Driving Global Technology and Process Adoption Across 125 Countries
CARA designed and executed a global organizational change management and training strategy to drive successful ERP adoption across 125 countries following a $63B pharmaceutical acquisition.
Challenge
Our Fortune 100 U.S. based global pharmaceutical client acquired an Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company in a transaction valued at approximately $63 billion. This required integrating the acquired company’s people, products, processes, and systems into our client’s global operating model, ERP platform, and downstream systems – an extensive effort impacting employees, customers (medical facilities), and vendors across 125 countries.
The organization needed a scalable post-merger integration change management approach to:
- Drive adoption of new ERP systems and business processes
- Address cultural and operational differences across regions
- Ensure consistent communication and training at a global scale
- Support 17 regional implementation waves with varying readiness levels.
Result
Our integrated change and training strategy led to 17 successful launches with impressive total metrics.
- 600+ communications published for employees, customers (medical facilities), and vendors
- 10,616 ERP users successfully trained with moderate post-launch support required
- 694 change champions across 125 countries reported smooth go-lives in all 17 waves with high employee adoption and strong client satisfaction.
The client leadership team commended the dedication and both personal and professional efforts that contributed to the program’s outstanding success over three years.
Solution
To drive successful adoption of our client’s global ERP platform, business processes, and downstream systems, CARA provided an Organizational Change Management Strategist and a team of Instructional Designers. Our team delivered a comprehensive change and training roadmap.
- Developed a multi-year organizational change strategy to support 17 regional implementation waves defined by the global operating model program team
- Established a global network of 694 change champions to assess readiness, culture, and risk at the country level
- Created robust change impact assessments for each wave, covering people, process, product, and system change
- Delivered targeted communications to employees, customers, and vendors, reinforced through global change network meetings
- Designed a scalable train-the-trainer model to ensure consistent knowledge transfer across regions
- Updated and enhanced the client’s ERP eLearning library with supplemental, country-specific training webinars
- Developed supporting materials including work instructions, job aids, and wave-specific readiness plans
- Created ramp-down summaries outlining critical activities and milestones leading to each go-live
- Supported a 4-week post launch hypercare period to ensure stabilization and adoption
CARA designed and executed a global organizational change management and training strategy to drive successful ERP adoption across 125 countries following a $63B pharmaceutical acquisition.
Challenge
Our Fortune 100 U.S. based global pharmaceutical client acquired an Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company in a transaction valued at approximately $63 billion. This required integrating the acquired company’s people, products, processes, and systems into our client’s global operating model, ERP platform, and downstream systems – an extensive effort impacting employees, customers (medical facilities), and vendors across 125 countries.
The organization needed a scalable post-merger integration change management approach to:
- Drive adoption of new ERP systems and business processes
- Address cultural and operational differences across regions
- Ensure consistent communication and training at a global scale
- Support 17 regional implementation waves with varying readiness levels.
Solution
To drive successful adoption of our client’s global ERP platform, business processes, and downstream systems, CARA provided an Organizational Change Management Strategist and a team of Instructional Designers. Our team delivered a comprehensive change and training roadmap.
- Developed a multi-year organizational change strategy to support 17 regional implementation waves defined by the global operating model program team
- Established a global network of 694 change champions to assess readiness, culture, and risk at the country level
- Created robust change impact assessments for each wave, covering people, process, product, and system change
- Delivered targeted communications to employees, customers, and vendors, reinforced through global change network meetings
- Designed a scalable train-the-trainer model to ensure consistent knowledge transfer across regions
- Updated and enhanced the client’s ERP eLearning library with supplemental, country-specific training webinars
- Developed supporting materials including work instructions, job aids, and wave-specific readiness plans
- Created ramp-down summaries outlining critical activities and milestones leading to each go-live
- Supported a 4-week post launch hypercare period to ensure stabilization and adoption
Result
Our integrated change and training strategy led to 17 successful launches with impressive total metrics.
- 600+ communications published for employees, customers (medical facilities), and vendors
- 10,616 ERP users successfully trained with moderate post-launch support required
- 694 change champions across 125 countries reported smooth go-lives in all 17 waves with high employee adoption and strong client satisfaction.
The client leadership team commended the dedication and both personal and professional efforts that contributed to the program’s outstanding success over three years.
The Story
Our client, a U.S. based global pharmaceutical company acquired another major pharmaceutical organization necessitating the integration of people, products, processes, and systems into our client’s global operating model, ERP platform, and downstream systems.
This large-scale global transformation impacted employees across 125 countries, each with unique challenges driven by differences in scale, culture, readiness, and openness to change.
An additional layer of complexity stemmed from the acquired company’s distinct product lines, which required new business processes, organizational restructuring, and updates to the ERP and downstream systems.
Assessing the Starting Point
CARA was engaged to develop a multi-year organizational change management strategy for the transformation, aligned to 17 regional implementation waves established by the global Operating Model implementation program team.
”The dedication and both personal and professional efforts that contributed to the program's success over the three years by the CARA team, program team, and change champions are incredible.
Director - Change Management, Training & Communications
Laying the Groundwork
We established a strategic roadmap based on the client’s existing organizational change management methodology.
- Governance
- Stakeholders
- Communications
- Training
- Deployment
Building Buy-In Through Leadership
To scale change globally, we launched a global change network of 694 individuals. This network extended the reach of the central change team and provided localized insights into:
- Country-specific culture and readiness
- Unique processes and product variations
- Risk factors and adoption barriers
Ensuring Results Through Training and Readiness
A train-the-trainer model ensured consistent knowledge transfer while allowing for localization.
The acquiring company’s ERP eLearning library was updated and enhanced with targeted webinars, supported by:
- Revised work instructions
- Job aids
- Wave-specific ramp-down summaries outlining critical go-live readiness activities and key milestones
Deliverables At-A-Glance
- 600+ communications delivered
- 10,616 users trained
- 92% training completion rate
Final Impact
Strong employee engagement, well-prepared supervisors, and clear communication enabled successful go-lives across all countries. Hypercare tickets within the expected range validated the effectiveness of the change management strategy. Both leadership and frontline employees reported high satisfaction, and business processes, new product lines, and ERP system and downstream systems were adopted seamlessly.
