Stakeholder engagement for executive sponsorship and end-user buy-in
Key Takeaway
Build alignment at the start, from the executive sponsor down to the end users who use the system every day, because a plan that engages only executives is incomplete.
Stakeholder engagement is how a consultant finds the people who shape or are affected by a Salesforce project and earns their support. Those people run from the executive sponsor down to the people who will use the system every day. Projects stall when business and IT work apart or when users see no value. So build alignment at the start, because rescuing a misaligned project later takes extra time and resources.
Business and IT partnership
Successful Salesforce programs need a real partnership in which business and IT stakeholders work toward a common goal. The opposite pattern is the business writing requirements and throwing them "over the wall" to IT. The result is often a finished solution the business says it does not need.
Problems also appear when IT owns the whole budget and the business is not involved. The business may not commit people or money to User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Users who are used to the old way may also simply not use the new system.
A governance team or steering committee with representatives from different departments (such as sales, IT and service) helps with all aspects of systems change management. Build trust in this group early, because that trust helps when major trade-offs have to be made.