Does the moral of the famous Aesop fable the fox and the stork apply in case of your digital transformation journey? We think it does.

Think about the ITIL change management required for your transformation initiatives. At no point do you want your user to feel like she was tricked by the ITIL changes and therefore think of IT as cunning foxes!

Users are simple souls like the stork. They only want the systems and processes they depend on to work as expected. So, what should the ITIL leaders do when they must drive the inevitable changes?

Well, using the power of on-demand videos would be a good idea. Ensuring there are no changes at all would be even better, but even the storks know that’s a mere fantasy in the dynamic workplace of today!

Videos have the power to rapidly transform the organization with minimal disruption.

ITIL and change – the relationship

For the uninitiated, ITIL is the set of processes and procedures that define how you offer IT as a service to your internal customers. For example, when an important ERP module undergoes changes for new business needs, ITIL processes kick in.

When such changes take place, it is the ITIL team that

• Ensures the proper implementation of the new process.
• Drives a change in user behavior.
• Tracks and ensures that all stakeholders adopt the change.

So, how will you prepare to streamline this? Before we get into that, let’s note one insight.

Organizations are good at managing big-and-not-so-frequent changes. It’s the not-so-big-but-frequent changes that need discipline and a strong institutionalized change management process that just works.

Big changes happen once in a while, and that makes the Management take a lot of care and prepare well. For example, a merger with another company! Let’s not mention that M&A can be frequent in some organizations ?.

Our focus is: not-so-big-and-frequent changes. They are important and often impact the daily work processes of smaller groups. Users need explicit communication to ensure no productivity loss. For example, changes in the purchasing module of your ERP.

One of kPoint’s manufacturing sector customers has 5000+ employees working across six plants and 100+ IT apps deployed. This means there are always multiple apps requiring some change management every month.

Road bumps in managing frequent changes

The process at our manufacturing sector customer was: roll out the change, have an ITIL leader visit each affected location, explain the change, provide the required training, and provide a contact center number to call. This was repeated until all locations were covered.

This process had many problems: (1) Organizing the relevant stakeholders to be present for classroom sessions, (2) Multiple site visits if the groups are distributed, (3) Time lost in commute and communication, (4) Cognitive overload on users due to too much information being exchanged, and (5) No information repository to circle back to in case assistance is needed.

Such an approach often delays and negatively impacts successful change implementation. Users fall prey to non-standard communication and stakeholders are prone to ‘figuring things out’ or calling support for clarifications more often than you’d like.

Poor change communication has a profound and far-reaching effect especially in today’s strict compliance and regulatory landscape. Your organization can also suffer deeply if changes related to security or critical updates are not implemented in time.

The solution

Instead of getting a person to conduct many meetings, your ITIL change management can leverage on-demand video. Here’s how.

• Detailed, clear, and streamlined messaging: The ITIL team creates and publishes short videos with screen captures, animations, and voice over to capture the new process, impact of the changes, contact information of relevant stakeholders, and the back-up plans.
• Increased reach: No more getting everyone to a meeting! And yet, standard visual communication to one and all exactly as they need it.
• Access control and detailed tracking: Exact tracking of who has accessed which part of each video and in-video quiz scores help in identifying support needs.
• Just in time: All users get to the change-related instructions exactly when they need them.
• Standardized communication: All users get exactly the same communication regardless of when they view it, it is visual, and does not depend on the availability of the ITIL change leader.

Video emerges as a change enabler by facilitating better transformation outcomes as you present change-related communication in a consistent and visual manner.

Now you know how to ensure that your organization is ready to handle the frequent changes resulting from your transformation initiatives! So, go ahead. Make a video about the next change you plan to roll out.