MondayCoffee qualifies for the extended specialization 'Adoption & Change Management'

MondayCoffee has received another extended specialization from Microsoft. This time for our expertise on the topic of 'Adoption & Change Management'. In May 2021 MondayCoffee already qualified for ‚Calling for Microsoft Teams’. 

The award is proof that our customers enjoy the highest standard of delivery and support in this area.  

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A PROVEN APPROACH TO DIGITIZATION

Digitization starts with employees. In their everyday work. A credo we have been aligning our consulting services and Modern Work solution to for over 20 years. 'Adoption & Change Management' is the core of our customer promise.

"Introducing a tool is one thing, establishing a modern way of working in organizations is another story," said our consultant Melody Fleury in a recent client reference video. She sums it up nicely.

To help us succeed in enterprise-wide adoption of our Modern Work solution, we take the following approach:

• We don't focus on the tool, we focus on how people use it. We don't primarily teach employees about the tool, but rather define everyday use cases with them and then use the tool to map these digitally and make them accessible to everyone at the touch of a button.

• On our customer projects, we actively seek dialog with the employees of the respective organization. Without direct exchange with them, we would not be able to fulfill our mission. Only when all of our customers' employees want to change their habits and know how to work in a modern way have we reached our goal.

• We use change management systematically on projects, and our Modern Work ready-to-use solution enables rapid adoption.

Learn more about how our customers WZW AG and EPRO have benefited from our expertise in 'Adoption & Change Management'.

BEST EQUIPPED FOR THE ADOPTION OF A MODERN WAY OF WORKING 

With the extended specialization for 'Adoption & Change Management', we are among a very small group of Microsoft partners who can offer a comparable proof of capability. In addition to the existing eight Gold Partner competencies, which prove our technology competence in particular, we are very pleased to be additionally recognized by Microsoft with this specialization for our consulting service for the adoption of a modern way of working.  

Transparency as standard - company groups unite with CoffeeNet 365

A blog post by Melodie Fleury, Business Consultant at MondayCoffee

Strictly speaking, we are very lucky: the market is neither lacking in technologies, systems nor solutions for modern working. New tools are continuously being developed, existing ones improved or entire tool landscapes consolidated to simplify collaboration - or so the theory goes. Practice shows that many companies still lack the right infrastructure, a uniform basis for everyday work. The result: complex processes, information chaos, loss of time and money. Especially in corporate groups, this is a brake on success, but one that can easily be solved.

TYPICAL CHALLENGES IN CORPORATE GROUPS

As a rule, the larger the company, the more information and communication there is to process - and the more difficult it is to maintain an overview. In addition, work and communication often takes place in silos. Without the right collaboration solution, it becomes almost impossible to exchange knowledge or information between different companies in a group. This is also the case with one of our customers, a Swiss group of companies. The challenges, which often grow over the years, are mostly of a technical, cultural and structural nature.

Technical challenges: The system landscape of companies has often existed for years, if not decades. Once set up, it has hardly been touched or changed in any major way. As a result, there is a lack of infrastructure that meets current work requirements. This starts with digital places of collaboration and extends to the processes and access rights for smooth working. In many cases, data is still sent as attachments by mail. This quickly results in umpteen different versions - and confusion about which file is the most current.

Cultural challenges: Especially in conservative industries, the corporate culture is still strongly hierarchical. Communication is more top-down than bottom-up. In addition, there is a lack of role models who exemplify the "modern workplace" and demonstrate potential. Employees are not sufficiently empowered to obtain relevant information, share knowledge or take responsibility.

Structural challenges: One of the most common symptoms of the siloed landscape is an uneven flow of information. Without uniform processes and specifications across the company, chaos quickly follows. This starts with distribution lists: If distribution lists are not maintained centrally and synchronized automatically, someone is quickly forgotten and lost in communication. Knowledge is shared informally in small groups: Those who were not present at the right time during the smoking break or at the coffee machine are not informed or are informed late. Within an organization there are departmental silos, within a group of companies there are corporate silos. Another problem is that employees do not have the opportunity to contribute themselves and their skills in the right places. The skills and knowledge of those involved remain hidden in the silo jungle.

Getting an all new meeting culture

The solution is simple: "Keep it simple" - digitally. This is exactly where MondayCoffee's Modern Workplace solution (CoffeeNet 365) comes in. Based on best practices, the collaboration platform enables centralized, simplified and efficient work - in real time and from any location.

“One of the most common productivity killers in companies is still having too many meetings.”

The rethinking already starts with the meeting culture. One of the most common productivity obstacles in companies is still too many meetings that are unstructured and without an agenda. This was also the case for our customer. MondayCoffee provided the Swiss group with a meeting app that makes recurring meetings easy, efficient and structured.

The app enables each individual to plan meetings, prepare for topics or introduce meeting points with just a few clicks. Meetings are now much more efficient and transparent than before, which was met with great enthusiasm by our customer's employees.

AWAY FROM INFORMATION SILOS, TOWARDS COMMUNITY

Modern collaboration solutions are designed to create transparency. Projects, but also individual topics, are visible at a glance with the help of such a platform - for everyone with the necessary authorizations. Relevant documents and personal tasks are easier to find and keep track of. And especially helpful in corporate groups: You can finally see what is happening in other departments and companies.

Work becomes more transparent and efficient

At the same time, everyday work becomes more efficient: The introduction of a new Workplace solution is an opportunity to clean up the old chaos in structures, processes or documents and to redesign the basis. Uniform communication channels, media and tools such as the meeting app streamline processes and free up resources for actual tasks. Documents are stored and edited in a central location on the platform - so that everyone has the latest version available at all times and from anywhere. Outdated email attachments in dozens of versions are a thing of the past. The tedious manual creation of distribution lists is also a thing of the past - the Workspaces feature takes care of that.

Projects, topics and processes are more transparent on the Modern Workplace platform and can be viewed by all - in dedicated virtual collaboration rooms that are set up simply and uniformly. Instead of the old e-mail flood, Microsoft Teams is used for short-term exchange.

Potential becomes visible - at employee and group level

The new way of working on the collaboration platform automatically strengthens the sense of unity within the group. News posts can be used to send targeted messages across the various departments and companies. All areas have the opportunity to present themselves there and show what they are working on and what competencies they offer. The contribution of new ideas meets with public appreciation and is actively promoted.

Often, this is also accompanied by a subtle change in culture: employees can show themselves, learn from each other, participate more easily and act as role models. High potentials, i.e., particularly committed employees, emerge more easily and can be promoted in a targeted manner. On the one hand, this has a positive effect on employee motivation; on the other hand, it also simplifies personnel planning and succession planning. In the long term, hierarchies become flatter and people work together as equals.

Working together more efficiently in virtual collaboration rooms

Onboarding new employees can be made more efficient, speeding up the onboarding process. But collaboration also becomes easier as information silos are broken down. Roles and responsibilities can be defined uniformly and clearly - whether within a company's own team, across departments or with external parties.

All in all, the potential of the whole group can be better utilized and interdisciplinary collaboration can be promoted throughout the group. This also opens up the opportunity to present a modern company or group to employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders - with an attractive, contemporary and modern working environment.

HOW DOES THE COLLABORATION WITH MONDAYCOFFEE WORK?

The procedure in such projects is always similar: In the so-called discovery workshops, we analyze the previous collaboration. This includes, for example, communication and collaboration, target/actual comparisons, opportunities, and potential risks and dangers. In the next step, we talk about the effects of these changes in relation to the current way of working and derive new collaboration scenarios together with our customer.

The third workshop aims to obtain a big picture of the new form of collaboration and to plan the procedure, structure and responsibilities. In the later workshops, we get down to the nitty-gritty, such as mapping the structure, working out the various concepts, such as for authorizations, news and also automating processes.

“Our work is done when employees can work well and, above all, happily with the new solution.”

Throughout the process, we provide our customers with advice and support and work together in a close and friendly exchange. Our work is done when everyone is satisfied with the new solution at the end. And to ensure that employees can later work well - and above all happily - with the new solution, we train everyone in the use of the new platform.

The magic behind successful transformational change

Nowadays, most established companies face the need for relatively substantial change. Their businesses are under threat from new technology-enabled innovations or intense competition is eating away their profits. Either way, we probably all know companies in such situations. 

At the same time, we are highly skeptical about companies’ ability to change. We can all recall projects, which promised to “change the way we do business”, but then clearly failed short of reaching the stated goals. Irrespective of the type of project – a new process, a post-merger integration, a new business model, a restructuring effort – they all have their pitfalls. Even McKinsey found that only 26% of transformational initiatives succeeded, when they surveyed 1700 companies in 2015.  

What does it take to make important, transformational initiatives successful? To reach the goals we set out at the start? Judging from my own experience and what probably most people would say – people with leadership experience and a lot of communication. But what is it that really making the difference? Recently, I got my hands on the above-mentioned McKinsey study («How to beat the transformational odds, 2015»), and I recognized some valuable patterns that combined with my own experience result in the following 8 success factors for transformational change, I’d like to share with you. 
 

My own 8 success factors for transformational change 

1. Systematic, rigorous and aligned approach: It takes a systematic approach to planning and leading organizational change. It requires several coordinated actions to get things going, essentially all related to communication, leadership, the people and processes. McKinsey lists 24 types of actions, of which certainly more than half are important. It may seem overwhelming, but it is worth the effort to study them to get an idea of the range of actions to be considered.  

2. Clarified “WIIFM”: Vision and objectives for the initiative have to be detailed and formally endorsed by the top management. But that is not enough. Individuals – managers and employees – then want to know the answer to “what’s in it for me?” (WIIFM). Make tangible statements and commit to them. Remember that you are “selling” the idea to individuals, not to an anonymous group. 

3. Sponsorship and stakeholders: Getting formal alignment and endorsement from top management, e.g. having an individual project sponsor, who personally wants the project to be a success. There are often different interests across the organization, which need to be understood and taken into consideration when setting up the initiative. Mapping and interviewing individual key decision makers and “decision influencers” is also important. Make sure you identify who is going to help or block the initiative and for what reasons. Without this step done well, the initiative is probably doomed from the start.  

4. Communicate in planned and “responsive” manner: Leading an important initiative also means having a concept for communicating to all stakeholders. The story must be consistent and regularly repeated. Create opportunities for additional communication across teams, too. During dynamic moments, this also means frequent hands-on communication and actively seeking for questions and feedback, in order to tackle any emerging issues. “You can never communicate too much” is largely true, especially for people you don’t have personal contact to. You have to assume that 80% of your colleagues don’t read the formal "project news” properly. Offering a more personal communication works much better, also for identifying specific concerns. Hence organize enough face-to-face communication at the beginning of the initiative – it is a good investment – and follow-up periodically with updates (personal and via official channels).  

5. Align project and individual goals: Ensure that for all project members, the project goals are aligned with individual goals. Remove obstacles in terms of conflicting objectives. If needed, add formal project goals to the annual performance management system. Practically, this means that your management may need to re-prioritize existing objectives to help the initiative.  

6. Empower formal resources: Not just project management needs enough resources, but also all the project members. Assign high-potential individuals to lead the initiative or parts of it. Organize a common project workspace and make ongoing tasks transparent for the team. Delegate the actual change as far into the line organization as possible, so that the line managers own their part of the initiative. In my experience, this usually works, once you have been able to get the respective line management on board – once they have understood that this initiative is worth fighting for. 

7. Share all leadership and management tricks: Make sure that managers know, what is expected of them and how they can contribute to the goals. If needed train them on how to play their part in the "change management” journey, I.e. how they can engage their teams. I always found it surprising, how little some managers know about team leadership and development (while many do an excellent job!) Don’t assume that everyone is familiar with organizational change. 

8. Established steering process: Projects need to be held accountable to an empowered steering committee, that convenes on a regular basis (e.g. every 1-3 months). With this recurring ritual, the project’s the progress is observed, and any upcoming obstacles are identified and removed swiftly. My experience is it is important to invest this time and keep “steering” long enough until not only the milestones but also the objectives have been reached.  

What is your experience? Do you have other key success factors? I hope my list will help for your next big change initiative. 

Mark Albrecht is Director Corporate Development at MondayCoffee AG.

Setting an example! How you can successfully change working methods.

"A fool with a tool is still a fool", an American saying that for me in the context of a modern workplace and digitization means that the mere provision of new tools can hardly add any value to a company today. The days are gone where every invested Swiss franc or Euro in an IT Software immediately increased the productivity. Even worse: If the modern "knowledge worker" is not exemplified and taught a modern way of working, there are hardly any measurable benefits to be gained. Which manager really checks how much time an employee spends searching for information? One can handle one's own email communication efficiently or inefficiently; this is hardly noticeable in an open-space office. Since a colleague of mine taught me the simple but effective rules of inbox management, it has been empty most of the time. And since most of our employees consistently adhere to the company policy of using the right communication channel for the right information, the number of emails in my inbox is decreasing even more. It's pretty cool, but what's important is that we've changed our processes so that we can make an effective change. Otherwise, the familiar formula threatens: Old processes + new technologies = expensive old processes. 

Creating user experiences           

The key is to get all the employees, including the management, to change the way they work. So we are talking about change management. To come back to the example from above, who wouldn't want fewer emails? This is the main part of the work of my consultants and myself at MondayCoffee. There are countless "frameworks" on change management from famous people with important titles, but I don't want to go into that here. The intention of this short article is to shed light on two important aspects that in the heat of the moment, for example in a technical organized implementation, are sometimes simply forgotten. 

Firstly, my personal recipe for success: Experience + satisfaction + use = change of the working methods, which brings real business benefits. What does that mean? A great user experience encourages others in the company to simply try it out. MondayCoffee's consultants and I strive to reduce the complexity of the tool landscape for the customer with the help of simple and understandable instructions. With this simplicity a positive user experience is more likely created. And with a positive experience the users are more satisfied which makes them not only use the solution more but also makes them experiment with it, try new things and share their experiences with others. The third summand from my personal recipe is about user statistics: they provide valuable information on where and how users are working with the new possibilities the solution brings. This can result, for example, in best practice teams or even entire departments that can serve others as good examples but can also point out areas that require more attention. For these areas, improvements must be made through employee and supervisor training, power users, accompanying communication measures and much more.  

As already mentioned, superiors have an important role to play, especially middle management. They are the most important ambassadors and "role models" if they are convinced themselves.  

Communicating the added value for the individual 

Secondly, important questions of individuals that are affected by the change are often forgotten. These questions are, for example: "What is in it for me if I change? "or "Who is asking me for this change? "or "How will I be rewarded if I change? ». These are key questions that MondayCoffee Consultants focus on when working with you, because success and long-term benefits depend on good answers and above all on the actions you take in response to these questions.  

With this in mind, I hope that with the implementation of new tools the focus on the users and their questions, concerns and wishes will increase.  

Patrick Fischer is Director Consulting at MondayCoffee AG  

Focusing on what matters most!

The company Emmi is Switzerland's largest diary processor.

Everywhere and anytime. This is what many people expect at work. Employees also work increasingly with colleagues and externals without sitting anywhere close to them. However, it has become crucial to collaborate efficiently, easily and in a professional manner to achieve the defined objectives. A case in point is the introduction of a company-wide ERP system. 

Lukas Fischer, project manager in the Corporate Development team at Emmi, Switzerland's largest dairy processor, was part of the successful implementation of their new ERP system based on SAP between 2012 and 2017. The certainty that Emmi would not be able to deal without an integrated ERP system was matched with equally large respect: this was a huge project with many unknown factors at the start. 

Lukas Fischer implemented, with the help of EmmiNet, a new ERP system at Emmi.

"Every core process is affected by the introduction of such a system: countless stakeholders, countless meetings, and a never-ending number of new people who have to be onboarded and get involved as quickly as possible," explains Lukas Fischer the situation. “How can we make sure that everyone in the project team is connected intelligently and that we do not have to spend too much time with administration and IT issues?” These were the questions the project team had right from the beginning. 

Efficient collaboration – agile progress 

Questions that were easy to answer at Emmi. As early as 2009, Emmi started to facilitate the company-wide collaboration across its various businesses. "We wanted to enable our employees to become more efficient and agile in their collaboration. Everyone had to be able to access relevant information and existing knowledge quicker and more effectively, as well as to communicate and collaborate digitally with all involved parties, from within the company and with externals. That was the goal. 

EmmiNet - the name of the SharePoint-based solution at Emmi - crystallized as a future-oriented and sustainable platform. Emmi’s operating system was already Microsoft Office at that time, and that had to remain unchanged. Hence, a professional Microsoft-compatible platform had to be found to prepare the company for its digital transformation. 

Every core process is affected by the introduction of an ERP system. Thanks to EmmiNet all involved people in the project were intelligently connected with each other.

No file shares, less emails 

"CoffeeNet, the collaboration solution by MondayCoffee, sparked our interest not just of its original name," the application managers summed up. "We were presented an out-of-the-box and user-friendly platform that allowed us to work more efficiently and effectively, from a collaboration, communication and an enterprise-wide document management point of view. That, of course, was exactly what we needed”, Lukas Fischer recalls. 

File shares and thousands of emails with attachments were gradually becoming something of the past. Needless to say, the project workers needed time to get used to the new way of working. However, they quickly familiarized themselves with the benefits of this collaboration platform and made good use of it. 

The concept and implementation phases of the ERP project were entirely handled over EmmiNet. All project members can access the various documents in virtual workspaces, working together at the same time and from any device. Project updates or meeting notes can be placed at the same location, where the task lists and documents are also stored, "Lukas Fischer explains. "This has helped us to focus on what really mattered." 

The rollout of the ERP project across the entire group will also take place on the EmmiNet as it allows our international colleagues to access relevant information and data quickly and easily. 

Ongoing development 

For Thomas Pizzolato the implementation of CoffeeNet is much more of a business project requiring intense change management.

In parallel to the ERP rollout, Emmi's application managers developed the EmmiNet further and also switched from a on-premise to an online solution, based on SharePoint Online / Office 365. "We focused on user-friendliness, modern and intuitive design, and a strong search function", explains the SharePoint team leader at Emmi, Thomas Pizzolato. 

"We handed over the responsibility for the daily administration of EmmiNet to the business. In other words, they had to decide what kind of workspaces they wanted to use for what kind of topic and with whom”, Thomas Pizzolato summarizes the most relevant change that came with the new development. That’s why adopting the new way of working away from file shares and towards SharePoint technology is not an IT project, but much rather a business project with a large change component. "But once the users are familiar with the advantages, they don’t’ want to go back.” Precisely because one can focus on what matters most!

Changing today, means being ready for tomorrow!

For the development of new technologies and products, an efficient collaboration between USTER employees in Switzerland, US, China or India is key. 

Roger Heckly works with data every day; He collects data, combines data, generates information and knowledge to then put it at disposal for his work colleagues. "I help my employer Uster Technologies AG, a leading Swiss manufacturer of measuring instruments for the textile industry, to get easier access to information and knowledge," says Heckly about his role in the company.

For Roger Heckly UsterNet was a catalyst for a cultural change. 

As a key success factor, he sees above all a consciously chosen culture, which promotes collaboration between the globally distributed employees of USTER. "Five years ago, we began to change the way we work together, triggered by the introduction of the collaboration solution UsterNet, based on CoffeeNet and Microsoft SharePoint.” 

New way of working - Top-down 

Whether an employee works in Tennessee or in Suzhou, the company goals must be clear to everyone. This requires, in particular, a direct and easy accessible communication from the CEO. At the same time, there must be no obstacles to effective collaboration between employees in Switzerland, the USA, China or India. These were the objectives of the former CEO of USTER. He initiated the launch of UsterNet in 2011 and personally supported the worldwide roll-out of the platform during the two subsequent years. 

"UsterNet was a catalyst for change. Because it was not enough to just log in to the new tool, we had to learn a new way of working that fit the digital world. In that sense, having the top management as a role model was extremely important", Heckly summaries his observations during that time. 

Historically grown data silos between departments and locations, which too often hindered efficient collaboration, had no right to exist anymore. With the UsterNet, employees were able to create virtual collaboration rooms, so-called workspaces, independently and without IT support. The information stored therein is accessible to authorized persons at any time. "This independency as well as the dismantling of the silos had to be practiced again and again," says Heckly about the most important tasks after the rollout of UsterNet. 

The global UsterNet started as an intranet, a uniform information platform and a hub for all workspaces. But that was only the beginning. 

The digital transformation happens everywhere. 

More services - Bottom-Up 

"This cultural shift continues to affect us today," says Heckly. For USTER, a long-term oriented increase in productivity is a central requirement. "After the UsterNet became an integral part of our daily work and we slowly familiarized with the new way of working, many are now realizing what is still possible." 

Little by little, while using UsterNet, each business unit identified additional areas for efficiency improvements. One example is process-specific knowledge management in global sourcing, product management, textile technology or research & development. Key information, which previously one only got via its own network, can now be found through a central search function. 

"One of the main points was dealing with correct information from the ERP system," says Heckly. Almost in every process there is the opportunity to integrate data from the ERP system, for example key figures on customers, products or suppliers, through UsterNet in the daily work. "This allows employees to work faster and with the right information, of which the source is clearly defined. And this reduces the number of mistakes." 

Another example is Microsoft OneNote. OneNote is now increasingly used as an additional collaboration tool, accessible via the UsterNet. The open format of OneNote complements the features of the libraries for structured document storage, task management or posting news. In informal 'brown bag training' sessions, employees were shown how collaboration can be more informal yet also more effective with the help of OneNote: employee meetings, minutes or brainstorming sessions, for example. 

"Employees have realized that thanks to UsterNet and to changing their way of working, it is now easier to organize and structure the exchange of information , also in teams with colleagues who work on other continents." 

Communication, training and role models 

Change or adopting a new behavior, does not happen just like that. It needs explicit support from top management. It needs training. It needs communication. It needs ambassadors such as Roger Heckly, who recognize early on how a new tool and the right way of handling it can have a positive impact on one’s own work and the organization. "It is still in my interest to remind colleagues that no more documents are sent via e-mail, that there are better solutions for individual excel sheets in UsterNet, or that one can work very well with a search engine, as long as documents are properly tagged. The change of today means being ready for tomorrow - Heckly is convinced about that.