Navigating a Complex Teamcenter System Implementation
Project Overview
As part of our energy sector client’s digitalisation programme, Siemens Teamcenter was being deployed to support digital project execution though a collaborative environment for their people, suppliers and clients, allowing them to connect and seamlessly share technical data from conception to product delivery in one system.
Unlike traditional system implementations with clear-cut deployment phases, this Teamcenter implementation required a nuanced approach across complex audience groups at varying stages of the change curve. With functionality evolving every three months and project teams constantly shifting across their business, the traditional business change playbook needed reimagining. Afiniti partnered with the organisation to navigate this intricate digital terrain, developing a multi-faceted change strategy that addressed the unique complexities of the implementation. By creating consistent rhythms of engagement, empowering project teams with self-service toolkits, and establishing clear communication pathways, we transformed what could have been a fragmented experience into a cohesive change journey, building the foundation for sustainable adoption across the organisations’ diverse global landscape.
Our Solution – Joining the dots
- Established a consistent rhythm for capability releases, ensuring people retained confidence whilst navigating the evolving system landscape that changed significantly every three months. Our approach included:
- Change impact assessments to uncover how the solution will impact various stakeholder groups
- Learning material creation and maintenance driven by and aligned to the change impact assessment
- Release communications including people focused release notes and business notifications
- Maintaining the SharePoint hub with clear and consistent content
- Developed comprehensive onboarding toolkits spanning the full cycle of the project which contained communications and engagement templates, empowering teams to self-serve and drive consistent adoption across geographically dispersed teams.
- Created and maintained a strategic communications cadence through awareness videos, newsletters, leadership presentations, and lunch-and-learns that highlighted Teamcenter’s value to the organisation.
- Implemented rapid and reactive communications to address unexpected changes and technical updates, ensuring people were always swiftly updated.
- Conducted regular measurement and feedback activities including surveys, user interviews and focus groups to gauge adoption levels and gather insights for continuous improvement.
The Differences We Made – Reducing complexity
- Enhanced user confidence and capability through structured preparation for evolving functionality, ensuring teams could navigate system changes without disruption to their work.
- Accelerated and standardised adoption processes across globally distributed teams, creating consistency where geographic and project-based fragmentation previously existed.
- Increased awareness of Teamcenter’s organisational value, shifting perception from “just another system” to a strategic digital asset supporting business objectives.
- Established self-sustaining change capability within project teams through toolkits and templates, reducing dependency on central change resources.
- Created a continuous feedback loop through regular measurement activities, enabling data-driven refinements to the change approach and implementation strategy.
- Developed a repeatable framework based on the Teamcenter implementation for managing complex, evolving deployments that can be applied to future projects across the organisation.
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