Success Factors of Change Management for the Implementation of a New CRM Software in Sales Department of a Medical Technology Company

Abstract

The article deals with the scientific discussion on the topic of change management in the medical technology sector. Change management describes the process of identifying, planning and implementing changes in an organisation in a controlled and structured way. Thus, Change Management is an important building block to implement changes smoothly and efficiently. The relevance of this problem is that there is currently insufficient scientific research on change management approaches in the context of CRM software implementation in the medical technology industry. The company under investigation has already implemented the CRM software in other locations outside Germany. The aim of this research is to investigate which success factors can be derived in the context of change management for the software implementation of a medical technology company at a location in Germany. The methodology used is a systematic literature review in combination with a standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire, which is based on Kotter's change process, has a quantitative and a qualitative part. Participants from the company's locations outside Germany with already migrated software are asked about possible success factors. The identified success factors are the Involvement of stakeholders, the implementation of change agents, a communication through different management levels, a clear communication regarding problems and a clearly defined timetable. The results show an intercultural picture as well as practical implications to make the potential of this contribution recognizable and usable.