Making the change stick - the 6 'E's to successful user adoption

Successful digital transformation within an organisation is a hard thing to achieve, and one of the common misconceptions and biggest errors organisations make when implementing a new systems is leaving user adoption as one of the last steps in an implementation. Often adoption is seen as just a training exercise and users are not engaged early enough in the process. According to Salesforce’s User Adoption Practice, an average of 70% of projects fail to meet their objectives due to people related issues including resistance from employees and inadequate sponsorship. So what can you do to avoid this common pitfall?

A new IT system can have many consequences to the people in your organisation, with end users requiring new skills or having to do different roles - or even taking on new roles altogether. This change can be unsettling if it is not managed properly. We need to win over the “hearts and minds” of the end users, understanding how they respond to change and supporting that process from the start of any IT project until long past the go live date.

Below are what we call the 6 'E's - secret weapons to keep in your arsenal to give your new system the best chance at success, starting from project kick off to beyond go live.

Having a visible and influential champion of the project is fundamental. It creates a sense of urgency, momentum, and commitment around the change. Your executive sponsor, be it the CEO or a Head of Department, is the person that people will look to for the reasons for the change. The power lies in the sponsor championing the change and what it means for the organisation, communicating this to the team, and importantly is key to helping a project back on track if it starts to veer off the rails.

Define user based performance metrics and align them with business objectives of the system to measure system success once it is live. Your project objectives are a good place to start. They should guide not only the solution but also how you go about measuring whether the system was successful. Establish your metrics and how will you measure them. Perhaps it is to increase the amount of quality data you hold for each customer or increasing the number of interactions recorded in any period. Start with the basics. Start with logging in metrics and basic usage , through to driving behavioural change through measuring data quality and driving business objectives . Custom adoption dashboards available from Salesforce Labs should be installed and managers should be empowered with the knowledge and support to manage and promote adoption within their teams.

Once the system is live, be sure to publish successes and consolidate improvements. Collaboration tools such as Chatter can be used to encourage post training support, and Cases to log enhancements requests. Empower the super users to provide help and support to their teams, encouraging the system to be seen as a living breathing part of the organisation.

All process and IT system improvement projects aim to change the way in which people do their jobs. Change Management is not something that can be tacked onto the end of a project. Instead it should affect and guide all aspects of a project from start to end. Here at Emprisia we embed these principles into the heart of all our projects and we believe these tips will help you make your CRM project as successful as possible.


By Pip Dudrah - Managing Partner, Consulting and Change Management at Emprisia.