Change Management During A Platform Migration

Why Tech Is the Easy Part of Digital Transformation Consulting

It’s impossible to separate the technical and human sides of a marketing platform implementation. You can migrate the data and assets perfectly but still fail to achieve the expected ROI.

This gets to the heart of one of the biggest misconceptions in digital transformation consulting: that the tech is the hard part.

It’s not. My technical consultant colleagues can solve just about anything that comes their way.

Making sure people are confident and capable using the platform once it’s live – that’s the challenge.

88% of projects with excellent change management succeed, compared to 13% with poor change management – Prosci

Why Migrations Are Bigger Than They Look 

A migration isn’t just swapping one platform for another. You’re also redesigning processes, redrawing roles, and asking people to unlearn years of habits.  

A marketing platform touches everything from data flows to customer journey management and decisioning, channel execution, creative briefing, reporting, governance, and team processes.  

Only scoping the technical – visible – work means underestimating the real size of the project.  

Without good change management, you’re guaranteed to meet resistance. People don’t want to abandon their comfortable routines. They don’t want to learn new habits.  

But when they understand why things have to change, they’ll be more willing to put those concerns aside. 

This is why we say that “digital transformation” is not just about automating processes but using tech to continually improve and unlock new capabilities. 

Practical Change Management Tips From Tap’s Digital Transformation Consulting Team 

Communicate Early and Often 

People who understand where the migration is heading make better calls when things wobble. And something always wobbles. 

Start by communicating why things are changing, not just what is changing: 

• The key customer or business challenges
• Expected outcomes
• Why this platform (and not others) 
• Why now (and not later) 

During the project, structure and volume matter. Structure keeps change management communication on message, and frequent communication helps that message land.  

McKinsey’s research shows that managers who do more – preferably in face-to-face meetings, although any action is better than no action – see better change management outcomes. 

Schedule Training Close to Handover 

Training months before go-live is usually wasted effort.  

People need to get comfortable before they can run, but when and how you train matter.  

There’s a theory that people forget ~70% of what they learn within 24 hours, and ~90% within a week.  

What works better is training close to cutover, with a plan for how you’ll refresh and top up the new skills: 

• Schedule hands-on training 2–3 weeks before go-live. 
• Give people a sandbox or staging environment to practise in.  
• Pair training with reference material and in-app support. 
• Identify highly proficient users and encourage peer-to-peer support. 
• Reinforce after launch with short, paced sessions. 

We find the most effective approach to digital transformation consulting is to embed experts into our clients’ teams. We can get to know people better and deliver the right training at the right time.

Build an MVP 

A minimum viable product does two jobs. It’s a delivery mechanic – a way to phase the work and go live with something manageable – and a change management lever. 

The latter part is the one most people underrate.  

An early working version (of the platform, campaign, data model, team structure or whatever you’re implementing) builds confidence and earns buy-in. It turns abstract requirements into concrete feedback.  

It also settles the inevitable tension between the wish list and what’s technically possible.  

An MVP helps people focus on the core purpose and functionality, rather than arguing over niche features. 

If there’s no “product” per se, then a pilot project is a good analogy for the MVP. The important thing is to show a proof of concept so you can collect feedback and earn goodwill early in the project. – Olivia Davies

Redesign Ways of Working, Not Just Workflows 

A migration usually surfaces problems that run deeper than any single platform. For example:

• Customer engagement isn’t where it should be
• People are too busy with BAU to try anything new
• Briefing, approvals, and creative take too long
• Data is siloed or patchy
• Analytics and reporting don’t align with business strategy
• Everything is the highest priority (and therefore nothing is)

Be willing to change how work gets done, not just the workflows.

That might mean revisiting org charts, rethinking ownership and governance, or giving teams more autonomy to make decisions that affect customer experiences.

Don’t start with what the platform does. Rebuild the process to match the real goal and slot the platform in where it’s most useful. – Olivia Davies

Account For the Settling-In Period 

People need time to become competent in a new martech platform. At first, even simple tasks may take longer because users are thinking about the steps rather than moving through them naturally. 

Build that period into the plan and set expectations accordingly. Make it clear to senior stakeholders that lower output immediately after implementation is normal. 

You might even build proficiency measures into the project’s success metrics. This avoids flattening success and helps you identify users who need more help. 

The People Side Is Where Migrations Are Won 

Half the work in digital transformation consulting is making sure the business is ready to make the best use of its new tools.  

Our approach to CXM consulting accounts for the platform, people, and ways of working, enabling a self-sufficient team and a martech investment that delivers long-term value. 

The platform matters. But only if it achieves the outcomes it was bought to deliver.  

Those depend on people being confident, prepared, and working in the most efficient way to deliver exceptional customer experiences. 

Moving to a new martech platform or meeting resistance in your digital transformation project? Tap CXM’s experts guide you through implementations, migrations, and integrations. We’ll become your embedded experts, not just another consultant with cookie-cutter advice.