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Adobe

Adobe Implementations – There’s Power (and Money!) in the People

The Adobe platform has so much to offer. From campaign and experience management, to digital marketing and an awesome mobile experience, there are few things not to love about the platform. When we think of the benefits that Adobe brings, we (and our clients) very often think of our target customers and the benefits we stand to gain by implementing the system, or more simply put, our Return on Investment (ROI). And that makes perfect sense, right? Isn’t that why we implement an awesome platform like Adobe anyway? Of course it is!
In the midst of making the decision to implement the Adobe platform, as well as working through the technical details to perform the install, one thing that is critical to success is ensuring that we address the people responsible for making Adobe hum. In this case, I’m not talking about external parties but rather the internal team who will be responsible for ensuring that we create awesome content, keep the content current, perform general maintenance, retire content at the appropriate time – you get the idea. Why? Because any new system implementation requires preparing these key resources so that they are ready, willing, and able to work in the new tool on Day One. Adobe is no exception, and that’s where Organizational Change Management (OCM) comes in.
Most people are naturally resistant to change. We like the things we know, the things we are comfortable with. Yet, that stands in dire contrast to business evolution, which means we have to make a real and concerted effort to motivate those users to change. Often, this is the greatest challenge of a project involving a great solution like Adobe.
Without the focus on people, preparing them for the new platform and training them on how to operate within in, we are very likely to go live with a confused and less-than-productive team, leading to errors and rework. In the process world, we call these non-value-added tasks. In the overall scheme of the project, we call this a negative impact to that desired ROI. Additionally, this approach is extremely frustrating to the users involved, and so now, we have compounded the problem with a disgruntled team, which makes changing even more difficult.
The good news is that if we prepare our workforce in a structured and meaningful way for what’s to come, we not only significantly reduce, or even eliminate, the risk of poor performance at go-live, we actually have the ability to be more productive out of the gate than projected (which can even increase our ROI).
An effective Organizational Change Management strategy will focus on informing users of what is coming, when it is coming, and how they will work in the new tool. Done really well, the OCM strategy will address the why – why the company is investing in Adobe, what it mean for my department, and most importantly, what’s in it for me? If your constituents understand the why and accept it, you will have gained buy-in for your Adobe implementation. Buy-in is the key ingredient for addressing resistance. If people buy-in, they will actually want to learn and want to change. These people will read your communications around the implementation. They’ll go to and pay close attention in any training activities you lead.
In short, they’ll be ready, even eager, to support a new way of life at work, and that will make your Adobe solution more powerful than you can imagine. It will ensure it’s Built to Run.

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David Chapman

David is the General Manager for Perficient's Organizational Change Management practice, part of the Strategic Advisors Team. He has over twenty years of consulting experience and resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. Be sure to also check out David’s personal blog. It focuses on collaboratively building the breadth and depth of our collective change management knowledge based on insights and experiences shared to help one another grow.

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