When industrially oriented processes are to be introduced in a digital communications agency with many creative employees, this can be “challenging” even for an experienced interim manager.
The initial situation
A German agency group for digital communication, part of a globally active agency network, was given a new CFO as part of a management change.
The area of responsibility included three agency brands with six companies and about 350 employees, including about 250 creatives for campaign development and design, at different locations.
The area of responsibility included three agency brands with six companies and about 350 employees, including about 250 creatives for campaign development and design, at different locations.
The brand companies were historically autonomously organized with, among other things, their own IT systems.
The new management was now to bring the brands together by bundling their individual competencies and increase the range of services offered to customers. At the same time, the organization was to be streamlined and central functions bundled.
In the course of the organization, the processes were to be standardized and, based on this, an ERP system was to be introduced. The CFO appointed Christian Heuermann, an interim manager provided by HANSE Interim, as project manager for this challenging change project.
The task
The CFO, who was responsible for organizational development, had a long-standing industrial background and the approach was to set up the small agency network in a process-oriented and lean way. The goal was to implement digital workflows as far as possible, so that the value-creating employees could concentrate on their creative contributions.
To achieve this, the supporting processes in the areas of finance & controlling, reporting and purchasing had to be automated, and the client service activities (lead management, RFP/RFQ process, CRM) had to be transparent and controllable. Compliance with the SOX regulations stipulated by the parent company also had to be ensured.
The goal of streamlining the organization was to centralize the accompanying processes. Away from the previous decentralized responsibility in the individual agency strands, a finance department was to be developed as an internal shared service center. This was also associated with the expectation of efficiency gains. The same applied to purchasing processes, for example.
The challenge here was, among other things, that the creative staff had not previously been accustomed to stringent and consistently lived processes.
The timely recording of hours worked on projects as an essential performance driver for billable agency work for clients was already a recurring monthly challenge.
The Solution
Based on the strategy defined by the management and the agency network, the interim manager first discussed and defined the future cross-agency structure in workshops with the C-level and a selected extended management group.
In the process, specialist departments were formed that were assigned to the client solutions offered and deployed in client projects as required. In addition, a joint client service organization was formed for the three agency brands with a focus on strategic client support and client/project acquisition. The separate Project Management team was responsible for implementing the client projects and deploying resources from the specialist areas.
Below the CFO, the commercial functions as well as HR, IT and legal were combined for all units. Initiated by the interim manager, the function of project clerks (commercials) was newly created. They were to accompany the costing and bidding phases and take over ongoing project controlling.
The next step was of major importance. The teams for designing the future target processes had to be put together. Contrary to the top-down approach of the management, the interim manager was able to convince them that opinion leaders as well as functional areas and smaller units (department or location) should be represented here – as future process owners.
Acceptance can only be created if those “affected” by changes are involved.
Along the main processes (lead to order, order to cash, purchase to pay, project to delivery), the details were intensively discussed, weighed up and designed in the teams.
Parallel to the process development, the interim manager created a functional specification with the requirements for the future ERP system. Thus, by answering the question “How do we want to work together in the future?” the selection for the system could be started. Here, in addition to full integration, the usability/user experience (UX) of the system was also relevant. Among other things, hours had to be recordable via mobile app.
With the system decision, the interim manager created a project plan with the goal of realizing a go-live within six months. The analysis (fit-gap) and design (customizing) phases could be completed comparatively quickly with the preliminary work done. Adjustments to the defined processes to reduce the customizing effort were agreed with the process owners in each case – a maximum of 10% in total. This ensured that acceptance of changes was maintained.
Another important element in a change process is recipient-oriented communication. As the system was gradually built up, documentation was created that also met the creative requirements of future users – both in terms of layout and the transport of “messages”.
The result
The new ERP system was the starting signal for the new organizational structure. At this point, all employees in the company knew their task, responsibility and position and who they could contact.
After a few teething problems in the first reporting month, 95% of all hours were recorded by the end of the second month – a milestone. The organization was working.
Conclusion
Communication and transparency are the key factors for successful change. Then creative people can also be won over to an industrial approach.
Your HANSE Interim Team
Andreas Lau and Christian Heuermann
Management
