The Client:
The client is the largest wholesale distributor of consumer products in their industry. At about $5B in annual revenue, they manage a network of over 140 distribution centers servicing over 90,000 customers across the United States and Canada.
The Challenge:
Our client’s most important business initiative concerned the digitization of its Operations and Logistics functions by enabling delivery drivers, finance personnel, and Distribution Center management with mobile devices and an online solution. While their Order Management and Warehouse Management functions had been digitized for several years, the delivery and distribution center financial processes remained largely manual and paper-based. This transformation was attempted twice before but low adoption by internal and external stakeholders caused each effort to be abandoned. Having just finished the Business Process Analysis portion of the client’s third attempt, Jabian was asked to continue our involvement by leading the Change Management effort.
The Strategy:
Jabian partnered with the client and leveraged our Change Management Methodology to define, manage, and support the change through the pilot of the mobile device-enabled delivery solution. The team performed the following activities to complete the work:
- Identified impacted stakeholders and determined the impact of the new process and technology
- Assessed internal and external stakeholder change context and developed a custom Change Management Strategy
- Developed a Change Management Plan to track all activities required to manage (i.e., prepare all stakeholders for the change) and support the change after go-live
- Communicated the case for change to key stakeholders
- Developed and executed a training plan and change communications
- Gathered feedback on the change during pre-go-live and post-go-live activities
- Identified opportunities to improve adoption and adjusted the Change Plan for later rollouts
Stakeholder Impact Assessment
Change Plan
The Outcome:
Because of the team’s efforts, the pilot was well-received by both customers and employees. Customers felt adequately prepared for the change and welcomed the new digital capabilities enabled by the mobile delivery application. Self-reported delivery driver comfort levels soared to 9.6 out of 10 by the end of the first session. By the second post-go-live session, the success of the effort was captured by the CEO when he commented “this project is a real step forward for the company… the customer feedback we’ve received on this new solution has been tremendous.”
