No busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion ends at go-live. Imple­men­ta­tion of new solu­tions, work­flows, and process­es into an enterprise’s IT stack is an on-going process, con­tin­gent upon an organization’s busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion man­age­ment strat­e­gy. Recent ASUG Research empha­sizes the impor­tance of suc­cess­ful and effi­cient trans­for­ma­tion plans — and the poten­tial hur­dles that can derail them. 

The research, con­duct­ed in July 2023 in part­ner­ship with SAP Sig­navio, not only pro­vides insights into how respon­dents approach busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion but also illu­mi­nates the larg­er role that change man­age­ment plays in the intel­li­gent enter­prise. As pre­sent­ed dur­ing the recent ASUG Human Capi­tal Man­age­ment (HCM) Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance Town Hall (Feb. 27; watch the full replay), the research under­scores the ben­e­fits that change man­age­ment ini­tia­tives can bring to orga­ni­za­tions amid transformation. 

ASUG Research Direc­tor Maris­sa Gilbert said a major goal of the research sur­vey was to under­stand the major fac­tors influ­enc­ing enter­pris­es to under­take busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion projects. Respon­dents were asked to iden­ti­fy all the ben­e­fits that were moti­vat­ing fac­tors for their busi­ness trans­for­ma­tions. Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and effi­cien­cy fac­tors were among the pop­u­lar moti­va­tors, with 58% of sur­vey respon­dents say­ing bet­ter employ­ee expe­ri­ence and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty drove busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion, and 58% also indi­cat­ed faster access to ana­lyt­ics and report­ing were rea­sons to under­take transformation. 

How­ev­er, bar­ri­ers to trans­for­ma­tion remain. Over two-thirds (67%) of respon­dents report­ed com­pet­ing busi­ness pri­or­i­ties hin­dered trans­for­ma­tion efforts, while 58% indi­cat­ed change man­age­ment efforts and 47% cit­ed a lack of inter­nal skills nec­es­sary to facil­i­tate change as chal­lenges their busi­ness­es face. To com­bat these chal­lenges, respon­dents cit­ed the need for bet­ter resource and skill devel­op­ment, change man­age­ment lead­er­ship, and tech­nol­o­gy improve­ments, among oth­er poten­tial areas of investment. 

The research honed in on how respon­dents approach SAP S/4HANA change man­age­ment. Over one-third (37%) of respon­dents indi­cat­ed respon­si­bil­i­ty for that process should fall under IT depart­ments, while 19% said coop­er­a­tive depart­ments should be respon­si­ble and 15% indi­cat­ed trans­for­ma­tion offices should own change management. 

Respon­dents also indi­cat­ed ways trans­for­ma­tion strate­gies can be improved over­all. Top report­ed actions included: 

• Improved com­mu­ni­ca­tion: 51% 
• More end-user adop­tion and accep­tance strate­gies: 47% 
• Bet­ter plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion: 45% 
• Thor­ough onboard­ing train­ing: 41% 
• Bet­ter busi­ness align­ment: 38% 

ASUG also asked sur­vey respon­dents to share the tried-and-true busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion strate­gies that result in effi­cient trans­for­ma­tion projects at their orga­ni­za­tions. The top strate­gies included: 

• Well-planned process­es: 75% 
• Lead­er­ship buy-in: 61% 
• Help­ful teams: 57% 
• Effec­tive change lead­er­ship: 57% 
• Cen­ter of Excel­lence (CoE) involve­ment: 46% 

The Town Hall also pro­vid­ed atten­dees with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­ment on the ASUG Research and dis­cuss their own expe­ri­ences with busi­ness trans­for­ma­tions. Watch the full ses­sion here.

This ASUG Research was con­duct­ed in July 2023 in part­ner­ship with SAP Sig­navio and sur­veyed 148 ASUG respondents.