Executive Network

Case Studies – Managing Change

Menzies Distribution Ltd

Overcoming resistance to change is a task all managers must face from time to time. But what if this change involves getting rid of systems and working practices that have been in place for some 20 years?

Catherine Bland, Finance Director at Edinburgh-based Menzies Distribution Ltd, is overcoming just such a challenge. She joined the company as it was in the process of rolling out new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. However, she soon discovered that employees were finding it hard to leave behind the ways of working they’d developed around the outgoing technology.

She explains: “One of the biggest benefits of our new software is the ability it gives us to centralise accounting functions such as credit control, invoice matching and maintenance of customer data. But on the other hand we found that people were reluctant to let go of their old ways of doing things, afraid that change would create errors.

“We discovered situations where people were persisting with paper-based checking procedures even though everything could now be done online; others were preparing and posting printed reports containing information that the recipients could now directly access via their PCs.”

As a veteran of three ERP implementations at previous employers, Catherine is fully aware of the potential change management issues and how to go about resolving them. She notes: “It’s all about winning hearts and minds, and to do that you have to focus on the positives. We took people from their line jobs and made them Super Users, building up their knowledge of how to get the most from the software before they returned to key roles within the finance team. We also held ‘show & tell’ sessions where people could talk to colleagues about all the good things they’d discovered from using the software. And we’ve launched a scheme inviting employees to suggest process improvements, with rewards for any that are implemented.”

With the software rollout now in its final stages, Catherine says that 2012 will be the point from which many of the benefits are driven through and the company starts to make the most of its investment. A key part of this will be to look at reporting, taking the opportunity to devise reports that are tailored to present needs rather than ones that are simply facsimiles of what were produced before.

Catherine continues: “We’ve already identified around £1.6 million of efficiency savings we can make each year, through cutting out some of the manual work that went on before as well as through spending less on IT, since the new software costs less to maintain and we have fewer licenses to purchase.

“More important than that, however, is the fact that our customers and suppliers will find our service improving in a number of ways, such as more effective stock control, faster payment runs and better availability of information. These long-term benefits are well worth the short-term pain that inevitably comes with any change programme of this magnitude.”

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