Organisational change is hard.
Harvard Business Review published this article in 2005, stating that we needed to look at all aspects of change, not just the soft aspects, that is still true now. Organisational change can bring a number of headaches, least of which is if the business systems you have in place are fit for purpose. But this headache, at least, doesn’t have to be a long lasting one! In this blog we’re going to take a look at three common changes that could trigger a business to look at their systems and what you can do about it!
Scenario One – A New CEO
Our first organisational change is probably one that we have all experienced at some time or other, a new CEO comes into the business.
There can be many reasons for a new CEO stepping into a company, and we could talk about that for a long time, but we’ll not, we promise! We’re just going to assume that someone new coming in is a good thing for the business.
But what it does mean is that they are likely to want to make their mark. They will perhaps come in with new ideas of what your day to day operations should look like, or perhaps they might want the business to tap into new markets.
Whatever happens there is likely to be some changes, some subtle, others not so!
What is likely to happen is that they will ask for a ‘state of the nation’ which will cover most aspects of the business. If they know anything about change management, this is part of the first step, defining what the change is.
However, to do that they’ll need to know what is in place already.
If you are a business of a certain size, then that analysis is most likely going to cover what software you are using within the business, and how that software helps (or indeed hinders) what they are trying to achieve.
Scenario two – Management buy out, new investors or buying a business
Similar in some respects to a new CEO coming in, is new investors or owners for your business. If you think about it, anyone who is investing cash, is going to want to know what is going on! OK, sometimes there may well be investors who are more ‘silent’ however, most are likely to want to get an overview of what is happening within the business before they make a decision.
Again, even though this may not be the start of great organisational change, like there is potentially with a new CEO; there will be a need to understand what the state of play is. They are likely to want this before they invest too, so this is likely to be an exercise that has some time constraints and some high expectations.
Scenario Three – Business growth or restructuring.
This might seem an odd pairing, but actually both growth and shrinkage in a business mean that things may well need to change, albeit perhaps in different ways.
If you’re growing a team, and you have a need for more staff to meet your manufacturing demand, then you’re likely to need to switch up how you do things.
For example, if you open a new branch, you might increase your staff by 50%. That might mean that you need to look at what HR systems you are running. If you’re dramatically increasing manufacturing output, then you may well also need to review how your planning and scheduling software is working for you.
Conversely if you’re restructuring, and you’re reducing headcount, then you may well also be looking at other places where you may well be able to cut costs. Whilst no business really wants to be in this position, the sooner you look at the state of play, the easier it will be.
Business Systems Health Check
So what do all these three examples have in common, other than they are likely to result in big changes? They are all perfect use cases for our Business Systems Health Check!
This service was designed to quickly and easily give you a ‘state of the nation’ for software that is used within a business.
But what do we mean by that?
With this service, we take a strategic review of your business. The challenges and indeed opportunities you may face. Alongside this, we also do a full systems review, where we look at different components such as licensing, modules in use, and your disaster recovery plans.
We then invite your team to complete a questionnaire, to gather information on how they currently use the software, and what, if any, off system workarounds have started to creep in.
Once we have all this, we create a comprehensive report based on our findings from the first two steps of the process. This includes a gap analysis which explains the difference (if any) between the needs of the business, and what is happening in the system.
All of this brings you an understanding of how things are working for you. A state of the nation right now.
Of course there are many more scenarios where you may well need a Business Systems Health Check. We actually recommend to our clients that this is something that you do regularly! Even if you feel like it wasn’t that long ago since you implemented your ERP system for example.
The key to any successful organisational change is being able to define that change, and with our Business Systems Health Check in place, you’re off to a really good start!
If you’d like to find out more about how we can work with you, either with a Health Check, or perhaps work with us to support you on your organisational change journey, then please get in touch!