Keys for Implementing Change Management in Core Operations by Cole Anderson
- Identify a Change Management Champion (CMC) to be accountable and champion the process as a whole. The CMC’s job is to ensure the Change Management process maintains the momentum necessary to be successful.
- Establish a Steering Committee to ensure everybody that needs to be involved is involved. The steering committee is comprised of a key member from all applicable departments and is crucial to evaluate system and resource impact.
- No Change is too Small to be part of the process. Small changes require less testing but still need to go through the change management process.
Evaluate new offerings and products proactively. System changes often come as an afterthought to a new product of offering. Using change management proactively with the frontline to ensure a new offering can be handled on the core system. We often find bank operations staff typically spend as much or more time working with a few “specialty” accounts as they do on all the remaining accounts within the portfolio.
Remember that success is quiet. A successful Change Management program is a little like Homeland Security, nobody notices it is working, they only notice when it doesn’t. It is key to remember that all system changes need to go through the process, even the small ones. Establishing a rating system can help push small changes through the process more effectively without seeming like an unnecessary drag on resources. It is also important to define an emergency change process. Items that need changed immediately need to take priority within the process, not avoid the process entirely. Successful implementation can drastically reduce the number of hours spent fixing issues as well as cut down on customer impacting mistakes.
This article can be found in the September 2016 edition of the Peak Newsletter. Peak provides consulting services to assist Financial Institutions in creating a successful Change Management program. Peak’s focus is to educate Financial Institutions on their core system while providing nationwide best practice recommendations. Please contact Peak at info@peakconsultingllc.com for more information or check out our website at www.peakconsultingllc.com.
