The Client

Multibillion dollar global retailer with close to 300,000 employees.

The Problem

The IT department of this global retailer had embarked on a multi-year SAP ERP implementation designed to streamline its HR and Accounting capabilities.

There were concerns about whether this implementation was being given the appropriate level of priority relative to other initiatives in the company by those they were relying on to get tasks done. Additionally, there were doubts about whether the consulting firms they had hired to assist them with this deployment were working with the right people in their organization to meet project needs. Also troubling were concerns about whether the affected management and employees had confidence in how the project was being executed and the value of the processes and procedures that would ultimately be deployed. This was a significant investment for the company and success was imperative.

The Solution

In response to this need, Soarington first developed and then conducted a customized assessment with a range of key stakeholders at the senior and mid-management levels to determine the most critical organizational factors that might have been impeding the company’s ability to achieve its objectives.

Once interviews were completed, Soarington analyzed the feedback and then provided recommendations across 6 key areas of organizational capability. The recommendations were adopted, plans were created, and a task force was developed to oversee the execution of these recommendations.

Soarington then created a scorecard to measure progress and reviewed this with the task force as a basis for determining ‘course corrections’ as new information became available.

Ultimately, Soarington applied its experience in organizational effectiveness to assist the client in navigating through its project and organizational challenges. It met with the task force to track progress and determine next steps as needed to help them through their project and organizational challenges.

The Result

Through the assessment process, the client was able to easily understand the core issues hindering successful project execution. With a governance process in place to manage the project and organizational dynamics, project actions and outcomes were more predictable and confidence in the project team’s ability to execute and achieve the goals of the SAP program increased.

The IT Director indicated that ‘this was the most structured and thorough approach to change management that he had seen’. As a result of this work, Soarington was retained to assist with other needs