Barbara Carpenter 00:00
So as I was walking over here today, I was talking to Jim, who I worked with and I told him how I absolutely do not like talking in front of people. So when I was in college, I actually took my speech class at a community college so that I didn’t have to see anybody that I went to college with at the class.
So bear with me as I walked. So today’s session. Um, we’re going to be talking about the eight step process. I don’t know if anybody is familiar with this, but I wasn’t familiar with this when I decided to speak on this topic. So we’re just a show of hands. Is anybody familiar with this eight step process?
No. So we’re going to walk through, um, I broke it out into three pieces of the eight step change model. So there’s eight steps, um, just creating change or creating the climate for change, engaging and enabling the organization and implementing and sustaining for the change. So we’ll walk through those, um, three pieces. Um, during, during the session. So just a question, um, which stage is the most important for you and your company in the successful change management? So again, creating the climate for change, engaging in enabling, and then implementing and sustaining for the change. So first creating the change.
So I think, um, right now I’m with Danone. Prior to that, I worked at a medical device company. I actually have someone here that was at that company as well. So we implemented the cash app credit and EIP while I was there. And then it didn’t and we just went live on February 1st with all of those model modules, except for EIP. And I think the biggest thing that we had to do when you start doing something like this is get the executives on board and letting them know, um, just the value of automation. So one of the things that we did also with the team here at Denon was, you know, you start this process maybe like a year in advance, you start the blueprinting before you do the testing and actually go live, um, trying to get small wins. So one of the things that we did with one of our customers, Helping the automation of like pulling backup from portals until we went live with, you know, this process, trying to see the end, you know, in a year and a half, it’s a long ways out and trying to see the benefit of it. Now I’m just getting better visibility, trying to just, um, you know, show the metrics such as top 10 delinquent customers, and then just advanced reporting what you can get out of it. And then I think the biggest piece that we’ll talk about today, The employees and the people that are affected by the change. So I think just trying to, you know, let them know that going live with something like this, the benefits of it, instead of, you know, chasing transactions or, you know, just a lot of manual work, just focusing on the research and what can come out of that so that they see the benefit and want to get on board. When you’re trying to roll out a project. So I think one of the things that we’ve done at both of the companies that I’ve done automation with was just getting the managers in the same room and communicating the scope of the project. So you’re all on the same page. Cause I think a lot of times when you do something like this, people have different ideas of what they want to get out of the project. And I think that it’s sometimes difficult to gather information from managers who are used to an old process. Not so much at genome, but it was somewhat of an issue. But at my previous company, it’s, we’ve always been doing it this way. So why do we have to change? It’s always been successful this way. Why do we have to change? And trying to get them to see the benefit? And then the efficiencies out of it, I think is the biggest piece. When you try to kick off a project of automation and implementing something like that, and then just making sure that the managers are also supported with the team when they’re seeking guidance and asking questions. Um, there also might be, like I said, hesitant managers, and you probably have them at your company. We have them, you know, what to know. And we had them at my previous company where they just don’t want to see the benefit of the change. And even with invoices, I had a previous coworker that she would have typed up invoices on a typewriter if she could, but trying to see, you know, the benefit of moving into automation. And I think it’s also a fear of. Losing jobs. So we had that big job security. If your, your jobs are going to go away and then you have to like, be able to communicate to the team. No, you’ll be able to spend more time, you know, working on other value add activities with the company, rather than just pulling back up off of a portal or, you know, running these, you know, paper invoices. So just basically, you know, making sure that you’re communicating the benefits and so that they are advocates for the project moving from.
So going back to communicating, um, you know, the benefits and the reduction of the work. I think that was another piece of a successful project is getting them on board so that you can get the information that you need from them. So I know just previous companies we’ve had people that they wouldn’t share the information, so it made it very difficult for me as the manager to try to communicate. You know the scope of the project, what I wanted out of it, when they weren’t willing to share the details of their day-to-day work. So you might have an understanding of what your employees. On a day-to-day basis, but not so much the transactional data or, you know, their every hour that they’re, you know, transacting these and trying to get that information, um, has led to successful projects. And then, you know, the, the first company that I, you know, implemented HighRadius, it made it very difficult when we went live, because there was a lot of information that was held back and then going live, it made for a very disruptive working environment. Files weren’t going over information wasn’t in there and trying to, you know, basically rebuild the project is kind of how it was. Um, and then, you know, getting the team excited. I think that was a big thing is just getting them on board and it makes them willing to work harder. So I know at dyno really sharing the vision of the project with the team and, you know, helping them, um, see where we’re trying to take the team. The efficiencies I think, was what helped make that project successful for us. So the second piece of that eight-step model. Is engaging and enabling the organization. So again, communicating the vision and just making them understand the why and action plan. So I think that, like I said, they’re more likely to come on board when they know what the plan is. A lot of people are just fearful of change. And so I think that that’s a big thing that, you know, My current company and previous companies, that’s just the change management. And sometimes it’s really hard to manage through pieces of that in the business. So I know a couple of things that we’ve done were lunch and learns. So trying to get information, I think when you feed people, they’re always more likely candy. That works too, but just having, um, you know, lunch and learns with your, your senior membership and also just the employee. So that. Of what’s going on. I think, I think something that we kind of struggle with a denote, as they always want to know, like why, why are you doing this? You know? And sometimes you have to say, well, you just trust us. We’re, you know, we’ve had these meetings and you know, we we’ve walked through this process and this is what’s best practice for the. And then also I think maybe making them part of the decision-making process. So involving them in the decision rather than informing them that there’s a change. So a lot of times teams want to feel like they’re a part of the decision. So we have, you know, these options for automation, you know, and just involving them because they are the ones that are doing the day-to-day tasks and the transactional data.
So there might be something as maybe a management team that. That you don’t know, like if we change this, this might cause additional work here, but I didn’t know that. Cause I thought this was the most efficient way to change. So just involving them in there. So they feel that they’re a part of the decision making process. I think they’re more apt to be advocates for the change and especially for other team members that might not be willing to change. Once they see the benefits, then they can get their coworkers and team members on. And then just the last one, work on other projects and take proactive actions. So just, you know, managing the complexities, especially, you know, Dan, and I’m not sure, um, your companies, but there are seasonality spikes during, you know, winter holidays back to school. So we see that. So also just being aware of that and, um, just being proactive when those times in the season. Um, empowering your employees. Uh, I think that one of the biggest things that I’ve enjoyed about working at Denon, they’re very, um, vocal about empowering their employees. So asking employees for suggestions and then, you know, bringing those to management. The management team has a very open door policy. We all sit together. A couple of my manager, a couple of the other managers are here. Um, and just, you know, they see the collaboration of the. Um, and knowing that they can just come if they have maybe a suggestion or, you know, Hey, I saw this, but I think this might work better. And always just being willing to listen because you know, the way that it might’ve been set up might not be the best way for them doing that. Day-to-day transactional work, but then, you know, listening and seeing if you can, you know, maybe implement that change, but just empowering them to feel like they can come to you with ideas. Um, in, in that collaborative. And then also one of the things that has been successful is having those SMEEs those subject matter experts, um, that they’re just familiar with the process. So I know when we went live with HighRadius, we had, um, we, we actually had the benefit of Danonewas already on HighRadius and we implemented when they bought white wave, which was the other company. Merged together. Um, I think just having those subject matter experts who are already using the product and then trying to show the other team, you know, team members, the benefits of this automation. So just having them there and being available for trainings or, you know, QA sessions holding, uh, lunch and learns, we held a lot of training sessions. So just kind of overloading them with information, but knowing that they had, you know, these people that were actually experts of this. So the other thing that I took note of was just creating, creating some quick wins. Um, we also have done like pilot customers so we can show them, Hey, this is how it works with customer ABC. So this is how you’re going to see the benefits down the line for the rest of your customers or the rest of your process changes. Um, we were supposed to go live 10, one ended up going live to one. Um, so just two weeks. But, you know, when, when they saw the benefits of it and they started getting excited and onboard, um, it really helped motivate the team and engage them cause they were, you know, excited about these process changes. So just showing them like, you know, maybe one customer or a pilot of customers, the benefits, um, helps also help keep the team engaged and excited about the change. The last piece of the eight step model is implementing and sustaining for. So the last two pieces of that are just building on the change and then also just trying to make it stick once the change is in place. So I think the biggest piece of this is just constantly evolving and having the most efficient process in place. So again, starting with a process that you started here with, but evolving to making sure that you’re always evaluating it. It might, you know, at times different pieces of the process might need to be updated or there might be a more efficient. To, you know, man, that process, um, if certain processes were followed in the past, but they’re not adding value, there’s no need to continue it. And I think that’s a big thing with companies is, but this is again how we’ve always done it. Why do we have to do it that way? Um, you know, I don’t want to see the benefits this worke before. You know, why is it not going to work now? Um, so I just think that’s just a big piece of it. And then always, um, acting as a support system for other teams, uh, sales, um, customer logistics. So also letting them know the benefits of, you know, if you don’t put the PO on there, then the invoice might reject and then that delays payment, that delays, you know, deductions. So working hard, it just, you know, for example, I didn’t know, just trying to partner with those other organizations. So that they see, you know, what you do on this end affects me down here, but it might not get here until, you know, the customer’s already two weeks past due and you realize it’s a PO issue, but it might be, you know, we found, you know, one of my companies that it was a training issue, so they had a new person on the customer logistics side. They didn’t know they needed to put in the PO number and then downstream, it just backed up every single invoice in order that. The system. Um, and then just the last piece, having analysts speak up about future progress and efficiencies. So again, going back to the empowering employees, um, and just taking their inputs of, instead of telling them what to do, and I think that’s the biggest piece of implementing change in any company is just, you have to have your team on board. You know, it starts with management when they, once they give you approval to be able to go and do the project, you really need the support of the team or the project is not going to be success. And then finally making it stick. So I know it’s easy to implement a process, but then also, you know, making that process stick in the, in the organization. Um, and then it also should reduce work. So it shouldn’t be a process that you put in place, but then adds an additional eight hours of work for the team for you for managing. So I think that, you know, showing that the progress. So one of the things that, you know, we’ve done dyno and my previous company is just the performance metrics. So you can see the benefit of the project. So they know, Hey, this is where we started, and this is the, you know, dollar savings or the efficiencies, the time savings so that you can actually present those metrics so that if you. You know, to the next process improvement or the next efficiency project you can show, Hey, this was, this was the benefits, the first project, the go round. And, you know, we really thought it through, and this is what made it successful. And this is what will make the next one successful. And just making sure that the employees realize the new way is a step above the previous way. So I think again, you have to have your team on board to see the benefits so that they know that the new way is the more efficient, the better. And then continuous training. So I know as the processes evolve, you know, just moving forward, just always making sure that the employees are trained, I think is a big piece of it. So I know that we, we went through it with denote, just the train. You know, constant training sessions and, you know, just there might be 10 people in a room, eight of them get, it might be extra, you know, two hours with the, uh, you know, two people, but it’s worth it, um, on the, you know, that side. So the benefits on the backend when they know the process and they’re trained.
That’s that’s all I have any questions. Okay.
Audience 15:55
Hi. Yeah. Sorry. J Thompson, Exxon mobile. Um, just in terms of the buy-in from, uh, you know, non say larger organization such as ours. Uh, and so to bring your whole team on board with the change. Pretty big challenge. And so I’m interested to hear sort of what tactics maybe, or your organization took to, to ensure that everyone felt empowered in the change, given the size of the organization, then, you know, um, clearly, uh, with an organization of the, of a large size, you know, that it takes more time and resources and effort and can, can, can sort of be labor the whole change management exercise. Um, I’m interested to hear sort of what you’re. And, and the results that you are sort of the implementation steps that you use to get the results you want it?
Barbara Carpenter 16:50
Yes. I know when we previously did this at ResMed and I have one of my, the managers there, she’s still there today. Um, it took a while to get management on board, um, executive leadership on board to support the project. Um, it was, you know, a lot of meetings and, you know, just trying to show the benefits of. You know, process that you’re trying to spend a ton of money implementing, but in the end, The cost savings and the, you know, manual work, the efficiencies that will go away from that. So I think, you know, we just had a ton of meetings, um, just really trying to focus on the workload that it would save for the team and, you know, the collectors or the revenue specialists, deductions analyst, if you implement the deductions module or any automation, and then showing that they might have time then to work on credit, they might have time to work on cash app that, you know, Um, unapplied cash. That’s sitting out there so able to work on other projects or, you know, areas or buckets that aren’t being touched. Um, if we move forward with this and then also just, you know, the benefits and then showing the success of the project was helping then move to the next one where it would have been maybe collections and then deductions and then credit. So I know, um, I started at ResMed in 2009 and they just got approved. Last month, I believe to move forward with their deductions module. So 10 years, but you know, it was because of implementing each module one by one, you know, EIP, then credit cash app, and then, you know, see the benefits. And so I think that, that, you know, is something that progresses. Um, I know that there, you know, I have someone here in the room today that she said that it’s been like three years. Um, they’re waiting and waiting. Finally got approval and that’s just one module. So I think it depends on, um, you know, executive leadership and the support there. And when I came on to known last August, uh, they were already moving forward with that. So I don’t know, maybe from your perspective, was it hard to get, you know, senior leadership on board?
Audience 18:57
Provided our senior leadership, I think was pretty good. I think one of the things that you did that really helped get some of those people, we thought the most resistant to it and have them try out the system or the system. So specifically we had group, the other group once they got excited about it. They were happy to help the other people. And you know, you have these little social groups inside your company. And so if they have that attitude, what’s the social group ended up changing everybody. So that’s a lot of how we got that out. We actually, I think it works so good that it went too far and they thought that HighRadius was going to their do all this other stuff that we had calm expectations down a little bit that, yes, we’re going to get a lot of success from this and a lot of changes, but at the same time, there’s still going to be a lot of work. It’s not going to. Everything for you. So it ended up going a little bit too far that we had a temper, those expectations and some of those excitement about what really happened, but it helped to strategically pick some people, get that exposure to the system, show them all the benefits and have them be influencers.
Barbara Carpenter 20:19
Yeah. Especially the ones that are resistant to change. Like Jacob said, it’s nice to get them included because if they’re the ones that are most resistant to changing and then having them be an advocate, it’s much easier to have everyone. You know, get on board with the change.
Audience 20:36
Hi, my name’s Ashley I’m from Coca-Cola. And my question is even if you get people to buy in and understand the process efficiencies and gains from it, how do you overcome the fear of their personal role being impacted and not letting that hold them back from engaging?
Barbara Carpenter 20:57
Yeah, that is very interesting because they are always fearful of losing their jobs. So with the implementation that we did at, to known, you know, This piece of it, pulling back up from a customer’s portal may go away, but you’re going to have more time for these value, add activities, this researching, like I said, the unapplied cash or invalid or other items that you really don’t get to touch and kind of sit out there. And once you get them to change and see that, I think that there, like I said, more apt to come on board, but it was a big at both of my companies that I did the HighRadius piece, you know, at the first one with the cash application. It was very difficult once we went live because those cash application analyst held back information. You know, the, the HighRadius the implementation team and it made it very difficult when we went live. So knowing the next module that we did. Okay. Like Jacob said, getting those people that are most resistant or fearful, involved and showing them the benefits and then, you know, having them be advocates really, really made a big difference in the next, um, modules that we implemented.
Audience 22:08
And just to add, I think it really comes from the leadership team too. Right? Like us coaching. Um, to kind of let go of the past, let go of the status quo to kind of get to the next level. So I think that was really important from a management perspective, was coaching them, coaching them and letting that, making sure that they’re letting go of the past to get us to move forward and then opening up opportunities as well. It’s not that we’re taking away something and taking away your job, we’re opening up opportunities for you to grow within your career as well.
Barbara Carpenter 22:35
Yeah, so something like at ResMed, obviously when the cash app got implemented, those jobs really did go away, but. W we tell them, Hey, we need you in AR we could need you in customer service. You know, just keep being successful in this project. And, you know, be a very big piece of the project and a team player and be collaborative. And, you know, you will find another place in the organization. They’re not going to want to lose you just because your job went away.
Audience 23:04
Hey, Bob Kennedy from Duracell, because you’ve implemented this in more than one corporation, I kind of felt you might have some. Maybe not directly related to the presentation. What KPIs did you establish or did you track like R we have a few modules live and we always kind of thinking what other KPIs can be tracked quantitative and qualitative. Like I know, like we can say you’re utilizing your time better, but I like to hear your experience on KPIs
Barbara Carpenter 23:37
So that’s interesting that you asked that because we’re right in the process right now of establishing our KPIs for 2019. So we just went live to one. And I think that prior to HighRadius going live last year, I think one of the biggest things was having realistic KPIs. Um, you know, your, your deductions balance could be $10 million and saying, let’s get down to a million. Is, it’s not realistic. Uh, so we’re working through that process right now after we just went live everything’s in the system. So just trying to make the KPIs real. For, you know, each department organization. So the KPIs for the deductions team are going to be different than cash app or credit. So just working with those managers to see how you can motivate the team to lower the deduction balance rather than, Hey, write 10 million, let’s get there a million in a month. It’s not possible. So one of the things that my suggestion was, let’s see where we want to end up for the year and then back into that number so that once you see that balance coming down, whether it’s the deductions balance or, you know, collections, when she see, you know, that and the benefits, it also helps motivate the team a little bit more because you don’t want to just say, we need to get to a million. That’s a big number, 10 million to a million dollars. So just making it realistic, but also a little bit stretch, right? Because you want, you want to push them. Um, but just, just making sure that they’re involved and they, they know how you’re going to get there as well.
Audience 25:08
Cash app space and cash opportunities. We have five in cash application, so I’m always buying to benchmark and see how we can get there. From our perspective. So like for this year’s KPIs, right? Our hit rates about 77%, which means these are payments coming in successfully. We don’t have to do any exception handling. So kind of the goal there is how do we get to 78%? Ideally I love to be at 80, but we set the goal for the AR specialists to hit 78. And so in addition to that unapplied cash, I like. We’ve got a lot of unapplied cash, but Hey, let me drill it down to a specific time period. So the next KPI is 2016 and older. I like to only have 10 unapplied cash balances sitting out. Our goal is to get to not having any unapplied cash sitting within that week at all. It’s going to be a bigger project, but now. Kind of, we’ve got some upgrades to our cash app system, right. We can free up that time and be creative. Now they’ve got auto correspondence and cash app. So if a remit doesn’t come, which is the largest percentage of why we have unapplied cash trigger, those emails to go out. So another new feature of the cash app module that we plan to utilize to kind of help with the unapplied cash goals as well. So just a couple of KPIs we implemented going into this year.
Host 26:32
Still have a lot of time. If we want to keep going with discussion or questions. I know we also have a couple of food for thought questions. Um, if there’s nothing immediately up, have you got a food for thought?
I can say it. So sticking to the conference theme, how do you communicate to the employees? That automation means human plus machine rather than human versus machine. I know Barbara, you touched up on that a little bit during your presentation. So does anybody have comments?
Barbara, What do you think of that?
Barbara Carpenter 27:09
I thought it was interesting and the keynote speaker or speech that when he walked through that, because I think that. Rather versus like with, it’s kind of partnering with, you know, just again, when people said like fearful of losing their job, I think that comes into the human versus the machine, you know, not partnering again, like seeing the benefits of it, not, not working against it, but with it.
Host 17:34
Anybody have anything to add maybe?
Audience 27:43
Part of the module that we implemented is the, is the CPA module, which kind of connects to the deduction module, uh, that is production was planned for a future state, but we went live in small phases for the CPA. And I think that was the key feature when we got the most buy-in from the analyst found from the analyst to the upper management, because they wouldn’t have to go and dig through websites, emails for the backup. Um, and once the analyst, I can see what the machine can do to RPA and other things, they started asking more and now their request list is like overflowing. They want to see more from carriers, more from the warehouse, like POC documents. They want to see the bill of ladings attach. So that would, that if that dispute does come through, they have one repository where everything is attached automatically. They felt there was a fear that they would lose their job. But then once we demonstrate that one example of how they would have done to go to the customer’s portal for backup, they would have to chase down the auto management team, the logistics team for other claims and deductions. I felt that demonstration opened their eyes to say it is not competition. It is to make your job easier. And you were doing your time with the value-added services.
Barbara Carpenter 29:12
You had to add onto that at RedMed. When we went live with cash app, we had, it was a it’s a medical device company. So we had a lot of customers that had the handwritten checks. So just trying to figure out those CR technology to try to get those so that they would be posted and just process. So we had, you know, analysts that had checks on their desk and, you know, we’re calling customers, asking for payment and their. We sent that check two weeks ago, or that already cashed at the bank. Why are you calling me for payment? So we got big wins on the cash app side, and then on the EAP with credit cards. So being able to pay and showing them the benefits of, you know, this. Heavier checks in there yesterday, but then it shows up today, you don’t have to call your customer and showing the collectors, Hey, you don’t have to call, get it 30 in there. So that, that time efficiency, and then, you know, spend time on researching customer accounts that actually need to be reconciled or have issues.
Audience 30:11
Hi, I’m Sylvia with Adobe. So one of the things that we’re looking at is, um, we’re not yet a customer of HighRadius, we’re just here kind of understanding the processes, but in anticipation of automating some of our processes, I’ve asked the team, I’ve actually assigned goals to the team members to find areas, um, specifically three areas of process improvements within their own processes basically. So I want them to start thinking more analytically and start looking at their processes critically to see how can we scale them. So I’m starting to get them thinking that way. So then when we start moving towards implementation of a new solution, they’re already kind of developing that mindset of this is not a bad thing. This is something that’s going to help me.
Barbara Carpenter 30:59
So what we did at ResMed, we actually incorporated that into their annual review. So they had to select some process improvement as a part of their annual review. And so it forced them to start thinking in that mindset.
Audience 31:18
Um, I’m Siri Stag with Danone as well. Um, so kind of building on what Barb said too, is one of the things we did with our team was we even asked them, like, tell me the top things that you hate doing in your. And how can we take those and automate them. And a lot of the things that they hated were things that HighRadius was going to help automate. And then the next thing we did was okay, if you had time, what would you like to keep doing? So like the whole, what should you stop? What should you start? What should, should you keep doing? And a lot of the start doing was stuff that we said, okay, well, now that we take away all this garbage. This is going to be the next step for you to be able to focus on the stuff that either you need to start doing, or you’d like to start doing, you just don’t have time. You know, one of the big things was getting a better rapport with their sales team, you know, really sitting down and understanding how are they planning? How are they doing these? So we can see how the customer’s deducting and be able to help them to maybe improve their plan. And so helping the team understand. That there are true benefits from freeing up their time and they’re not going to lose their job was a huge component for us. And then, like you said, it’s, you, you then have opportunities like, okay, cash out. We went from cash app being spread between our entire team to two people. And so what does that mean to the team? Know, we let them know, and we were very transparent with them about the impacts and what we want or what we expect. And for the most part for us, it became. Um, more of a collaboration. So I think the team felt, you know, I have say in this, I have, um, an invested interest to make sure that this is as effective as possible. So I can do these other things that I know will bring benefit to the company.
Barbara Carpenter 33:12
Yeah. I think the biggest benefit at Denon was just in, like she said, involving the team. So even in my one-on-ones with employees, you know, I asked them if you could write your ideal job, What would it be here in this role? And what do you not like about it? Oh, pulling back up from the portal. And like Siri said, people with HighRadius, that’s going to go away. So that’s going to free up an hour of your time a day now, what do you want to work on? And so I also do it as more of like a volunteerism. So raise your hand, if you would like to work on the HighRadius project, if you’d like to be a Smee. So they’re more apt to. Really, you know, dedicate the time and be excited and be an advocate. If you know, they’re volunteering for it, rather than just pointing the finger and saying, you know, Sally, I need you on here because you’re an expert on Kroger. Maybe Sally wants to go and work on the Walmart account because it’s a little bit more difficult and charity has that. So we even did like switching up. You know, if somebody wanted a or businesses, you know, from the retail to maybe over to the Canada or, um, the waters team. So giving them the opportunity, not to change roles, but this is the opportunity to do something different, be involved and be a part of the change.
