Global change management for an SAP S/4HANA deployment

A global SAP S/4HANA deployment had to land across regions with very different teams, business contexts and readiness. The change approach had to balance uniformity with local adaptability, so every region felt both included and crucial to the project’s success.

SAP S/4HANA deployments concentrate years of process change into a program window, and in a $200B enterprise the change lands on tens of thousands of people across every region and function. The OCM design determines whether the system’s benefits arrive with the go-live or years after it.

WGA orchestrated the global organizational change management strategy: a cohesive framework of clear visions and objectives, stakeholder analysis and communication plans tailored to diverse global teams. Impact assessments were integrated with targeted mitigation strategies, underpinning a flexible learning and training program that respected regional nuances and business context. Standardized OCM tools, templates and methodologies were developed and managed from a central hub for execution, monitoring and feedback across all deployments.

Delivery ran from a central OCM hub with regional execution. The hub owned the framework, the standardized tools, templates and methodologies, and the monitoring and feedback loop; regional teams owned stakeholder engagement, communications and training delivery in their own business context. Impact assessments fed mitigation plans per region, and lessons from each deployment wave hardened the framework for the next, which is what made the global program cumulative rather than repetitive.

Results as the client recorded them, in its own operating metrics: A single OCM framework serving every region, with local adaptation

Standardized tools and methods managed from one central hub: A learning and training program grounded in regional business context

A foundation for sustainable SAP S/4HANA use and continuous improvement