This article provides guidance on change management for organizations that are specifically undertaking or contemplating a shared service or business process management (BPO) initiative.

Change management is a critical part of any project which involves skillful judgment that will enable people to accept the new procedures, technologies, systems, structures and values.

To ensure successful organizational transformation, establishment of new policies, procedures and processes is not enough. Research shows that over 80 percent of projects fail when 'organization transition issues' aren't addressed. When people are not fully prepared, they deny or resist the change. Hence, it is vital to understand, plan and implement the practical steps in order to provide assistance to people through transition.

Effective change management and good communication bring down the risk and potential costs, while increasing the likelihood of successful transition and improving the connection between the services provider and the retained functions.

Normally in a shared services and BPO program there are two main things that change:

-Through the best process, often in conjunction with employee and manager self service and automated reporting, there is a delivery of in-scope services from a shared services or BPO operation. Often this aspect is referred to as the transition to shared services.
-Transition is defined as the program of work needed to finalize the design, to manage the procurement and for building and implementing the agreed multifunctional shared service or BPO.
-There is a new centre of attraction for the 'retained organization' on value added activity in support of the frontline. This includes working with the business to replace the position of finance, HR, etc. and of making changes associated to organization structures and skills within the maintained functions. Usually, this aspect is referred as the transformation of the retained function

Transformation is stated as the activities required for aligning and improving the work of the retained HR and finance functions in each department. Moreover, it is also needed to provide a program office support to manipulate both the transition and transformation activities.



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