System Implementation Project and Change Management

Solutions Used

Roche had an umbrella plan for implementing Cornerstone, their enterprise Learning Management System, which went live in Q3 2019. AJC assisted Pharma Affiliates North America, within Genentech North America, in all project management activities for their local component of the global Cornerstone Transition Project. AJC also supported the project with planning and execution for the Business Readiness workstream (i.e. Organizational Change Management).

Roche is the world’s number one company in the biotech industry with 17 biopharmaceuticals on the market. Roche has been committed to improving lives since the company was founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland. Today, Roche creates innovative medicines and diagnostic tests that help millions of patients globally. Roche was one of the first companies to bring targeted treatments to patients.

Introduction

Roche’s Learning Management System directly supports global compliance, clinical, manufacturing and commercial operations processes that are occurring daily in the business. The Learning Management System is a critical component of Roche’s License to Operate.

The Problem

The legacy Learning Management System had a poor reputation for usability. That fact, coupled with an approaching contractual milestone for end of system maintenance, led Roche to select Cornerstone as their new Learning Management System. Our client was highly motivated to use Cornerstone as the catalyst to improve the training experience for their stakeholders.

Figuring Out the Solution

AJC’s support of the solution consisted of two sequential projects. Our first project was to help the client setup the communication infrastructure for the project, create the project plan, identify the change management needs and approach, and calculate the overall resource needs for the execution. Our second project was to execute against the framework established in the first project.

Goal 1: Provide accountability for the local project plan

An AJC project manager facilitated a weekly status meeting with the resulting task list. AJC status reports provided transparency and accountability to all parties regarding the need to stay on task with the local project plan. The project manager also forecasted and continually re-forecasted the resources required for the execution of the project plan.

Goal 2: Coordinate with global efforts

AJC staff attended global meetings or partner meetings to ensure the local efforts stayed in alignment with global dates and activities and to ensure that key stakeholders were aware of the coordination between local efforts and the global timeline.

Goal 3: Guide stakeholders through the transition

AJC’s change manager worked closely with the Global project team to localize the global change management tools as well as to generate ideas and represent our client’s stakeholder needs with the global team. Change management tools included a detailed communications plan, manager engagement framework, adoption community learning framework, detailed go-live communication schedule, and hypercare plan.

Goal 4: Periodically examine approach, resources, and strategic alignment

AJC’s account manager periodically met with the client sponsor to discuss and plan for strategic needs, perform high-level risk mitigation, and confirm the overall project approach.

Goal 5: Guide managers through their new job responsibilities

In conjunction with implementing a new learning management system, Roche also changed the way that they approached training. Training objectives changed from being assigned by SMEs, to being assigned automatically from a task-based training matrix with reviews from managers. This was addressed with a deep focus on the manager role from the business readiness workstream, most notably with a manager engagement framework.

Working with AJC on the Cornerstone Transition Project was a delightful experience! Their accountability model kept us focused on our project tasks amidst many competing priorities. With AJC’s support on change management, we were able to personalize unique approaches to meet our stakeholders’ needs and gain their adoption of the solution. AJC truly empowered our staff to deliver a highly successful project and to be proud of what they have accomplished for Roche.

Roche

Conclusion

Roche’s new Learning Management System, Cornerstone, was rolled out in Q3 of 2019 and has quickly become the new way of learning for Roche. Staff commented that the project communications were effective, “hypercare” went well, and go live week could not have gone better!