Change Management Basics for Technology Refreshes

Change Management

You may have completed a technology audit and prioritized the order in which you will close your infrastructure gaps. However, it is vital to remember the actions to take before this implementation. This enables change to be successful, efficient, and well-received by your team.

Change can produce strain in technology environments. This involves the stress among those who implement or are affected by the change. Therefore, it’s clear that change management is incredibly critical for successful implementation.

As an approach that deals with organizational processes, objectives, and technologies, chain management aims to discover strategies to implement and govern transformation. At the same time, it also assists people in getting used to it.

Applying the best change management practices to your organization, such as those implemented by IT services Austin, can enable it to scale up and adapt to changing market conditions. Most importantly, you can do this without losing any key team players.

Five elements of effective change management for technology refreshes

1. Identify

Many change management strategies acknowledge that identifying what needs improving creates a proper foundation for clarity, efficiency, and success.

Most changes are developed to improve strategy, results, and especially technology changes. This means that identifying the objective and solidifying the goal is critical. Further still, this involves selecting the correct individual and resources needed to facilitate and lead the initiative.

It’s key to think about the following questions, allowing you to gain a better understanding of your core mission and how to approach it:

· What are you changing?
· Why is this change occurring?
· Which systems and processes might be affected?
· How would this affect employees, customers, and others?

2. Evaluate

It might be worth modifying evaluation attempts to analyze essential transformations before letting these changes integrate into your usual operations.

For the evaluation stage, you might want to:

· Examine technology mapping and dependencies, ensuring that you understand the implications of taking specific systems offline for important updates
· Assess the peak usage for affected users if the failover* operation isn’t an option, ensuring that system downtime is not scheduled during these critical times
· Identify and select the processes that need to be changed as well as any individuals who monitor them
· Define the impact on different user groups

* A failover is the capability to instantly switch to a dependable backup system

3. Manage

You need to pay attention to these key areas:

· Seek the assistance of an executive sponsor to drive your project forward. They can also hold you accountable for deviation from any of your objectives
· Meet with suitable team leaders to discuss your plans before detailing and implementing the change management strategy
· Make a note of and connect with useful process owners, providing them with implementation deadlines
· Be aware of which technologies and platforms will be impacted by the upcoming changes. It is vital to pick emergency contacts to tackle any unforeseen mishaps which could take place

4. Create

After completing the steps listed so far, it is time to create the change management strategy and draft your expected timeframe from implementation.

This strategy must be able to act as a roadmap for defining the concrete steps the organization must take to implement changes. This is significant in avoiding the disruption of workflows and helping teammates navigate any tricky changes.

5. Implement

It is important to get the key stakeholders’ approval of this change management strategy before putting changes into effect. Implementing changes can require cross-team collaboration and even the support of third parties. This can include consultants, technology suppliers, and managed service providers.

There are many questions you should

Collaborate for success

An expert like us can take a significant burden off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on other critical business matters. Contigo Technology is a trusted partner to handle your IT needs . Want to know about our services? Check out our support page.

To deep dive into the concept of change management, download our checklist, “5 Steps for Effective Change Management in Your Technology Environment,” by clicking here.