Managing change

- [Presenter] Deploying Microsoft Dynamics 365 for an organization requires preparation, planning, and execution for changes with all teams, business units, and employees that it impacts. Change management starts with your executive team. You need their support. Questions you should consider. Do all stakeholders support making this change? If not, what is needed to get their buy-in? Who requested the change? If it's something a leader wants, make sure to get input from the end users. This will make sure it's suitable for the way they need to work. Is this a complex change? Are there ways to make it simple? Is the change happening in increments? Evaluating the answers to these questions will help you implement processes and procedures that will help with project timeline constraints, project costs, resources needed, and stress and anxiety for all involved. Are ongoing resources in place and available to support this change? This is planning project management resources, administrator resources, and IT support resources. Are ongoing training resources in place to support this change? Consider training needed for a pilot group for recruiting your champions, and then training prior, during, and after the change takes affect. Ongoing training is often forgotten. It can be in the form of instructor led, in-person, or online training, quick start guides, or on-demand learning, and more. Is a communication plan ready to help employees understand the benefits of making this change? Communicate early, often, and on a regular basis. Consider several methods depending on where employees look for new information, and what applications they use based on their job role. Examples are email a communication, post a communication in Yammer or Microsoft Teams, post a news article or an announcement on your organization's SharePoint site. Be open and flexible to new technology. Be a part of a pilot group. Take Dynamics 365 for a test drive. Determine what changes are needed, and then get under the hood and make them. Doing so can prevent stress and anxiety as mentioned before, that a company unexpected changes for you and your colleagues. Be a technology change agent. Be a cheerleader for change and help other colleagues get excited and learn about how it will benefit their roles and their work. If you have 250 combined eligible app or plan user subscription licenses, your organization is eligible for FastTrack. Eligible apps or plans include Dynamics 365 for Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, Project Service Automation, Customer Engagement Plan, and Dynamics 365 Plan with a commitment to implement Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, or Project Service Automation apps. If you're not sure what FastTrack does, it provides practical guidance on deployment. It helps with usage and adoption, assistance during your implementation in the form of technical talks, workshops, and regular touch points. If you want to learn more about the approaches and techniques change managers face while driving organizational change, check out the Change Management Foundations course by Bob McGannon.