It might be too late to be wishing each other Happy New Year, but it’s not too late to make some resolution-type changes at your organization. If you feel like you’re meeting roadblocks when you try to implement change, this article is for you.
As we settle into 2025, it’s clear that we all need to adjust to a new era of flexibility as business environments and the tech landscape shift rapidly. That’s why adopting a culture of digital transformation is critical — and requires proactive change management strategies to achieve.
Here at Wrike, we’re huge proponents of solid change management strategies. We’ve seen time and time again that when our users begin the Wrike adoption process, they have the most success when they have the foundation of an effective change management strategy. In fact, we’re so passionate about change management that I write a regular blog series called Championing Change where we highlight the unique ways our users are setting their teams up for success by using change management strategies.
However, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to achieving digital transformation and business process automation. In this article, I’ll highlight a handful of customer change management success stories shared by business leaders at our Collaborate 2024 conference, walk you through different change management strategies and their principles, explain how business process automation technologies can be enabled with proper change management, and more.
Let’s get started.
What is digital transformation?
Let’s start with the nuts and bolts of digital transformation.
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technologies into all areas of a business in a way that fundamentally changes how an organization operates and delivers value to customers. Digital transformation requires using digital technology in a way that truly transforms your day-to-day business practices, improves your customers’ experience, and increases your ROI.
On one level, digital transformation means that a business process transforms from using analog processes to digital processes — but it also means that the business operates in a way that will continue to explore and adopt new technological processes in perpetuity, bringing it to a state of continual digital transformation.
This critical process goes far beyond simply adopting new technologies; it requires a mindset shift that embraces innovation and agility. We’re not talking about ad-hoc digitization, like purchasing a new piece of software occasionally. We’re talking about a company that transforms its business using digital solutions — and continues to do so in the future.
Digital transformation has become a necessity rather than a luxury and has the potential to revolutionize industries, disrupt traditional business models, and create new opportunities for growth and success.
How business process automation and robotic process automation help push digital transformation
Business process automation (BPA) and robotic process automation (RPA) are cumbersome phrases, but you’ve probably encountered them in your life already — and perhaps benefited from the time they’ve saved you without realizing it!
Business process automation and robotic process automation are both technologies that aim to improve organizational efficiency by automating tasks, but they are different in key ways.
RPA focuses on automating specific, rule-based tasks through technology like software “bots” that mimic human actions in performing repetitive tasks such as data entry or managing emails. It’s particularly useful when there is structured data and clear rules, but it’s typically confined to individual processes rather than full workflows.
On the other hand, BPA takes a broader approach by automating entire business processes, from supply chain management to customer service operations. BPA typically involves reworking processes to improve efficiency from start to finish and integrates multiple applications and systems across organizations.
BPA typically takes longer to implement than RPA, because it takes a more strategic approach with more sophisticated emerging technology and could involve significant changes in processes and infrastructure. In fact, RPA can be a component of BPA, used to automate specific tasks. BPA is a process used to improve complex processes, therefore ensuring more efficient and effective operations across an organization.
Digital transformation in practice
So, what do digital transformation efforts look like in practice? Let’s look at a few examples.
Many large multinational companies, such as Netflix or Amazon, have transformed their marketing strategies by leveraging big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer experiences.
These companies collect vast amounts of data from user interactions on their platforms, including browsing history, purchase patterns, and content preferences, and then analyze that data to segment their audiences more effectively. This allows them to tailor their marketing messages to individual preferences — and to continually refine their processes to achieve greater success in attracting and retaining customers.
Beyond recommendations, AI-driven tools enable organizations to automate customer engagement strategies, optimize the timing and content of marketing messages, and predict future trends and consumer behavior, allowing marketers to make more informed decisions.
Digital transformation initiatives have also impacted project management, helping organizations adopt technologies that streamline processes, improve collaboration, and enhance resource management. There’s no greater example of this than cloud-based project management platforms, like Wrike, which enable companies to completely change how projects are managed and executed. 
These platforms consolidate all of your project-related information and enable real-time collaboration and communication among team members, regardless of their physical location. They provide a centralized hub where project managers can plan, execute, and monitor projects with features such as Gantt charts for scheduling, Kanban boards for task management, and integrated communication channels for seamless interaction. Real-time updates and notifications ensure that everyone involved is aware of changes, deadlines, and task progress, reducing the potential for miscommunication.
Here at Wrike, we know all too well that engaging robust project management software means you’ll be continuing to improve upon processes and automate more tasks automatically, as the software adds features that will fuel your continual successful digital transformations.
How Wrike customers are using our platform for digital transformation through business process automation
Since we’re knee-deep in workflow and process transformation on a daily basis, I can’t wait to share with you some real-world examples of how our Wrike customers are using our platform for digital transformation through BPA. At our Collaborate 2024 virtual work management conference, we heard from several customers about how they’re using Wrike to rework and improve their processes.
Financial cloud software company BlackLine uses Wrike to automate repeatable processes
First up, Randy Austin, Marketing Process and Systems Administrator at BlackLine, a leading provider of cloud software that automates and controls financial close and accounting processes. Randy gave us an inside look at how the team set up Wrike specifically to improve their processes and workflows as they struggled to adapt to changing business needs. Because of the dynamic nature of marketing, Randy engaged Wrike to help streamline processes that could be automated using BPA.
At BlackLine, we develop our processes by working with all of the teams that are required to achieve the desired outcome. And then we actually map all of ours in diagrams so that we can visualize all the steps and the elements, and doing this also allows us the opportunity to eliminate any existing redundancies, and also look for further efficiencies along the way.
Randy Austin, Marketing Process and Systems Administrator
Randy’s team develops and maps their processes visually in diagrams so they can eliminate redundancies and enhance process efficiency. Then, they create recipes based on those maps that will automate routine tasks and integrate other manual processes or software to reduce manual input.
The team at BlackLine now uses Wrike to set up custom request forms that trigger workflow blueprints, initiating project steps that are the same each time someone needs to start a campaign or webinar project. Randy explained, “The form brings in a blueprint shell or a basic project that includes all the core tasks that every webinar that you do requires. From there, we have actionable options within the different questions that can add subprocesses or task sets as required.”
You can watch Randy’s session with our own Jonathan Yim, Senior Manager and Head of Technology Partnerships at Wrike, from Collaborate 2024 in its entirety here, and learn even more about how Randy has empowered his team with BPA on their continual pursuit of digital transformation.
Why digital transformation requires solid change management strategies
Of course, we can’t talk about digital transformation without addressing change management strategies, because the two go hand in hand. Digital transformation requires organizations and individuals to embrace a mindset of agility and flexibility, which means they will require change management strategies that work. Adopting changes regularly can either become an organization’s regular way of working or an ongoing battle that negatively impacts productivity, customer experiences, and employee morale.
Change management strategies set companies up for success in the face of change. Without them, resistance can take over, frustration builds, and organizations will fail to deliver. Moreover, without change management strategies that work for your team, you certainly won’t get the promised returns on your digital transformation.
Change management teams are critical, and it’s important that you take the time to determine the right combination for your company culture and team processes.
What you need to know about change management strategies
Having a clear change management strategy is a surefire path to helping your team come to grips with something like a new software platform or process. Change management strategies are structured approaches that help individuals, teams, and organizations transition from their current state to a desired future state — without significant frustration or losses in productivity.
Without well-outlined change management strategies, you’re probably going to run into challenges that make change rocky or impossible. For example, team members often simply resist change, feeling hesitant to move from familiar routines. They might fear potential negative impacts on their roles, so communicating the benefits of the change can help ease this challenge.
You might also come up against an organizational culture that has become rigid and can’t flexibly change routines. In this case, you’ll need to work on cultivating a culture that prioritizes innovation and flexibility in order to help ease changes by starting with a clearly communicated change management process.
How Wrike customers are employing change management successfully
I’m constantly impressed by our customers’ change management strategies — and the success they result in!
Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) is a standout change management case study. LHM is a non-profit that began with a radio program and now creates many faith-based resources and programs in print, digital, and audio formats in both English and Spanish.
Megan Merhle, LHM’s Manager of Project Management, spoke at Collaborate 2024 about the ways she uses Wrike to automate processes in her daily workflows to help prevent burnout with a huge task list in front of her small team every day. Megan’s role was integral in the changeover to Wrike at LHM, and she remains a critical link to new employees onboarding with Wrike.
“You’ll help other people to overcome that learning curve if you come alongside them, patiently listen to their challenges and barriers,” Megan said. “You’ll be shocked at how much benefit you’ll get personally if you commit to long-term training of the teams around you.”
The more your teams can do in Wrike, the less they’ll need you to do for them, and the more benefit they’ll get from Wrike’s collaboration features.
Megan Merhle, Manager of Project Management
LHM has also integrated Wrike with other pieces of technology it uses on a daily basis. “We use Salesforce to try to track a lot of our customer and constituent data, and lots of internal staff at my company need reports out of Salesforce with that data sliced in various ways,” Megan explained. With a Wrike custom form, those teammates can answer questions about the parameters for the report they need, press submit, and it will create a task for our data team to build that report. “All that can happen without me ever finding out,” Megan said.
And that’s the beauty of digital transformation — it really can help reduce burnout by automating pieces of daily work that you don’t need to have your hands on. Make sure you watch Megan’s Collaborate breakout session right here.
Next up is Hayden Waugh, Marketing Specialist at Trane Technologies, a company focused on sustainable HVAC solutions. Hayden explained that new team roles meant communication and collaboration were suffering. As new enterprise marketing teams were created, existing workflows no longer cut it.
Trane Technologies decided to use Wrike to begin with about 50 different processes in the initial deployment. Before the team launched a single blueprint, they thoroughly and collaboratively defined each process offline so they could evaluate the steps and dependencies required.
Getting people to do their same job in a different way is tricky. So we took our time evaluating what was working, and what wasn’t. After that, we did a lot of focus group meetings where we took out the old whiteboard approach and figured out where we could edit and justify making certain changes and identifying room for improvement.
Hayden Waugh, Marketing Specialist
When working on change management to deploy Wrike for digital transformation and business process automation, the launch team recruited Wrike Champions who would serve as ambassadors for the tool, answering any questions that team members might have. Hayden explained, “We had a diverse spread of experts who could help answer those questions once it was launched and could help identify problem areas as we got used to implementing that new program.”
Thanks to Wrike, Trane Technologies was able to help newly formed teams collaborate more effectively and keep internal and external stakeholders better informed throughout workflows, enhancing efficiency and avoiding unnecessary delays. As their Wrike use has evolved, Trane Technologies’ marketing teams have emphasized continuous improvement and data-informed decision making through the use of Wrike dashboards in order to drive operational excellence.
The icing on the cake? By defining 51 new roles within the team, all functioning as active Wrike users, and creating 74 processes and blueprints across six core team functions, productivity at Trane Technologies increased, with a 61% rise in projects completed. In about a year, the teams completed 900 projects — 80% of which were group efforts across multiple teams focused on collaboration, fostering effective communication, and doing their best work. No small accomplishment for an enterprise-grade organization facing into a phase of change.Learning what change management strategies work for your organization
There are several change management strategies you can choose from to use with your team or organization, depending on your particular needs, strengths, and goals. Let’s go over some of the most common strategies and principles involved in change management.
To maximize your potential for success, most change management strategies should be used in combination with others, either simultaneously or consecutively, depending on their purpose. Here are several examples of effective change management strategies you can combine:
- Focus on communication: Develop a comprehensive communication plan to inform team members about the upcoming change and its specific benefits to their workflows. This communication should begin before the planned change and continue after it has been implemented.
- Engage stakeholders: Get everyone involved in the change on board early in the process to help keep resistance to a minimum. Look for feedback and concerns and address them within the process.
- Gain leadership support: Leadership support and involvement can be crucial for a significant process or software change. This will help equip employees with the skills and knowledge they need to adapt to the upcoming change.
- Offer ongoing training: Employees will need training and support before and after the change to continue addressing ongoing challenges.
- Create feedback mechanisms: During and throughout the change, create a way for employees to register their feedback in a constructive way that leads to further process refinement.
Leveraging these strategies will enable organizations to improve the likelihood of successful change management and minimize disruption to daily work.
How the four principles of change management will transform your team’s transition
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to change management — many people have spent countless hours researching the best ways to implement change across teams and organizations. These principles are helpful to put a framework around the process, giving you direction forward. Let’s start with the four commonly referenced change management principles:
- Understand: You’ll first want to understand the need for change and clarify your objectives that will be met with the change. This requires a deep understanding of the organization’s current state, the desired future state, and the rationale behind the change. Understanding the current state of affairs will also help you plan for potential obstacles.
- Plan: Next, you’ll need to develop a clear change management plan that outlines the steps needed to achieve the desired outcome, including communication strategies, resource allocation, timelines, and mechanisms for managing organizational resistance. This plan can also outline phases that will allow you to test and adjust strategies as necessary.
- Implement: Execution is the next step, which involves communicating effectively with key stakeholders, providing necessary training, and ensuring strong leadership support. During implementation, it’s crucial to monitor progress, address challenges promptly, and collect feedback for ongoing adjustments to the plan.
- Communicate: Finally, communication will remain critical throughout all of these phases, ensuring stakeholders are always informed and their concerns are heard. This will help build trust, manage expectations, and foster a culture of transparency and collaboration.
The 5Ps of change and transformation that will radically improve your change management
As I mentioned previously, there are many change management strategies to choose from, and you need to determine which combination will work best for your team. If you don’t already have experience with change management, you can test out different options and adjust as you implement new changes.
The “5 Ps” of change and transformation vary slightly from the previous four principles of change management and provide another option for a framework to try. This system emphasizes key elements to consider during the change process, including:
- Purpose: Understanding the “why” behind the change is crucial because it provides direction and motivation, aligning the change efforts with the organization’s overall goals and strategies and helping to gain stakeholder buy-in.
- Picture: Creating a vivid picture of the desired future state can help your organization envision how it will function after the change is implemented. A clear vision ensures that everyone involved has a shared understanding of the goals and business outcomes of the change, helping to guide decisions and actions throughout the process.
- Plan: Developing a detailed plan to achieve the change should involve outlining the steps, resources, timelines, roles, and responsibilities necessary to implement the change. It should also include strategies for managing risks and addressing potential challenges with a structured approach.
- Part: Defining the parts or roles that individuals and teams will play in the change process involves clarifying expectations and responsibilities, and ensuring that everyone knows their role in the transformation for future accountability.
- Perspective: Considering the perspectives of all stakeholders involved in or affected by the change can help identify potential areas of resistance or concern. You’ll want to engage with stakeholders through consultation and feedback so varied perspectives are fully considered in the decision-making process, promoting inclusivity and reducing resistance.
Whatever route you choose to undertake change management with your team or throughout your organization, it’s clear that offense is the best defense. Putting in the work on the planning and management end is the way to ensure success going forward.
Using Wrike to empower your digital transformation and change management
One of the most critical elements an organization needs when undertaking any phase of digital transformation is flexibility and a spirit of continuous innovation. That’s what makes Wrike the perfect platform for companies looking to adapt and stay one step ahead of competitors. We offer an incredibly flexible solution that can be adjusted for hundreds of use cases, helping our customers close thousands of projects every year.
Now that you have a strong foundation in change management strategies, it’s time to jump into digital transformation strategies with Wrike. What are you waiting for? Your free trial is just a few clicks away.
