A New Chapter: Transformative SaaS Solutions

Blog author: Emily Rudin, Chief Client Officer

 

It has been about a month since I joined Higher Digital, and many of you have asked me, “Why?” That’s a good question. I contemplated retiring; however, after listening to the Higher Digital executive team and staff, I heard a compelling story where I felt my background and skills could be of value.

I came to understand that Higher Digital has a unique approach to Change Management, integrating Change Management and User Experience disciplines. This approach is powered by its proprietary software ((SEA)results®), which focuses on improving adoption, communication, risk management, insights into priorities, and user satisfaction while fostering a continuous culture of change.

Leveraging key aspects of our methodology and tools, we created a new offering in which we partner with institutions and SaaS providers to drive successful transformations and implementation outcomes.

New SaaS Transformation Solution

Migrating to SaaS is not a technology project; it’s a change project!  Traditional change management methods are often cumbersome, labor-intensive, and yield inconsistent results. So, we built a customizable, streamlined, product-agnostic service offering focused on helping our clients adopt and increase user satisfaction with SaaS initiatives. 

Highlights of Higher Digital’s NEW SaaS Transformation Offering

• Insights: Identify impediments & readiness of (People, Processes, Data, Culture, and Technology) for enterprise change.
• Align: Create attractive, realistic, and executable solutions and a clear vision of how change will improve things.
• Prioritize: We use (SEA)results to prioritize and manage project priorities. Many projects fail here, as staff has a limited capacity to adapt and change.  This critical step in the framework is a key element in supporting successful outcomes.
• Measure: A continuous process that allows measuring project results in the context of strategic objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

 

Modern Approach to Change Management

Our change management methodology is based on Kotter’s change model and seamlessly integrates with popular frameworks such as Prosci, ITIL, PMP, and any proprietary internal change management approach your organization may use.

By aligning with these established methodologies, our approach enhances and streamlines your existing change management processes, ensuring a more comprehensive and effective implementation of organizational changes. This innovative approach addresses unique challenges specific to higher education, ensuring a more tailored and effective change management process.

When utilized as a standalone solution and capitalizing on our embedded tools, this pioneering approach empowers Higher Digital to effectively tackle the numerous unique challenges that are specific to higher education. We address these challenges, often overlooked by a traditional change management model, as follows:

1. Creating a Sense of Urgency

• Digital Disruption: In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, it can be difficult to convince stakeholders of the immediate need for change despite technological advancements.
• Information Overload: The sheer volume of information available can dilute the urgency as faculty, staff, and students struggle to prioritize the change amidst other pressing digital initiatives.

2. Forming a Powerful Coalition

• Virtual Teams: Building a strong coalition with dispersed and remote teams can be challenging. The lack of face-to-face interaction can hinder relationship-building and effective collaboration.
• Leadership Alignment: Aligning leaders with differing priorities and perspectives on technology can be difficult. Ensuring that all leaders are on the same page about digital transformation is crucial but challenging.

3. Creating a Vision for Change

• Rapid Technological Change: In the digital age, technology evolves quickly, making the creation of a relevant long-term vision difficult. The vision must be flexible to adapt to new digital trends and innovations.
• Complexity: Crafting a clear and understandable vision for complex digital transformations (like AI integration or cloud migration) can be challenging for stakeholders at all levels.

4. Communicating the Vision

• Digital Communication Overload: Students, faculty, and staff are often inundated with digital communications, which can result in important messages about the change being overlooked or ignored.
• Consistency: Ensuring consistent and coherent communication across various digital platforms and tools can be difficult. Miscommunication can arise from the use of different tools and channels.

5. Removing Obstacles

• Legacy Systems: Existing legacy systems and infrastructure can be significant obstacles to digital change, requiring substantial time and resources to replace or integrate.
• Skill Gaps: The institution may lack digital skills and competencies. Overcoming these skill gaps requires significant investment in training and development.

6. Creating Short-Term Wins

• Measurement: Identifying and measuring short-term wins in digital initiatives can be challenging due to the intangible nature of many digital metrics (e.g., user engagement, student satisfaction).
• Visibility: Ensuring that short-term wins are visible to all stakeholders in a remote or hybrid work environment can be difficult, requiring effective use of digital tools and platforms.

7. Building on the Change

• Sustaining Momentum: Maintaining momentum in a digital transformation project, such as implementing a new ERP, can be hard due to the fast-paced nature of technological change and potential changes in organizational priorities.
• Integration: Ensuring that new digital initiatives are seamlessly integrated with existing processes and systems is crucial but often complex and resource-intensive.

8. Anchoring Changes in Corporate Culture

• Cultural Shift: Digital transformations often require significant cultural shifts, such as adopting an agile mindset or embracing continuous learning. Changing deeply ingrained behaviors and attitudes can be an uphill battle.
• Remote Work Culture: Fostering a unified corporate culture that supports digital transformation is more complex in a remote or hybrid work environment and requires innovative team-building and engagement approaches.

9. There is such a thing as too much change!

• Change Fatigue: Employees may experience change fatigue, leading to resistance and disengagement.

 

Stay Tuned!

Over the next few weeks, I will use this space to provide additional information on this offering. However, please feel free to contact me directly (emily@higher.digital) if you have an immediate need. In closing, I am thrilled to have joined Higher Digital and am eager to be part of the team during this exciting phase.

Share your feedback, questions and specific concerns to info@higher.digital and let’s talk about how our expert team can help you tackle the challenges present in transforming to SaaS.