshop participation, observation
and brainstorming sessions.
Brainstorming is a creativity technique where a group of people uses collective intelligence
to solve a creative problem. It should be used at the beginning of the project and should
address a specific issue (Think Design Collaborative, n.d.) Brainstorming was used during all
workshops/regular weekly meetings with a developer of the onboarding plan (digital
business development specialist). First, we needed to identify steps for onboarding plan
creation. Those steps included
- a need to identify the target groups/stakeholders
- what kind of training/instruction material they will need
- identify the content and create a timeline
- identify the expert that would contribute to the content creation
These steps were reviewed continuously based on raising needs during the development of
the project. Regular weekly meetings continue during the period of four months leading to
the project go-live. Outcomes and notes of the brainstorming sessions were collected in MS
Team’s folder dedicated to the onboarding plan.
Next part of collecting insight and needed data was done as a committed observation during
author’s regular stream meetings during project sprints. In committed observation,
researcher is part of context and observed situation forms freely, unstructured. Observation
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as a research method provides very good real life data in situations, where research process
is executed in real work environment and researcher is part of the organization. During
these meetings, research was able to create more holistic picture of the project and help
with formulating the needs for onboarding plan and training needs.
Additionally, a semi-structure interview was conducted with a director of digital business
development where focus point was mainly the current and future digital strategy of the
company. This helped the researcher with a better understanding of current digitalization
goals and painted a picture of the future digital strategy direction. The online interview
lasted 45 minutes and was held approximately in the middle of the onboarding plan creation
process and after the digital transformation theory review.
Theory review, data analysis and development of onboarding plan were performed
simultaneously as a continuous circle of review of the plan brought up new topics that
needed to be further analyzed and studied.
One of the basic and very important question in every research is how to ensure that the
results will be valid and reliable. In the case of qualitative research, the goal is more about
an understanding of the results fully, including obvious and hidden meanings. (Molnár, n.d.,
p.20). Validity in qualitative research might be understood differently than validity in
quantitative research. According to Whittemore et al. (2001), there are four primary criteria
for validity in qualitative research:
1. Credibility (Are the results an accurate interpretation of the participants’
meaning?)
2. Authenticity (Are different voices heard?)
3. Criticality (Is there a critical appraisal of all aspects of the research?)
4. Integrity (Are the investigators self-critical?)
From different types of validation for qualitative research, triangulation was chosen.
Triangulation means that different data sources and different methods are used and
compared to provide the deepest possible understanding of phenomena. (Silverman, 2015,
p.91). As multiple methods were used by the researcher as well as multiple people
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interview, brainstormed with and consulted, the researcher feels all criteria for valid
qualitative research listed above were met. Validity may be influenced by the researcher’s
direct involvement in the project as a divisional business representative, which created a
part-ownership of the progress of the project and therefore a certain level of bias has to be
expected.
Another form of validation of plan and content of materials was done in two ways – first was
the regular sync meeting where materials were presented to the project manager for
approval, collecting feedback and regularly adjusting the plan, timeline and content to best
fit the current needs of the project. The second part was a gap analysis where user
acceptance test scenarios were compared with prepared material to identify if all issues and
topics are covered. Same with Q&A collection of 120 questions provided by marketing and
other teams.
2 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital transformation (DT) in a contemporary view is such a modern and fast-evolving
concept, that there is not one established definition that experts and scholars agree upon.
However, the concept is not a completely new and lively discussion about transforming
digitally exists at least since 90’s and introduction of world wide web, last few years
discussion gained even more momentum.
A most common understanding of digital transformation is the adoption of new digital
technologies to improve and streamline business operations, create new business models,
enhance customer experience and generate new paths for value creation. (Vial, 2019, p.2)
Andriole emphasize that is it not a software upgrade or a supply chain improvement process.
It is an endeavor to mitigate the effect of disruptive technology and encompass the
profound changes currently taking place in the industry as well as society. (Vial, 2019,p.28)
The goal of digital transformation is to be more agile and support continuous optimization,
respond as quickly as possible to changes and shifts in the market. (Gobble, 2018, p.66)
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Many DT definitions emphasize the need for creating new business models and
organizational structures as a part of digital transformation. (e.g. Demirkan et al., 2016)
Clearly, the word “transformation” is the important variable. In the past years, companies in
all industries have conducted different initiatives to explore the potentials and benefits of
digital technologies. Companies realized that what must be involved is the transformation of
key business operations as well as its effect on products, processed and organizational
structure. For a successful transformation, strong management practices need to be
established. (Matt et al., 2015, p.339)
Because digital transformation affects not only company internally but has a wide effect
going even beyond the company’s borders (by impacting products, business processes, sales
channels, supply chain, etc.) (Matt et al., 2015, p.339), it is an important part to include the
digital transformation plan to strategic planning of the enterprise in the form of digital
strategy (DS). Digital strategy planning should encompass the same four elements that
digital transformation as a process includes. According to Matt et al. (2015), those are: use
of technologies, changes in value creation, structural changes and financial aspects.
Figure 2 Digital transformation framework: balancing four transformation dimensions
(Matt et al., 2015, p.341),
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2.1 Digitization vs digitalization vs digital transformation
Digitization, digitalization and digital transformation are terms used interchangeably and
often misinterpreted by practitioners as well as media. They are fundamentally different and
understanding that difference is vital for understanding what a company is really doing and
how to leverage its full transformative potential. (Chapco-Wade, 2018)
Most common terms explanation:
Digitization means converting analog data to digital data, which can be used by the
computer. For a business to use and leverage the data, digitization is the first step. As an
example, we can say that scanning a paper document and saving it in a pdf form or typing
paper notes into an excel file is a digitization process. Digitization is about the information
we are digitizing, not the process. (Bloomberg, 2018; Hapon, 2020; Chapco-Wade, 2018)
Digitalization is then process-oriented and is about leveraging that digitized information to
improve business processes. With digitalization, we can use data and digital technology to
create revenue, internally optimize (e.g. work automation) and reduce costs. It is also a
further step to create a digital culture in the company. An example of digitalization can be
uploading PDF documents from a hard drive to the cloud for sharing and analyzing the data.
Bloomberg, 2018; Hapon, 2020; Chapco-Wade, 2018)
Digital transformation is a much broader concept, it includes both digitization and
digitalization but most importantly its goal is a transformation of business activities,
processes and models. Digital transformation is nothing a company can implement as a
project, but series of digitalization projects will be necessary steps in digital transformation.
Digital transformation is more about people (both customers and employees) than it is
about technology. It requires the organization to be able to handle change to core
competency to enable customer-driven business end-to-end. An example is reading the data
from an online PDF and makes an analysis that provides us with insights, that would lead to
improving customer service. The process, that requires minimal human interaction.
(Bloomberg, 2018; Hapon, 2020; Chapco-Wade, 2018)
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Bloomberg (2018) summarize like this: information is digitized, processes and roles are
digitalized and business and strategies are digitally transformed.
An interesting analogy used by Baiyer (2020): “while IT-enabled organizational
transformation (such as implementing an ERP) can be likened to “a cub transforming into a
lion” – that is into a faster and more efficient version – digital transformation, on the other
hand, can be likened to “the metamorphosis of a larva into a butterfly”.”
If the company is really trying to digitally transform, realizing and correctly categorizing
current steps (how much we digitalize and how much try to digitally transform) is important,
as well as setting a goal for the digital transformation. Those should always support the
business goals. It should be clear what business goals are supported by which digital activity,
to which extend will digital venture be consider achieved and how much is the company
really transforming. To bring more clarity for the goal setting, important questions are e.g.:
“Do we need a total transformation, do we need digital improvement or just better
process?” (Lucid Content team, n.d.) As digital transformation is an answer to current and
potential digital disruption, and because future disruption will be impossible to predict;
continuous digitalization, agility and slow digital transformation should be the processes in
every company nowadays. Therefore following theory is focused on digital transformation as
a holistic theory, where previous steps like digitization and digitalization are assumed as
participatory.
2.2 Digital strategy as a roadmap to digital transformation
Strategy is generally understood as long-term, well-defined direction or a roadmap of an
organization. Strategy defines a vision of what a company wants to achieve, it bridges the
gap between where the company is and where it wants to be. (Juneja, n.d.)
Digital strategy (DS) should be derived from corporate strategy. It can be defined as a plan of
action to achieve business goals and a company’s vision with the implementation of digital
initiatives. Successful digital transformation is supported by the foundation of good digital
strategy. (Centrid Digital, n.d.)
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Figure 3 Strategic principles of a Digital Strategy (Schallmo, et.al, 2019, p.15)
According to Gobble (2018,p.67), digital technologies have central importance and all
company’s actions are thus directly related to the digital strategy. One of the reasons why
companies often fail with their DS is that the innovation process takes too long. Another can
be forgetting that optimizing existing technologies is even more important than introducing
new ones and that the entire company must be involved in the execution of digital strategy.
The same amount of investment that will go into technology must be put behind the cultural
and organizational transformation.
Even though digital transformation and digital strategy are closely related, they are not the
same thing, difference lies in the scope. Digital transformation is the driver of change in
three areas – customer experience, operational processes and business models. DT process
requires the involvement of the whole organization and a usiness culture change. However,
digital strategy is focused on technology, instead of culture. Digital strategy should make
sure that the technology implementation support business objectives. Digital technology is
always only a supportive tool to reach a company’s goals, business success depends mostly
on human performance. (Reyes, n.d.)
Digital strategy is a complex mix of marketing, operations and technology but there are
certain key elements that good DS should include:
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- Digital marketing
- Online presence and online selling
- Customer interaction
- Online security
- Supplier interaction
- Efficiency through technology
- People and internal resources
(Business Queensland, 2020)
It is clear, that digital strategy is not a marketing strategy, even though it is highly marketing
oriented. A digital marketing strategy is only a part of a company’s digital strategy and is
usually focused on bringing value to the customer, providing better visibility, improving
reputation or brand value, etc. However digital strategy as such is applied to the whole
organization, both externally and internally and should apply technology to the entire value
chain. (Xtrategy Digital, 2018)
Digital strategy is also not the same as IT strategy. IT strategy is a roadmap for future use of
technologies in a company, but it does not focus on transforming product, processes, or
culture that needs to be done for successful digital transformation. So DS scope is more
broad and holistic and should include elements of IT strategy, marketing strategy, HR
development strategy and other relevant. (Matt et al., 2015, p.339)
Figure 4 Relation between digital transformation streategy and other corporate
strategies (Matt et al., 2015, p.340)
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2.3 Challenges and benefits of digital transformation
All transformations are difficult, but digital transformation proved to be even harder due to
the speed and velocity of changes in the digital world and the significance of digital
disruption. McKinsey reports that years of research show that the success rate of digital
transformation is consistently low, under 30%. (Boutetière et. al, 2018) From the different
lists of most challenges and obstacles in a successful digital transformation, few are common
and therefore I believe the most critical:
Organization structure – original organizational structures were created to support
the department’s internal objectives, the workflow was inflexible, data in silos,
communication lack efficiency and room for continuous improvement is limited. To
support digital business, the organization structure needs to be modified.
Business model and processes – need to transform the interaction with customers
and how customers engage with products, need to change customer experience with
e.g. digitally-enabled e-commerce or m-commerce, need for an incremental or
fundamental business model change
IT infrastructure and capability – CRM, deriving value from data, current core
systems, networks and databases do not support digital goals
Employees – pushback from employees based on lack of understanding of the need
for change, digital skills gaps among current workforce (including managers/leaders)
and lack of digital talents
(Bonevova, 2018, p.108; Plutora, 2020)
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Figure 5 Digital transformation (Kannan, 2018)
However, digital transformation is not an option anymore that most businesses can skip. It
has become a mandatory step in their business survival. The most significant benefits that
DT can bring are:
Enhances data collection and analysis – nowadays all companies are collecting an
enormous amount of data without really capitalizing on them. Part of DT is to create
a system for gathering the relevant data and using them as a basis for business
intelligence and improved decision-making.
Improved productivity and efficiency – bottlenecks like systems that do not
communicate with each other or manual data entry can be streamlined or eliminated
completely.
Better customer experience – currently high customers’ expectations regarding
speed, simplicity, relevance, etc. Offering digital tools to the customer makes the
company more attractive and allows for better customer retention.
Enhanced digital culture and improved employees’ skillset – digital culture develops
employees’ creativity, which leads to innovation, encouraged continuous learning,
motivation and agility. Skilled employees are also more acceptable to change.
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Increased agility – more agile organization can easily adopt continuous improvement
strategies, increased agility also allows better change and big disruption adaptations
and allows to keep up with the competition.
Improved profitability – results of more efficient and agile operations, with better
decision-making and improved customer experience, means increased revenue and
higher profitability.
(Mbachu, 2018; Digital Worklplace, 2020)
2.4 Impact of digital transformation on workforce
Digital transformation has a massive impact on the way people are changing their ways of
acting inside as well as outside of the organization. Major changes are undergoing in
workforce population, set of skills needed for performing the job, the way people
communicate, interact and collaborate within an organization – both on employees’ level as
well as leadership side. (Foerster-Metz et al., 2018, p.8)
According to research by Schwarmüller et al. (2018, p.121), there are four key themes of
change in work design and leadership brought by increased digitalization:
1. Work-life and health domain – focusing on employees’ and leaders’ work-life setup
and health management. With increased flexibility of working hours and e.g. remote
work, the balance between working and private life is collapsing. Together with
increased demand for 24/7 availability, a lot of stress is put on the workforce.
Increased complexity of work, high density of data and information that needs to be
processed, and high speed in both decision-making and work performance bring
pressure and insecurity. That works again as a stress factor and overall increases the
possibility of employees’/leaders’ burnout syndrome, demotivation and other health
problems.
2. Changes in the use of information and communication technology – more data and
better analytics allow better control over work processes and better decision making.
However, increased standardization reduces people’s freedom in decision-making.
New communication and collaboration tools increase the importance of teamwork
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inside the organization as well as cross-organization wise. More virtual teams will
appear with self-organizing structures and project-based tasks.
3. Change in performance and talent management – this category encompasses
increased competency requirements for employees and leaders and performance
management. With the automation of routine tasks, people are confronted with
increased demand for cognitive skills, a higher need for creativity and problem-
solving competencies. Rapid changes brought by digitalization need agile people,
who are willing to accept lifelong learning and a have high level of resilience to be
able to withstand all challenges working life brings. Their performance is now
followed on a closer level due to the transparency that technology brings. The overall
culture is even more output-oriented (focused on results).
4. Change in organizational hierarchies – the last theme relates to increased employee
influence and changed leader influence behavior. Increased information access and
enhanced information transparency allow employees to participate more in
organizational decision-making and increases their work autonomy. This leads to the
overall flattening of organizational hierarchies. Leaders need to impart more trust to
employees and inspire and motivate them in a different way than before. “It should
no longer be manager’s role to definite and distribute tasks, but to define goals and
let people find their own way to reach those goals.”
A more recent article regarding digital transformation and its implications on organizational
behavior (Foerster-Metz et al., 2018, p.8) analyze how different technology impact
workforce and leadership. Research findings divide the impacts into similar categories as
Schwarmüller et al., however, their categories are related to specific types of technology.
Summary of their findings is presented in table 1.
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Table 1 Impact of digitalization on employees (Foerster-Metz et al., 2018, p.11)
Both research papers agree on several topics such as flattening of hierarchies, agility, and
speed of decision-making, higher performance surveillance, loss of creativity, or increased
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competency requirements. Foerster-Metz and her team mention only marginally potential
health-related issues and instead focus much more on the globalization of the workforce and
change of contracting form of a work. That, of course, brings potential important risks such
as reduced sense of affiliation and loss of social security protection. However, Schwarzmüller
and her team’s findings emphasize the importance of managing employees’ health via
work/private life balancing and reduction of stress factors.
The direction of digital transformation is a key question and should be discussed and
evaluated continuously, no amount of current prediction models or previous experience can
give us a clear answer. Rapid changes in society are influenced by trends and therefore
predicting business changes is influenced by trends as well. One of the very intensive topics
worldwide, which started with automation, and which is logically one of the biggest
employees’ fear is job elimination due to technical advancement. However, we need to
develop equally relevant and important discussions about what kind of new job
opportunities will automation create and enhance. (Centrid Digita, n.d.)
Organizations can and should exploit digital disruption and subsequent digital
transformation by creating and designing a new generation of jobs. As we established,
technology has the great benefit of replacing dull and repetitive tasks and creating room for
expertise requiring, creative types of jobs. Jobs that can capitalize fully on human potential,
jobs that can never replace human’s problem-solving creativity, their drive to create value
and their empathy. Jobs that would keep people much more engage and motivated. (Bajer,
2017, p.91) So rather than competing with digital transformation, we should embrace it and
strive to co-create sustainable value. HR specialists can be much more creative in job roles
designing with a focus on what people are unique in. (Bajer,2017,p.92)
How to communicate with employees about the change digital transformation brings, how
to get buy-in and eliminate potential stress caused by unfounded fear of job loss, how to
capitalize on the synergy new digital tools can bring – that may be potentially the biggest
challenge of all. Research done by McKinsey states, that an incredible 70% of digital
transformation processes fail, primarily due to lack of employees’ engagement. It is a clear
indicator, that the success or failure of DT primarily depends on employees and whether or
not they are on board. (Whelan, 2020). The success rate of DT in traditional industries such
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as automotive, infrastructure, or pharmaceuticals is even lower – it falls between 4-11
percent. (Boutetière et. al, 2018)
Considering everything we have now established regarding employees’ role in digital
transformation, maybe a more fitting definition of digital transformation is “transformation
in a digital age” (Edmonds, 2019), where advanced technology will enable different ways of
working, which can help to transform organizations and the way customers are served.
Transformation of course brings change and however change usually makes people uneasy,
it is not a new thing for organizations. Managers have decades of research supporting their
endeavour in the field of change management. With the correct change management tools
and proper dedication, the process of adapting to a new digital environment does not have
to be difficult.
3 CHANGE MANAGEMENT
“Digital is the means to get you to your end goal, but transformation is an enterprise-wide
activity – and people should come first.”
(Reznicek, n.d.)
Most discussions regarding digital transformation focus on technology, the reason is of
course that companies want to capitalize on benefits from e.g. machine learning,
automation, artificial intelligence, etc. But as we established, digital transformation is not all
about technology. The biggest transformation regarding DT represents the mindset shift
from how organizations create value for the end-customer and that is possible only with
educated and agile employees. Just technology without skilled and empowered employees
will never bring expected profit. (Reznicek, n.d.)
People are creatures of habit and they like their own way of doing things so they most likely
resist a change that they cannot control. They will, of course, start to use a new
system/platform/tool, but if they have not been properly trained in 1) how to use it and 2)
benefits it offers, then they will return to their old, tested way of doing things and solutions
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they know and they trust. Nothing will be gained from employees’ point of view and most
probably management will lose some credibility. (Whelan, 2020)
For any kind of successful transformation, the key strategy is change management. Modern
businesses must manage change, not only employees, customers or products. (Impact, 2021)
But how to involve change management element into digital transformation, how to create
change management strategy and successfully manage change?
3.1 What is change management?
According to the Cambridge dictionary, transformation is defined as: “the process of
changing completely the character or appearance of something in order to improve it”.
As change is a substance of the very definition of transformation, change management
should be a substantial part of the digital transformation process. Change management itself
is a set of combined approaches to manage change. It involves recognizing, managing, and
controlling the necessary steps to improve performance. Organizational change
management should guide and support individuals to adopt to change and overcome
resistance in order to drive organizational success. (Jounany & Martic, 2020)
Change management in any company takes place on three levels – individual, organizational
and enterprise-wide.
Individual change management requires an understanding of people, how they
experience the change and what is needed for them to adapt to change successfully.
To support individual change acceptance, disciplines like psychology or other
behavioral science are providing theoretical help.
Organizational change management initiatives include identifying groups and teams
that will need to change or will be impacted by the change and creating a customized
approach for ensuring these employees will receive appropriate training, coaching,
and timely information in order to adapt to change successfully.
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Change management capability on the enterprise level is a core competency of the
company to effectively adapt to ongoing changes. It means the company has a set of
processes defined that are consistently applied during change initiatives, leaders
skilled enough to guide their teams during the change, and employees open-minded
and flexible enough to accept the changes. (Prosci, n.d.)
Challenges that change management has to overcome, compared to, for example, project
management, is that there are no strict schedules, tangible objectives and specific
outcomes, change management is much more reactive and follows an indefinite route.
(Impact, 2021)
Framework for successfully managing change is supported by many theories and concepts
nowadays, however not all are equally applicable for specific businesses, so it is important to
identify a change model that suits the best organizational purposes, the nature of the
change and that support the desired outcome of the change. (Tuning, n.d.) An early scholar
in the field of change management was Kurt Lewin, who proposed a famous three-step
process to ensure successful change. Building on his original theoretical basis were later
other practitioners like Kotter, Hiatt or Maurer.
Most well-known and used in practice change management theories are:
Lewin’s change management model that breaks down the change in three phases
1. Unfreeze (understanding the need for change and analysing the improvement
needs)
2. Change/Moving (process of change itself)
3. Refreeze (establishing new status quo, cementing the new processes)
Kotter’s Eight Step Change model from 1995, that focuses more on the people
involved in the change rather than the change itself. Kotter’s model helps with
overcoming resistance and it´s enhanced version remain a long-time favourite among
change management models. Individual steps are:
1. Create a sense of urgency
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2. Build a coalition
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives
4. Communicate the vision with stakeholders
5. Remove barriers to enable action
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Maintain momentum
8. Institute change
ADKAR model, created by Jeffrey Hiatt, is again very much a people-centric method.
It includes five non-sequential stages that need to be continually implemented, to
achieve success and gain employee buy-in.
- Awareness of the need for a change
- Desire to participate in and support the change
- Knowledge on how to change
- Ability to implement the change
- Reinforcement to sustain the change
McKinsey 7-S Model is more complex, suitable for organizations that realize
something is not right and they need to change but are not exactly sure how. This
model consists of seven core elements that an organization should consist of and
that should be in balance in order to reach quality performance. Elements are divided
into two categories, so-called hard and soft elements. Hard elements are easier to
identify and control and soft are more subjective and therefore more difficult to
change.
1. Strategy (hard element) – overall purpose of the organization
2. Structure (hard element) – organizational charts and structural division
3. Systems (hard element) – routines, processes, resource allocations, etc.
4. Shared values (soft element) – central values of the organization, culture
5. Skills (soft element) – capabilities and competences within organization
6. Staff (soft element) – demographic, attitude, education, etc. of employees
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7. Style (soft element) – leadership style, behaviour patterns, etc.
Kübler-Ross’ Change Curve is another method that puts the highest focus on people.
This method is based on famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s work about five
stages of grief. The methodology originally explaining how people process grief was
adapted to a change management strategy due to the similarities to how people
process change in general. This method is mostly used in combination with another
change management framework with more structured and clear steps towards the
goal.
1. Denial – employees are surprised and resist the change
2. Anger – employees grow fearful of the change and start to resent it
3. Bargaining – an attempt at bargaining when employee want to change the
intended change
4. Depression – lack of energy and productivity due to upcoming change
5. Acceptance – learning how to work in changed environment, change is
implemented.
(Lucidchart, n.d.; CIOpages.com, n.d.)
3.2 Change resistance and how to overcome it
Change resistance is a very popular and relevant topic in modern literature regarding
organizational development and yet the definition is still very ambiguous. Resistance to
change is natural to human beings since change often represented a danger or threat. Lewin
defined resistance as a force against the change agents to maintain the status quo. In an
organizational environment, we can say change resistance represents any behaviour of a
group or individual that goes against the managerial decision in both active or passive form.
(Scholkmann, 2021) As Kurt Lewin postulate in his field theory, resistance to organizational
change originates either from a lack of driving forces (positive force for a change) or excess
of restraining forces (obstacles to change). (Lewin, 1947)
According to Kuzhda (2016), there are several types of resistance – rational (logical),
sociological and psychological. We can also recognize individual resistance and
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organizational resistance, where reasons for individual resistance are mainly job security,
economic factors, fear of unknown or increasing workload. As reasons behind organizational
resistance. Kuzhda (2016) indicates a threat to established power relationships and resource
allocations, limited focus of change or inertia.
The interesting phenomenon of inertia is often attributed to employees’ unwillingness to
work with new technology or accept new processes. Organizational inertia, as defined by
Schmid (2019), is the ability to maintain reliable performance in turbulent environments.
Originally considered an advantage for organizations due to supporting the “survival” in
uncertain times, it is now considered a threat for reasons such as increased speed of
changes enabled by digital technologies and potential loss of competitive advantage for
those who do not adapt themselves to the change. (Schmid, 2019) Drivers for organizational
inertia are quite often economic, political or cultural factors; missing company resources or
desire to maintain routines and way of life. (Setzke, 2020) However the concept of inertia is
still not comprehensively defined, quite often inertia is used to describe change resistance.
Especially socio-technical aspect of inertia should be taken into account when analyzing
organizational resistance and also employees’ resistance. (Schmid, 2019)
More modern discussions on the change resistance phenomenon are focused on employees
only - the reasons behind individual resistance and how to overcome it. Both traditional and
modern perspectives allocate the “fault”/cause of the change resistance on the side of
change recipients. This view neglects the dynamic between many different change
stakeholders and change agents. Individual behaviour must be seen as only one factor in an
overall complex phenomenon. (Scholkmann, 2021) Additionally, a certain level of
questioning and criticism should be seen as a positive thing and a healthy level of resistance
can be beneficial for finding different (previously unthought-of) alternatives during change,
brings more accuracy through feedback and active discussion bring a bigger chance of future
buy-in from stakeholders. (Waddell, 1998)
In respect to digital transformation, resistance to change is often seen as a resistance to
technology implementation, as a rejection of new digital tools. (Scholkmann, 2021) However
as we have established, digital transformation is a highly disruptive and complex endeavour
of transforming products, customer service, business models and processes. It is therefore
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within reason to treat the resistance to digital transformation changes with a more holistic
view and adopt general change management approaches for overcoming resistance without
any specific adjustment for digital transformation in particular.
Kuzhda suggests the six most effective approaches to overcome resistance to change:
1. Education and communication
2. Participation and involvement
3. Facilitation and support
4. Negotiations and agreement
5. Manipulations and co-option
6. Explicit and implicit coercion.
The author of the thesis personally agrees with the ranking of the approaches from top to
bottom as the most effective and appropriate to the least adequate.
An interesting approach how to overcome employees’ scepticism/resistance during digital
transformation developed Tabrizi (2019). His so-called “inside-out” model. Participants of
the change should first examine their own unique contribution to the organization value
chain is/are and then connect that strength to different steps or parts in the digital
transformation process, also if possible they should take charge of those processes.
Employees felt more in control of how the DT is progressing and gained the feeling of what
digital tools are there to support their qualities and strong points.
Key questions to answer when we want to eliminate change resistance should be: Why are
we changing? What are we changing? Who will be changing? An especially important
question related to employees is then: What is in it for me? Explaining both benefits for
employees as well as the organization. (Panorama Consulting Group, 2020)
3.3 Digital change
Change management as a managerial discipline is obviously a necessary part of the digital
transformation journey, which supports the process itself by supporting people and their
acceptance of new technologies, way of working and way of thinking. However, change
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management itself has to be constantly improved and developed to suit current business
needs and especially related to digital transformation. As it is a substantial change to many
interconnected areas and parts of organizational management, it needs a different algorithm
than smaller character changes or implementation of projects with a more narrow scope. A
deeper and broader focus needs to be put on human-digital collaboration impact and new
methods like design thinking or user experience need to be put into focus. Currently, there
are not many practices of change management when it comes to DT specifically. It is a
relatively new field that requires more research and development. (Zhovtyuk, 2018)
As change is becoming a normal “modus operandi” of organizational daily life, the
applicability of currently established notions of traditional change management becomes
questionable. The traditional view of the change process (albeit in different variations)
follows the same sequences of planning/melting, change itself, consolidation and new
routine establishment. Unfortunately, the time for proper consolidation or establishment is
minimal or non-existent in what currently organizations experience. Now it is about
continuous change processes and often many parallel changes. (Vey et al., 2017, p.27)
Continuous learning and development (L&D) is an indisputable part of the transformation
process of any kind and with companies’ increased investment into learning and education,
new roles are created for operatives, that should support the workforce with their learning
and development – so-called Learning and Development professionals. L&D professionals
help to develop training, eLearning courses or development programs itself as well as
perform the actual training if needed. (Sengupta, 2019) How to expand the area of
responsibilities for those professionals and how to create an integrated role as a change
ambassadors proposed in their paper from 2017 Vey et al.
In addition to the L&D professionals’ core competencies mentioned above, these specialists
could be able to
Act as change agents and consultants, they can experiment themselves with a new
agile way of working, for example, Design Thinking, Scrum frameworks, or different
virtual tools and later offer advice, ideas and consult on the topic as a credible and
authentic source of information and experience for employees.
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L&D professionals should especially focus on assessing current content and learning
tools of existing change management training and update them in a way that would
best represent the company’s needs. They should evaluate what skills and
competencies are needed during the digital transformation and how to develop them
within the workforce in the most efficient way.
Very important role lies also in actively shaping the company culture to become open
to innovation, to support the correct norms and values that promote employees’
affinity to innovate, that empower employees to come up with new activities, to
drive idea-based working routines without fear.
Proposed idea of having permanent change agents in the form of L&D professionals sounds
very interesting. Especially because of the permanent nature of change in the current
working environment and also the longevity of digital transformation. It is not a change that
can be done in a few months, the same way a project for implementing any new digital tool
is. Establishing (hiring an external) change management team for a specific change currently
in progress in the company and then dismantle the team after the change is perceived as
finalized should be replaced as a process.
Digital transformation is a long-term process that will likely never reach an ending point
after which a company can simply stop focusing on digital. In that sense, it will become a
permanent part of the organizational life and therefore having a stable group/team of
consultants and supporting individuals in the company that can be easily reached by
employees in their times of questioning may be very important. There are, of course, direct
managers who should be providing this kind of support, but in the widespread of
competencies managers should be skilled in today, it is quite possible even they would gladly
accept more support from professionals skilled in intricacies of the change management
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process. Expert team Sailer, Stutzmann and Kobold from global company Siemens, proposed
in their paper from 2019 three basic elements for so-called Integrated Change Management
approach.
Figure 6 Integrated Change Management Approach (Sailer et al., 2019)
Institute an integrated approach to change management is focus on including change
management as early as possible, instead of waiting for the implementation phase. Change
management practice should not be a separate, independent stream but a pervasive,
overreaching component of digital transformation, integrated across functions and
departments.
Live an agile change management approach, means using iterative feedback during the
change management process to gain insight and quickly, proactively modify if needed.
Defining agile KPIs instead of classic business KPIs is another step that can support agile
thinking.
Adapt classic change management levers to the context of digitalization. Classic levers of
change management such as communication, training, role transitioning, leadership, culture,
etc. should stay the same but be fine-tuned to the digitalization requirements. For example
setting up cross-organizational teams with flat hierarchy, with sufficient decision-making
power to give employees the sense of participation in change creation. Encouraging open-
minded members of the teams to become role models and coaches to created further buy-
in, etc.
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3.4 Leadership during DT as a principal part of change management
Management by definition means creating order through processes, it means controlling
people and things in the organization by a manager. Managers rely on organizational power
to control subordinates. (Samoszuk, n.d) Change management, however, needs more than
managers, it needs change leaders. Leadership means creating change through a vision, it is
about motivating and influencing the group of people to follow. In the context of change,
leaders should be a driving force for a change, explaining the overall vision, motivate and
encourage their teams to overcome resistance and accept the change. (Kotter, 2011)
Smith (2019) suggest a list of skills that successful change leader should embody
1. Communication – being good at communication is probably the most important skill
of a leader generally, not just during a change process. Communication builds trust
and therefore increases the chance of buy-in for change. It is also important to
remember it is a two-way street – communication involves listening as much as
talking.
2. Enthusiasm and ability to inspire – enthusiasm fuel the change, bring energy and
positive thinking and inspire the followers to embrace the change.
3. Emotional intelligence and empathy – the ability to understand how and what people
feel and think is the greatest enabler for successful communication and steering the
change in the right direction.
4. Strategic and forward-thinking – helps to create a vision and keep the vision in focus,
thinking ahead and anticipating potential obstacles during the change.
5. Decisiveness and conflict management – the general skill of every good leader.
Making a decision in time and be able to take potential risks builds trust and
accountability in a leader.
6. Self-development – a leader must be aware that there is always more even he/she
can learn and not be afraid to admit his/her own improvement potential to himself
and others.
7. Team player – a good leader must be open to involve other people in decision-
making, open to feedback, ready to delegate if he sees potential for it.
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Current terms such as “digital leadership”, “leadership 4.0” or “new leadership” imply that
the leadership skill set needs to be modified and leadership strategies need to be adapted to
serve better the digital reality. (Foerster-Metz et al., 2018) New leaders should be able
themselves to utilize modern technologies and solutions. Information technology and the
progress of mobile devices allow employees much better and quicker access to various kinds
of information, communication media allows for instant messaging and information sharing,
which dramatically changes the level of influence leaders have. Employees work in
differently structured teams – remote work creates virtual teams that again require a
different set of skills to successfully manage and lead. Finally, decision-making done by
leaders is based more and more on big data analysis and becomes more factual and
accurate. (Schwarmuller et al., 2018)
A research paper led by Forster-Metz in 2018 analyzed what implications have a digital
transformation on organizational behavior and consequently correlation between modern
leadership and digital transformation. Authors suggested so-called “VOPA” leadership model,
created by Bushe (2014) is a good basis for digital leadership. Figure 7 elaborates in more
detail on the VOPA model adjusted for the digital transformation process.
Figure 7 VOPA plus model for digital leadership (Foerster-Metz, 2018)
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An internet search for digital leader characteristics offers various results based on the
experience of practitioners and even though some traits reoccur persistently, some are
different from article to article. Literature analysis was conducted in 2019 by Dr.Promsri and
published in a Business Management Journal. In his research, the author analyzed twelve
online sources and found sixty-four qualities recommended for digital leaders. By further
analyzing and synthesizing those qualities, the author suggested a model for the six most
important characteristics of a digital leader’s Digital transformation success. (Promsri, 2019)
Figure 8 Six Characteristics of Digital Leader for Digital Transformation Success
What both VOPA model and Six Characteristics of Digital Leader model have added to
already established skills of successful leader not only during change is focus on the
customer and digital literacy (in VOPA model found under Networking quadrant). Both are
quite relevant – enhancing customer experience is one of the main purposes of
digitalization. In the case of digital literacy, as much as it is certainly important for the leader
to have at least basic digital knowledge, it is not the most important part of his leadership
success. As long as he is able to recognize the value of implemented digital tools and is able
to lead people through the change of adjusting to them and adopting them, he does not
need any profound knowledge of its operational functioning.
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4 BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Considering digital transformation should involve the transformation of organizational
structure and key business process, it is important to shortly present the relevant part of an
organization that handles processes - business process management (BPM). Business
process management is the practice of managing all organizational processes and aligning
them with business goals. (Rubens & Olavsrud, 2021) BPM is focused on improving
processes that are permanent, continual, that happens in cycles. Unlike for example project
management, which purpose is a one-time event, achieving a specific outcome (project).
(Varadharajan, 2020) As much as some processes are permanent, they are as well dynamic,
just like the business itself, and evolves over time, therefore BPM needs to be considered as
continuous practice - that prompts us to see it more as an improvement endeavor. BPM is
often alternately called continual improvement process, process improvement, business
process re-engineering, etc. The goals of business process management are waste reduction,
minimizing errors and improved productivity and efficiency. BPM represents a holistic
approach to optimizing and automating business processes and can be supported with
different tools, for example, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) applications. (Rubens &
Olavsrud, 2021)
Lifecycle of business process management includes several steps:
- Design – rough framework of the process, definition of steps in the workflow and
stakeholders
- Modeling – transferring of design into the BPM system and modeling each step
clearly
- Execution – training of new process to employees, distributing responsibilities and
deployment to daily routine
- Monitoring – tracking and analysis of the process with right metrics
- Optimization – constantly enhancing the performance of process with feedback
based on analysis
(Varadharajan, 2020)
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4.1 Business process design and mapping
From the design point of view, we can structure all business processes into three
categories – operational process, supporting process and management process.
Operational processes are directly connected in producing output (final product or
service) from input (labor, raw material/equipment, money). Operational processes are
also a strategic priority for the company. Supporting processes or also secondary
processes do not directly generate income, but serve internally across the organization,
so their value is not monetary. They enable operational processes to be performed.
Management processes fulfill a coordination role for above mentioned. Just like with
supporting processes, they do not directly generate income, but are necessary to plan,
monitor and optimize to keep the business resilient. (Checkify, n.d.)
Business process design is a phenomenon that occurs naturally, business activity starts
and most processes just implicitly happens. When a company starts, most business
processes are designed and sketched without a structural approach. (Tallyfy, n.d.) Later,
when an enterprise is established and strives to optimize and achieve higher efficiency, a
proper compact approach to business process management is introduced, starting with a
process mapping.
Business process mapping is a collection of tools and methods used for understanding an
organization and its processes. (Halseth, 2017,p.2) A business process map is a tool that
helps to outline roles and responsibilities; helps understand how the business works,
identify strength and weaknesses and visualize what steps are required to create output
from input. (Checkify, n.d.) A process map can be also called a business flow diagram,
process chart, or functional flowchart, but should be always more than just a diagram. A
process map is a business analogy to a road map – to plan a road where you want to go;
first, you need to realize where you are. (Halseth, 2017,p.2)
Process map has many benefits
- Provides a current state picture, that is used to building of future
vision/improvements
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- Enables all involved to understand the process in the same way with the help of
visualizing, cross-functional dependencies and stakeholders involved
- Based on the map, we can identify current gaps, soft spots and improvement areas
and set measurements and metric for evaluation
- Can be used as a training and educational tool for new personnel
- Help to understand different flows – informational, documentation, material,
employees, etc. (Halseth, 2017,p.2)
Business process mapping and modeling can be done on different levels depending on
details included, starting with high-level maps down to the detailed instructions and
procedures for a specific activity. (Halseth, 2017,p.2) The most common process map
types are activity process map, document map, high-level process map, swim lane (cross-
functional) map, value-added chain diagram or value stream map. (Lucidchart, n.d.)
For a successful business process map to be created, the following step should be
performed:
1) Identifying the problem/process and level of detail we plan to go into
2) Identify key stakeholders – people who work with the process
3) Current base outline and boundaries – how is the process currently operating,
what steps/sequences it includes
4) Drawing the basic flowchart – basic symbols (e.g. from Lucid chart) can be used to
represent different elements
5) Analysis and improvement area identification – e.g. brainstorming with
stakeholders, finding redundancies and waste, missing steps, etc.
(Checkify, n.d.; Lucidchart, n.d.)
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4.2 Business process management and digital transformation
Both BPM and DT are topics of great interest from both practitioners and scholars in the
recent decade(s) and yet the real dynamic between the two has not been yet fully
researched, established or described. (Stjepić et al., 2020, p.41)
As we discussed in regards to digital transformation, it is not simply introducing a new digital
tool in the company, using big data analysis or establishing a web page. Digital
transformation represents a shift towards a company creating new digital added value and
simultaneously utilize digital technology in operational processes. (Baiere et al., 2020, p.249)
From an organizational point of view, digital transformation should ultimately lead to re-
thinking the current business model and therefore lead to deep structural changes in the
organization, as well as being continuously supplied with a so-called convergent change.
Convergent change means improving efficiency without redesigning key processes and
business models. (Baiere et al., 2020, p.250) In established, traditional, and large enterprises
process change is more often represented by gradual steps and relatively small scale,
incremental digital change. According to Stjepic (2020, p.46), Tapscott (1997) already
recognized that digitalization will not only lead to new business model creation but often to
changing and restructuring of existing models. Not every digital restructuring should be
considered a digital transformation.
Digitalization naturally supports process development for example in the way of automating
tasks previously done manually. Therefore, with the progress of digitalization, continuous
process design and re-design occurs. Digital transformation brings a new “angle” and
velocity to business process management, continuously performed inside the company.
Digital transformation often requires new process design/development, at the same time
provides tools for employees how to individually (without the help of IT dept.) create a
simple workflow or process maps to start looking for possible waste reductions and
improvements in their daily work. Business process management is a key element in the
success of the digital transformation. However, all prior studies and theoretical concepts
regarding BPM were done based on an assumption of a much more stable environment.
That is of course a proper foundation for improving efficiency and processes quality, but
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digital transformation introduced a much more volatile and unstable context to
organizational operations (Baiyere et al., 2020, p.240), Therefore BPM theory should evolve
accordingly and also introduce the “volatility” factor and potentially focus more on agility.
Digital transformation and business process management must exist as two mutually
advantageous and supportive elements. As much as we established that BPM is a key factor
in digital transformation success, also vice versa a digitalization and use of new digital tools
and software will contribute to more agile, enhanced and modern business process
management. (Yugandhar, 2017) Thanks to advanced software solutions in the BPM area,
we can map, model, design, monitor and optimize the current company processes easily and
with great flexibility. After that, we can start modeling new business processes and models
that are needed for potential DT in all organizational functions including customer
relationship management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, etc.
The right balance has to be found between the traditional BPM approach where proper
identifying, mapping, designing, etc. of processes may be time and resource consuming and
become obsolete the moment the company needs to react to new digital disruption and
adjust such process. However, without properly stating the current process, it cannot be
streamlined and for example, search for a new enterprise digital platform would be
complicated or in the worst-case scenario, the incorrect digital solution will be chosen.
Baiyere et al. (2020) conducted a case study focused on the question of “how does business
processes management unfold in the context of digital transformation” and as a result
proposed three logics as an extension to prior BPM logics:
Light touch processes – processes should not be strictly controlled and rigidly modeled, but
rather should have a capacity of easy reconfiguration and adaptability.
Infrastructural flexibility – capacity to quickly orchestrate the IT infrastructure in such a way
that allows for maximum flexibility, rather than being burdened by legacy systems and
inertia.
Mindful actors – mindful actors refer to the capacity of employees to decide based on their
own experience, especially relevant in case of the absence of well-described processes.
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Employees should evaluate the situation and based on context, and with sensitivity to the
general company’s direction and goals, decide themselves on the best course of action. Even
if that would mean not following the already documented and historically prevalent process.
5 THE ONBOARDING AND COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR NEW DIGITAL TOOL
IMPLEMENTATION
The empirical part of the thesis is focused on developing an onboarding and communication
plan itself. Starting with a short introduction to the company’s X current digital situation and
continuing to the project overview and plan itself.
In decades of company history, there were several mergers and acquisitions, which always
brought a new legacy system. Digital merge rarely succeeded in the way of incorporating
systems and ERPs or choosing the most suitable from the company's point of view.
Eliminating redundant ones, selecting, and introducing the best option of current choices did
not succeed. Rather all systems were kept, run parallel, and if needed integrated or new
front-end applications were built. This resulted in a cacophony of systems and IT tools that
are quite challenging to navigate, especially for the end-user.
Company X created a digital strategy as a part of the overall strategic planning process.
Digital strategy adequately support company business strategy, goals are aligned, targeted
and achievable. The current strategy is from the year 2019 and a new one is presently being
created. However, all current activities and projects are originating from the now valid digital
strategy as most of the activities were on hold due to pandemic during the year 2020 and re-
started in the year 2021. Digital strategy has four focus areas:
- Customer experience
- Production and Operations
- Digital workplace
- Product offering
The digital strategy was communicated with several articles published on the company’s
intranet and few workshops for selected participants. Further and deeper communication
was planned to be done via specific related projects (such as this one). Estimation is that
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awareness of this digital strategy reached maximum VP or Sales Directors level and mostly
no further.
The strategy clearly states that the current phase is more about digital optimization and
innovation, rather than business transformation. Three building blocks for the future digital
service portfolio were identified - digital commerce, digital services and custom applications.
The goal to reach with digital commerce block was 20% of external orders made digitally by
2022. However digital commerce term included all digitally enabled and automated order
placement, not only online sales (webshop), so the exact target for online sales (and this
specific tool) was not specified. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many digital projects
activities were delayed and the goals needed to be adjusted. Current KPI (key performance
indicators) are set together with the local sales department. Targets are starting on a
conservative and achievable side, taking into account related delays and available resources.
Strengths of the company’s digital strategy are that the digital activities are clearly identified
for what they are - digitalization and digitally-enabled optimization, company is not yet
discussing digital transformation. Digital strategy is in alignment with and supporting
business goals. The development area is the lack of awareness and overall digital vision.
More about improvement suggestions in chapter 6.1
5.1 Project for new digital commerce tool
New digital commerce tool (webshop) creation was one of the main initiatives in the
Customer Experience focus area of the strategy. The need for introducing this new sales
channel emerged from the customer satisfaction survey as a priority in the top 4 and later
approved by top management.
The planning phase of the project started in 2020 and phase one implementation started in
January 2021. This thesis was finalized shortly before phase 1.0 go-live. During the planning
phase, several meetings were held for data collection, information sharing, and Q&A
sessions with both the sales department and selected pilot customers. Project resources
consisted of cross-functional teams, that were a mix of internal stakeholders (expert group
from different applications) and external consultants.
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The project was divided into several phases, where the first phase 1.0 clearly defined
minimum viable product (MVP) scope for involved divisions, legal unit, geographical area,
products to be sold, sales model (stock), business application in the background and
integration. Benchmarking was done against several external competitors and also
internally, as similar digital tools were already launched in other divisions of the company.
The first phase of the project, phase 1.0, includes only one geographical area (country) and
only several selected customers. The timeline was created for the project itself and also a
roadmap for the digital business development for a whole year that integrated the project
timeline and milestones into a bigger picture including intelligent automation activities, SCM
& Production digital activities. The project timeline was kept relatively well with only minor
postponements.
5.2 Onboarding and implementation plan
It was decided, that extensive training is not needed, as a webshop is an intuitive tool and
inside sales, as well as customers, are expected to have a previous personal experience with
buying online. More focus was rather put on training for new roles and processes that
emerged during the project implementation and creating support materials. As established
in the theoretical part, the three most effective approaches to overcome resistance to
change are - education and communication; participation and involvement and facilitation
and support. This was taken into account when creating the onboarding plan and materials,
to minimize resistance and gain internal buy-in.
High-level structure of the onboarding and training plan agreed as:
- Timeline/Roadmap for onboarding and training activities
- Identify target groups and scope for the onboarding (participants as well as
facilitators)
- Identify what processes will needed to be trained and explained
- Create structure and content for support materials for training
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5.2.1 Roadmap for onboarding and training activities
The roadmap/timeline for onboarding and training activities was adjusted several times to
reflect the current go-live date. The roadmap was presented to the target groups as a high-
level overview of important dates and needed resources.
Figure 9 Roadmap for onboarding and training activities
As participants for demonstration sessions 1+2 were chosen first active internal users that
will also test the tool and their respective managers. The demonstration session was a walk-
through of the current test version of the tool. Demo sessions lasted one hour and had two
main purposes. First-one was to demonstrate how the tool looks like and to present a step-
by-step visualization of the order capture process and all features. This part was very
important because as agreed, no specific training for navigation through the webshop would
be organized. This would be the possibility for target groups and first active users to see and
learn the tool. The second reason was to collect feedback and implement it in the
development of the tool. Feedback was collected in the form of a pool facilitated by
Mentimeter interactive platform and participants were supposed to provide two answers –
„What do you think is one positive impact that this new tool will bring and what is the
biggest fear you have regarding this new tool?“ Collected feedback (especially the possible
fears) has not provided any new/previously un-thought of issues, rather confirmed already
identified challenges by the project team, which proved their validity and importance for
working on overcoming those.
For the awareness session a bigger audience was invited, not only first active users, but also
employees from other departments that are in cooperation with sales, that are managing
42
related support processes to sales and those that are in contact with customers. More about
the content of the awareness session, training and application testing in the next chapters.
5.2.2 Target groups/scope for onboarding
Target groups presented all directly and indirectly involved users that would work with the
tool as well as help with the support. Those were identified as:
- Inside sales end-users expected to use new tool for order capture
- Sales managers responsible for price validity (new process and role)
- Other employees directly and indirectly cooperating with sales
- Customers as ultimate end users
- Experts providing the training
- Future support group for problem solving, process owners
5.2.3 Identification of processes that will require training
The scope of the information needed to present/train would depend on the level of
interaction and usage of the tool. The most information and training would be naturally
dedicated to the first group – sales end-users (and their managers) as those will not only be
expected to work daily with the tool, but also expected to manage the new roles and tasks
previously not existing. Introduction material for end customers was also very important, but
the content does not need to be too detailed, as they will be using only a front end of the
tool, whereas sales end-users need to also maintain data in the back-end.
Some challenges were faced with finding the correct experts to provide the training and
contributing to create training materials. The main reasons were different processes
between two divisions of the company that cooperated on the project and overall lack of
proper description of certain processes. That created ambiguity as to who is involved in
current sales processes, who is the owner of the process, who provides support, etc.
43
As mentioned previously, actual order creation in the digital commerce tool will not need to
be trained and should be intuitive. All order creation-related steps (select customer, search
for material, check-out process, order confirmation distribution, search for the document,
track current order status) were demonstrated during demo sessions 1 and 2 and will be
used only for customer support material. Also, all of these processes will be tested by inside
sales users during user acceptance testing before go-live. That would provide sales end-users
with sufficient knowledge of the tool. Main processes that will require actual training were
- Product data management (processes related to maintain articles and products
offered to customers in the tool)
- Price management (all processes related to maintaining up to date prices in the tool)
- Access and user management
Price management was the only new task that appeared and was not previously needed or
performed in this specific way, therefore a new role has to be created/current roles adjusted
to reflect new needs. Small-scale process description and modelling needed to be done for
support materials and training and process owners identified. Discussion of ownership,
responsibilities, and processes itself was quite challenging but brought to a daylight an
important issue – the current low level of automation and heavy human dependency. The
positive aspect was then recognizing this issue as highly important and new, a separate
project was established to focus on automation of price management process (contract
management).
5.2.4 Structure and content for support materials
Both structure and content for support materials were iterated several times during the
onboarding plan creation and was the most time and resource-intensive step in the plan.
The structure of support materials was divided into three categories:
1) Support material for sales department
2) Awareness material for organizations also outside sales department
44
3) Marketing materials for customers
Support material for sales department
One of the long-term goals of implementing this new digital tool is to provide one, unified
order capture platform for the sales department. It should replace the need to access
different ERP systems for creating orders that the company currently has. Therefore the
expectations presented to sales end-users are – to create all sales orders for onboarded
customers only via the new tool and not via ERP (if possible). It was therefore very important
to provide sales end-users with adequate support materials for the usage of the tool.
This material should include both high-level process descriptions (flow chart) and systematic
instructions for relevant back-end tools and systems. Material for the sales department was
divided into four parts:
- Material/product management – add new product to digital commerce tool, add
existing product from ERP system to be visible in the tool, error management, new
stock/storage location related management
- Price management – customer specific prices management, general country specific
prices management, creation of price lists in ERP, price quality check, etc. (Appendix
no.1)
- Access and user management – access rights for internal and external stakeholders,
different roles, customers onboarding, etc.
- Support groups and processes after implementation – should include clear
instruction for error handling, technical and process support from the project side to
end users, feedback and improvement ideas sharing process.
Awareness material
Before go-live, it is important to communicate the incoming tool implementation throughout
the organization (or at least the local part of the organization that is represented in phase
45
1.0-1.1 of the project). No systematic, integrated change management approach was
established, so the change management activities were separately included in onboarding
materials and were also communicated during meetings. This material is intended to bring
awareness to other departments directly or indirectly cooperating with the sales dept. and
with customers.
The awareness session was an important step for overcoming change resistance by
answering important questions such as: why are we changing? What are we changing? Who
will be changing and how will employee’s/end users benefit from the change? Appendix no.
2 shows presented material during the awareness session.
The structure of the material includes:
- Digital strategy information – shortly presenting DT relevant parts, how digital
commerce fits into the strategy, other points of digital strategy that will bring most
value to the organization
- Reasons for new tool – answering the question Why was this tool selected and
implemented, why is it an important strategic goal for the company
- Showcasing the interface, how will it looks like.
- Expectations of what exactly will change in current operations after implementing
the new tool and what will stay the same
- Roadmap for future implementation and next phases.
Marketing material for customers
1) Materials for pilot customers who are aware of being a pilot/testing customers and
first invited to the digital commerce, but there is still a need for presentation of
- how the tool works,
- what benefits it will provide,
- how will the current business they have with case company change/not change
after being invited to the tool,
46
- guide of “how to” (log in, access, etc.),
- how the digital commerce tool interacts with other digital tools currently provided
by case company, etc.
- instruction on how to provide feedback to the company and how important that
feedback is for improvement work.
2) Short term campaign (marketing team responsibility)
3) Long term campaign (marketing team responsibility)
6 CONCLUSIONS
Onboarding and training employees for the usage of any kind of new tool is a very important
step in reaching full potential in tool utilization. Onboarding and training have to be relevant,
targeted, and include important information/elements to assure employees’ acceptance. To
assess what is relevant and valid information end-users should receive, it is important to
understand what theoretical aspects influence a specific tool, what is its purpose, and what
are the levers company has for successful implementation.
6.1 Lessons learned
During the co-creation of the onboarding plan and related support material, the author tried
to draw upon the related theory and reflect it as much as possible into the developed plan.
However, certain steps and actions already emerged in the form of lessons learned for
future phases of the project, or overall digital strategy implementation that is closely
connected to a successful implementation of the digital commerce tool.
Following lessons learned are divided into three categories based on the supporting theory:
Related to change management
- Long-term vision missing for possible company-wide changes that new digital tool
can bring. When the tool is adopted in other geographical areas and includes also
other sales models (service centers, subcontracting, processing, etc.) will it still stay
47
as a supportive sales channel alongside current sales channels or will it gain bigger
momentum? If yes, a management plan needs to be created for the transformation
of roles of sales representatives to ensure their work positions, mitigate resistance
and receive buy-in for supporting/promoting new digital commerce tool. This would
represent a big mindset change throughout the whole sales organization and require
strong support by change management practices.
- Change management process needs more visibility, change management practices
should be prepared in the form of clear steps and implemented continuously. That
would bring great benefit during not only the onboarding process but the whole
deployment.
- Change management activities could be performed on two levels – smaller
scope/short term focusing on immediate change, daily tasks, new roles, and
responsibilities arising, short term benefits tight directly to employees, etc. Long-
term then focused on the above-mentioned vision.
- Bringing awareness earlier than before implementation to next geographical areas
that will adopt the tool.
- Company should consider creating an internal support net of L&D specialists for this,
as well as future projects and changes. Those experts can combine a focus on
training/teaching company management philosophy (a role that was recently partly
terminated) together with supporting departments and teams with various changes
occurring in the organization.
Related to process management
- Current process management in the case company is focused on quite high-level
process description, more detailed process flow or instructions are missing.
Concentrated effort to map on a more detailed, operative level and especially in
specific local units and branches would bring great benefit for next phase
implementation.
48
- Better process mapping would provide a chance for implementing software BPM
solutions or easier RPA implementation.
- Tightly connected to the above-mentioned long-term vision for the tool is also a need
to consider possible process changes for the sales department. If the digital tool will
become more than a supportive sales channel and sales employees’ roles and tasks
will be modified, processes will need to be changed as well and mapped again. For
this Baiyere’s extension to BPM logic could be applied – light touch processes,
infrastructural flexibility, mindful actors.
- For any more detailed process mapping of sales processes for future phases of this
project, much closer cooperation with the sales department (process executors)
should be established. More workshops with step-by-step walk-through of the
processes to achieve maximum understanding and minimize assumptions in the
design building phase.
Related to digitalization/digital transformation
- Communication and awareness – more consistent approach to communication of
digital strategy to all levels of the organization. Raising awareness as the main driver
for buy-in and increased preparedness for adoption by the end-users.
- Long-term digital vision creation – focus on 5-10 years future state, incorporating
digital transformation aspect, not only digitalization aspects.
6.2 Thesis evaluation
The thesis goal was to coordinate and co-develop an onboarding and implementation plan
and materials needed to support end-users and customers during new digital tool
implementation. The author in her role of divisional business representative in the project
team had a unique chance to closely cooperate on the preparation of onboarding and
training materials and apply previously gained experience from other projects.
49
Theoretical research for this study proved to be very interesting not only for gaining deeper
knowledge about individual theories but also in finding the connections between those.
Searching for context and links that would create synergy in theoretical support of practical,
real-life problems and challenges was an exciting and very beneficial task. The empirical part
turned out to be more difficult than originally expected because a development project like
this is continuously adjusted to reflect the actual situation. Even though the whole digital
commerce project applied agile principles of project management, planning for onboarding
and material creation needed also a high level of agility. Hence, coordinate and harmonize
training resources, needs, time possibilities, content validity, and supportive theory was
quite a difficult task.
Digital transformation and digitalization are such young and developing topics in current
business management, that there are no tried and tested ways and rules on how to proceed
in every situation. That is an important reason to research those to gain more and more
insight, experience and build a better theoretical base. Change management and process
management, on the other hand, are relatively well-defined and researched theories but
their real-life application still poses a great challenge for many companies. We should vice
versa focus on applying currently discovered relations and levers to the practice to improve
organizational management.
The final result of the onboarding plan fulfilled all the requirements author and co-creator
expected at the beginning. The plan has a structure that gives answers to scope, involved
groups, timeline and what is needed to be trained. Content of supporting material reflects
the theoretical highlights and also final analysis in the form of lessons learned suggest
development areas for future phases of the project. As the author is continuing as a project
team member also in the next phases, she will pursue the application of lessons learned and
hope for achieving more effective outcomes thanks to this.
6.3 Reflections
Feedback received from the commissioning party stated, that goals for the onboarding plan
were achieved. There is a clear plan and sufficient support material for phase 1.0 onboarding
and training now ready. Several improvement suggestions for the next phases were received
50
and should be reflected not only by the author in her role of divisional business
representative but also from the project manager. Non-existing and unclear processes were
brought into daylight and identified. The commissioning party appreciates the level of
activity the author showed during the plan creation. The author challenged all parties with
open questions and encouraged honest opinions and information sharing. Essential points
were properly mapped which allowed us to arrive at the correct conclusions.
This research and development task brought great value to the author’s own professional
life. First, the study of relevant theories provided a deeper understanding of digital
transformation phenomena, which is a very relevant topic in the world of work regardless of
the organization/company. Its importance will only increase in time so continuous studying
of digitalization and digital transformation aspects will be required. Analysis from change
management and process management theory point of view helped the author to
understand that regardless of how much are those topics well-known and there is a great
theoretical background supporting them, their successful implementation still poses a
challenge for practitioners in actual organizational management. Simply said aligning theory
and practice is a long-standing issue.
Cooperating on the onboarding plan creation was a very good experience and helped the
author to recognize the complexity and intricacies of a project of this size. It helped with
building a 3D picture that included the author’s expectations based on previous project
experience – now seen through a multifocal lens of business, marketing, IT and
leadership/management. The author will continue as a business representative for future
phases of the project and apply acquired knowledge to help with the more and more
successful implementation of the tool.
51
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