Change management support for customers of a SaaS company: developing and proposing user journey communication guide for client X

Abstract

To maintain the privacy policy of the client company the name is changed to client X. This thesis project responds to client company X's request to develop its change management support for customers during client projects. Client X offers its customers solutions for customized document management systems. As Client X is a SaaS company, recurring customers are as important as new customers, and the need for developing a change management support process alongside the Client X implementation process has been voiced. With purposeful and planned change management, Client X customer organizations can increase the success of implementing the new system. In this way, the customer organizations will make the most of their software investment.

This study aims to develop a change management support guide based on the Customer Journey for Client X. The goal was to analyze change management in businesses to create a support guide suitable for customer organizations from various business fields. The research part of this thesis project consists of a literature review of change, management, and change management. The literature review is used to construct a change management support process framework for Client X. The proposed process is based on the change management model, ADKAR. The elements of ADKAR (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement) are integrated into the existing Client X customer journey. The framework concentrates on creating sustainable change from the end user perspective, as they are easily forgotten in the Client X implementation process though they are key to the successful adoption of the new Client X system.

The study's findings suggest that change management in business should be seen as a journey instead of a project. While the Client X software design and implementation project advances, employees in the customer organization impacted by the change require support and communication to ease their adoption of the new Client X solution. The proposed process and communication plan take into account the needs of the employees and proposes what should be taken into consideration at what phase of the Client X implementation project. Change is a continuous process that might start already before client X is included in the change. Therefore, the proposed framework starts from the organizational vision and goal building at phase 0. Moving along, building different teams to support both the client X design and implementation as well as the change management and creating awareness and enthusiasm inside the organization are introduced. Involving employees at different levels in the organization during the transition process is critical and the communication plan offers different techniques for empowering, enabling, and involving the impacted employees. The aim of the framework is for the Client X software design and implementation project to be successful in a way that the employees are able to adopt it into their daily work life and become committed to using the new software solution after the implementation without resistance and falling back to their old ways.

As this thesis develops and proposes a change management support idea that includes a communication plan, it is up to client company X to decide how they want to test and implement the created model in their project management and customer success organization.