CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN THE WORLD …...CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN THE WORLD OF IT...

Facoltà di Ingegneria Industriale e dell’Informazione

Master of Science in Management Engineering

CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN THE WORLD OF IT

Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Brun

Report by: Kavya Narasimhamurthy

Student ID number: 859575

Academic Year: 2016/2017

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my parents for being my support system. They have always been my pillars

of strength and have encouraged me to be the best of myself. They have taught me and my sister

to be happy even in rough times. I cannot thank them enough for being who they are.

Moving to Italy, has proved to be one of my best decisions. My heartfelt gratitude goes to all my

friends who made me feel at home and helped me in this new place.

Politecnico Di Milano has made me realize my potential and understand that the greatest strength

is in understanding differences and appreciating them. I would like to express my profound

gratitude to the all the Professors for the learning they gave me.

I would like to thank Professor Brun for all his support and for making this process an amiable

glide. He steered my thoughts in the right direction.

Finally, I would like to thank Amplifon group for giving me an opportunity to learn and grow in

the professional front. I would like to express my special thanks to Mr. Giovanni Canino, my

mentor for being and guiding me through the smallest of things.

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ABSTRACT

Digital growth in the present age transforms many industries and the rate of change is ever

demanding. This scenario is specifically relevant in the IT industry. Every IT landscape must

evolve over time. Old technologies must be replaced, while existing ones require continuous

upgrade to meet the ever-increasing demanding regulations. Businesses must adapt change

management process to be in pace with the competing world.

This report is a brief write up on the change management process in the world of IT supported by

the practical knowledge gained during my internship in Amplifon. Firstly, we understand what is

change and why is it important to implement a change management process in an organization.

Next, the basic concepts of change management process are understood to get a clear picture about

the practical implementation of the process. This is followed by a summary of illustrative

workflows and tools employed in a massive organization such as Amplifon. We conclude the

report by highlighting the key points that are essential to have a successful change management

process in place.

ESTRATTO

La crescita digitale dell'età presente trasforma molte industrie e il tasso di cambiamento è sempre

più incalzante. Questo scenario è particolarmente rilevante nell'industria IT. Ogni ambiente IT

deve evolversi nel tempo. Le vecchie tecnologie devono essere sostituite, mentre quelle esistenti

richiedono un aggiornamento continuo per soddisfare le sempre maggiori richieste poste dalla

normativa. Le imprese devono adattare un processo di gestione delle modifiche per essere in linea

con la concorrenza.

Questa relazione è una breve descrizione del processo di gestione delle modifiche nel

mondo dell'IT, supportata anche dalle conoscenze pratiche acquisite durante il mio tirocinio

in Amplifon, in cui ho seguito il processo aziendale di gestione dei cambiamenti. In primo

luogo, vengono presentati i cambiamenti e perché è importante implementare un processo di

gestione delle modifiche in un'organizzazione. Seguono i concetti di base del processo di gestione

dei cambiamenti, che sono funzionali ad avere un quadro chiaro sull'implementazione pratica del

processo. Una sintesi introduce i flussi di lavoro e degli strumenti illustrativi impiegati

in un'organizzazione vasta come Amplifon. Infine la relazione evidenzia i key ponit essenziali per

avere un processo di gestione dei cambiamenti di successo.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 What is change? 7

1.2 What is Change Management? 7

1.3 Is Change management important? 7

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Information Technology Infrastructure Library 9

2.1.1 Need for ITIL 9

2.1.2 ITIL Framework 10

2.1.3 Benefits of ITIL 11

2.2 Service Transition 12

2.2.1 When is service transition helpful? 13

2.2.2 Service Transition Process 13

2.3 People management through Service Transitions 17

2.4 Technology Considerations 17

2.4.1 Interdependence and automation of processes 18

2.4.2 Configuration Management System 18

2.4.3 Release and Deployment Technology 19

2.5 Implementing Service Transition 21

CHAPTER 3 – CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN IT 22

3.1 Change Management Concepts 22

3.2 Change Management Procedures 24

3.3 Change Management Roles 25

3.4 ITIL Change Management Process 25

3.5 Change Advisory Board 29

3.6 Change Management KPI’s 31

CHAPTER 4 – EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS 32

4.1 About Amplifon 33

4.2 Market Analysis 34

4.3 Business Model of Amplifon 38

4.4 Change management at Amplifon 39

4.4.1 Process Goals 40

4.4.2 Change Management Process Flow 40

4.4.3 Nature of Change Requests 49

4.4.4 KPI’s for Change Management 50

4.4.5 Change Management Tools 50

4.5 Roles and Responsibilities 53

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION 55

BIBLIOGRAPHY 57

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: ITIL’s Evolution 10

Figure 2: ITIL Framework 11

Figure 3: ITIL Process Management 12

Figure 4: Service Transition 12

Figure 5: Service Transition Process 14

Figure 6: Service Knowledge Management System 20

Figure 7: Provisioning new service 20

Figure 8: Feature of Change Requests 23

Figure 9: Change Management Procedure 24

Figure 10: Change process Management Roles and Responsibilities 28

Figure 11: Life cycle of a change request (ITIL) 29

Figure 12: Role of CAB in Change Management Process 30

Figure 13: Growth drivers in hearing devices 35

Figure 14: Market Value Split 35

Figure 15: Growth driven by Baby boomers 36

Figure 16: Growth figures for North America 36

Figure 17: Growth figures for Europe 37

Figure 18: Distribution Channels 37

Figure 19: Value Chain 39

Figure 20: Level of organization 40

Figure 21: Sample Process flow for Change Raising and Recording 41

Figure 22: Sample Process flow for Change Classification 42

Figure 23: Sample Process flow for Change Assessment 43

Figure 24: Sample Process flow for Change Authorization and Schedule 44

Figure 25: Sample Process flow for Change Implementation Coordination 45

Figure 26: Sample Process flow for Change Review and Closure 46

Figure 27: Sample Process flow for Change Monitoring and Reporting 47

Figure 28: Sample Process flow for Change Management Performance evaluation 48

Figure 29: Change Management Process Flow 49

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Figure 30: Footprints Dashboard 52

Figure 31: A sample change request 52

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: KPI for Change Management Process

31

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CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 What is change?

Change has been perceived differently by different groups of people throughout the evolution of

mankind. As a result, change has had different meanings throughout literature due to different

perspective levels. Change could be defined as the transformation towards a future state of an

organization, therefore achieving expected results1. Alternatively, other authors have defined

change on a lower level than Creasey’s definition, more as a variation within the transformational

project2.

The first definition emphasizes on the organizational transformation from a current state to a

prospective future state, while the second mainly concerns the change within this transformation.

1.2 What is Change Management?

Change Management is a collective term that is used to support and prepare individuals, teams and

organizations in the process of organizational change. It includes several methods to redirect the

resources, business process, budget allocations or other processes that can significantly affect the

way an organization can perform.

1.3 Is Change management important?

The environment in which companies are currently evolving has become one with a binary

outcome: ‘change or die’3. The change that companies are meeting has altered over the years4.

Due to this new environment, companies have understood the importance of adaption. In the recent

past many projects began, but only leading to depressing high failure rates of between 50 and 70%,

as depicted by numerous dissertations: Stanton et al., 1993; Spector & Beer, 1994; Crowe &

Rolfes, 1998; Marjanovic, 2000; Cao & McHugh, 2005.

These failures created heavy losses to companies who were unable to adapt to change and to face

the terrible laws of economics. This leads to a common understanding that approaches like Total

1 Creasey, 2009 2 Rousse, 2015 3 Beer & Nohria, 2000 4 Hayes, 2002

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Quality Management or Business Process Reengineering on their own were not successful5. This

incentivized some researches and managers to think about alternative ways to cope with change,

leading to the creation of change management.

This paper will focus on the change management methodologies employed in a leading healthcare

organization – Amplifon in the field of information technology. It will also throw light on how

businesses as such can thrive by using the right change management techniques.

To understand better the concepts of change management in terms of information technology, it is

important to focus our attention on ITIL processes and service transition in detail.

5 Burnes, 2014; Siegal et al., 1996; Genus, 1998

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CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Information Technology Infrastructure Library

ITIL is a globally recognized best practice methodology for IT service management which is used

all over the world by organizations to ensure that their IT services are aligned to the needs of their

business. To understand better the concepts of ITIL, it is important to know the rudiments of ITSM.

IT service management(ITSM) refers to all the activities that are directed by policies, organized in

processes and supporting procedures which are performed by an organization to plan, design,

deliver, operate and control information technology services offered to customers. It is often

associated with Information Technology Infrastructure Library(ITIL). Therefore, ITIL can be

described as a set of intricate practices for IT service management whose focus is on the alignment

of IT services with the needs of business. ITIL addresses the organizational structure and skill

requirements for an IT organization by presenting a comprehensive set of management procedures

with which an organization can manage its IT operations.

2.1.1 Need for ITIL:

The concept of ITIL dawned in the 1980’s when the British government determined that the level

of IT service quality provided to them was not sufficient. The Central Computer and

Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC),

was tasked with developing a framework for efficient and financially responsible use of IT

resources within the British government and the private sector.6 In Europe, large companies and

organizations embraced the framework quickly in the early 1990s. The IT sector has been changing

and evolving ever since and so is ITIL. The below timeline depicts the evolution of ITIL over time.

6 http://itsm.fwtk.org/History.htm

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Figure 1: ITIL's Evolution

2.1.2 ITIL Framework:

The ITIL framework helps manage delivery, industrialization, support and consumerization from

inception to pullout for every service or product offered by the IT organization. The five volumes

of the ITIL framework are:

1. Service Strategy: It specifies that, at each phase of the service lifecycle, the focus should

be open the business case with well-defined business goals, requirements and service

management principles.

2. Service Design: It gives an overview on how a service solution interacts with large business

and technical environments, providing guidance on the production of information

technology policies, architectures and policies.

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3. Service Transition: Transition from a

service to business environment is an

important step in ITSM. Thus, change

management roles and release practices

are of prime focus in Service Transition.

4. Service Operation: The prime focus is

the delivery of best practices to achieve

the agreed level of services to both end

users and customers.

5. Continual Service Improvement(CSI):

It aims to align and re align IT services

to changing business needs by

identifying and implementing

enhancements to the IT services which support business process. The activities of CSI must

be planned and scheduled to be successful.

2.1.3 Benefits of ITIL:

ITIL provides a robust framework for identifying, planning, delivering and supporting IT services

which can be applied to all business and organizational environments. Successful adaptation of

ITIL can help improve business processes in various ways.

• Stronger alignment between IT and business

• Manage business risk and service disruption

• Improved service delivery and customer satisfaction

• Reduced costs through improved use of resources

• Greater visibility of IT costs and assets

• Supporting business change whilst maintaining a stable service environment

• Better reliability and quality of service

The below image depicts the interdependence of all ITIL processes.

Figure 2: ITIL Framework

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Figure 3: ITIL Process Management

2.2 Service Transition

IT services can be viewed as business assets

because IT processes can be perceived as a part of

a lifecycle or a continuum. The main purpose of

service transition is the maximizing the business

value of the organization, manage risk and manage

knowledge for decision support for the IT services

offered by the organization. Change is the essence

of any organization and is always associated with

the factor of risk. Embracing the change with least

hurdles is the purpose of ITIL service transition. It

paints a big picture to depict the changes with

awareness of potential impact on the rest of the IT

processes and business value of the organization. It

Figure 4 : Service Transition

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supports all projects that are in transition and not focus only on a single project. The objectives of

service transition are as follows:

• A consistent framework for evaluating the service capability and risk factor before a new

or changed service is deployed.

• Maintaining integrity of the IT processes as they evolve through the transition phase.

• To ensure that the service can be managed, operated and supported in terms with the

requirements and specifications of service design.

2.2.1 When is service transition helpful?7

• When adding, or changing a service is not simple.

• When one size does not fit all and the IT team may have to adapt and innovate.

• When there must be a change to an existing supplier, service or service provider. Service

transition can help ease the business into the switch.

• When replacing systems, hardware and applications s more complicated than it appears.

Old and new software may not “talk” to each other. People may need retraining, and

processes may need updating. Each action has its own repercussions and costs. Service

transition can help predict the effects and cut the risk of failure during the changeover.

• When the service management capability of an internal or external service provider

changes, service transition can help the organization to adjust and adapt.

2.2.2 Service Transition Process

Service transition is characterized by 7 processes. These processes will effectively to move

services into operation. Each step in the process is important to deliver and support high-

performing services.

7 Best practice Insights|BMC

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•

•

•

Figure 5 - Service Transition Process

1. Transition Planning and Support

Definition: The process responsible for planning all service transition processes and coordinating

the resources that they require. These service transition processes are change management, service

asset and configuration management, release and deployment management, service validation and

testing, change evaluation, and knowledge management.8

Goal: The goal of this process is twofold. Firstly, to ensure that all the requirements identified

during service strategy, introduced in service design and documented in continual service

improvement is achieved through effective planning and resource coordination. Secondly, it is to

pin point and manage potential risks that might disrupt service or may cause failure during the

service transition phase.

Business Benefits: The outcome of this phase will result in increased ability of handling a great

number of changes, releases, deployments, less risk and higher degree of success.

2. Change Management

Definition: The process responsible for controlling the lifecycle of all changes. The primary

objective of change management is to enable beneficial changes to be made, with minimum

disruption to IT Services. 9 This process will be discussed in detail in the further chapters.

8 ITIL Glossary 2011 9 ITIL Glossary 2011

Transition

Planning and

Support

Service Asset and

Configuration

Management

Service

Validation and

Testing

Knowledge Management

Change

Management

Release and

Deploy

Management

Change

Evaluation

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Goal: To produce maximum business value while reducing disruptions. It is designed to avoid or

accept risks when the requirements demand new solutions and services from IT.

Business Benefits: All the other lifecycle activities depend on change management to handle the

risk of changes. This process helps increase the change success rate and also increase incident and

event management.

3. Service Asset and Configuration Management

Definition: The process responsible for ensuring that the assets required to deliver services are

properly controlled, and that accurate and reliable information about those assets is available when

and where it is needed. This information includes details of how the assets have been configured

and the relationships between assets.10

Goal: The goal of Service asset and configuration management(SACM) is to ensure that the assets

that are required to deliver services are properly controlled and accurate information about these

assets are readily available.

Business Benefit: The savings inherent in the proper management of assets, software licenses and

configurations can be massive. The SACM processes and knowledge output are crucial to the

contribution of business value.

4. Release and Deploy Management

Definition: The process responsible for planning, scheduling and controlling the build, test and

deployment of releases, and for delivering new functionality required by the business while

protecting the integrity of existing services.

Goal: The goal of RDM is to deliver services obtained by service design or continual service

improvement, through building, testing and providing the capability of resources to deliver the

services based on business stakeholder requirements.

Business Benefit: The cost of outages, rework and unplanned work can be dramatically reduced

by developing a rational approach through effective RDM.

10 ITIL Glossary 2011

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5.Service Validation and Testing

Definition: The process responsible for validation and testing of a new or changed IT service.

Service validation and testing ensures that the IT service matches its design specification and will

meet the needs of the business.11

Goal: The main aim is to provide quality assurance. It also includes testing the service or release

if it functions reliably.

Business Benefit: Services that are tested and validated are more reliable and they help increase

the business value.

6. Change Evaluation

Definition: The process responsible for formal assessment of a new or changed IT service to ensure

that risks have been managed and to help determine whether to authorize the change.12

Goal: The goal is to evaluate the actual versus the predicted performance of any service change.

Business Benefits: Ensuring business value is the heart of the process. The more effectively the

change and the service implementations are evaluated, the better those activities will serve the

business.

7. Knowledge Management

Definition: The process responsible for sharing perspectives, ideas, experience and information,

and for ensuring that these are available in the right place and at the right time. The knowledge

management process enables informed decisions, and improves efficiency by reducing the need to

rediscover knowledge.13

Goal: The goal of KM is to improve both the quality and availability of critical data, and to enable

accurate management decisions that serve the business. ITIL defines the scope of KM as the entire

service lifecycle.

Business Benefit: It enables better service quality through increased IT efficiency along with

increasing the understanding among IT staff of the value of services provided to the business.

Knowledge management keeps the company’s intellectual property separate from that of

competitors and outside service providers.

11 ITIL Glossary 2011 12 ITIL Glossary 2011 13 ITIL Glossary 2011

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2.3 People Management through service transitions

The essential activities of service transition are two-fold. First one is to manage the communication

and secondly, it is to manage the organizational and stakeholder change. According to ITIL service

transition, early business support should be provided for the proposed transition. Also, according

to most of the CIO’s there must be an equal balance between the enabling technology, process and

the people to reap maximum benefits for the business value. It is strongly emphasized that without

the support of the people in the organization, no changes can be implemented. To smoothen the

process of service transition and implementing change, communication with people in the

organization is a key driver. The following points can be employed to ensure the same.

• Leadership team which embraces change

• Planning in a way that supports adoption of change in an organization

• Capability and knowledge enhancement

• Metrics that can be used to manage and measure the process

• Feedback management

By employing these valuable factors throughout the lifecycle, changes can be implemented and

through this maximum business value can be extracted.

2.4 Technology Considerations

Technology is an integral part of the service transition phase. It supports the transition process in

two important ways:

1. Supporting tools that affect the entire service lifecycle

2. Supporting the service transition part of the lifecycle and smaller elements

The tools that affect the entire service lifecycle forms the first main category of systems supporting

service transition. Examples of such systems are IT service management system and dashboards.

• IT service management system(ITSM): To have a dependable, technology-driven service

which meets business demands, IT organizations should have in place integrated

management processes. An ITSM solution that integrates with ITIL processes and has an

effective service management suite with CMDB, workflow platform and user interface will

foster the business in extracting maximum value. This unified approach provides proactive

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and continual improvement of service availability, quality, and cost-effectiveness in

complex enterprise environments.14

• Dashboards: An interactive, real-time access to service support metrics is provided by the

employment of a dashboard solution. This enables IT management to optimize decisions

and accelerate IT’s alignment with business goals. Dashboards enable a cross-functional

view of IT and supports customizable and role based view for KPI’s.

The second category of IT systems that provide solutions which support service transition includes

the service management tools and technology to perform data mining, database management,

release and deployment, publishing and more.

2.4.1 Interdependence and automation of processes

Today’s workplace is an interdependent environment with organizations going global and people

sharing calendars, exchanging emails and using technology in many ways that increase

collaboration and productivity. Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom (DIKW) model is

essential for decision making process and this must be architected in service knowledge

management system (SKMS) fashion to enable stakeholder collaboration using the same data

sources from configuration management database (CMDB) or configuration management system

(CMS).

An effective system should include automating and controlling service management business

processes as well as requesting centric, workflow based architecture. It should also include pre-

built modules for notifications, escalations and ability to track business activity to measure

business process performance.

2.4.2 Configuration Management System

According to ITIL, an effective way to track the characteristics and history of each configuration

item is to use the software Configuration Management System (CMS). CMS can be fully

automated and this may require integrating several tools.


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Figure 5 describes a sample service knowledge management system (SKMS). CMS is a part of

this SKMS system and this figure incorporates the Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom

(DIKW) model.

Various IT management tool and databases, such as an asset database, a change management

system, or a CMDB may be included in a CMS. CMDB is the heart of a CMS system which acts

as a core database that powers the complete CMS system. CMDB acts as a repository of

information related to all components associated across all IT environments. The CMDB provides

a single point of reference, making it the definitive reference mechanism for all IT decisions.15 By

ensuring that all IT management applications have access to IT configuration data, SKMS can

provide an insight that is essential to improve business decision-making.

2.4.3 Release and Deployment Technology

Release and deployment technology reduces both desktop administration and server configuration

costs, and improves risk management and employee productivity. Look for a policy-based solution

that automates software discovery, packaging, provisioning, configuration, patching, and repair.

A comprehensive release and deployment solution enables less dependency on multiple software

distribution tools.16 Figure 6 illustrates and describes how release and deployment technologies

provision a new service. Release and deployment technology is often called as service automation

or service provisioning.

15 Best practice Insights|BMC 16 Best practice Insights|BMC

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Figure 6: Service Knowledge Management System

Figure 7: Provisioning new service

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2.5 Implementing Service Transition

The ITIL Continual Service Improvement publication provides guidance on the challenges that

will be faced when figuring out what business benefits can be delivered by managing discrete

activities as a lifecycle.

Many IT organizations have difficulty estimating how much time they spend to transition a service

into production and then to keep the service up and running. One reason for this is that large

services are often developed and run as a project from external consultants. Then it’s the job of the

transition team to roll that service into operation.17

There are 2 approaches to handle this in the IT sector: firefighting and fire prevention

• Simple processes can be employed to reduce chaos in the firefighting method. A reliable

and good reactive change management process is a crucial to reducing chaos and getting

the fire under control. But to do so, the operations of incident and problem management

must be integrated with change management. When this integration is achieved, the

proactive approach of fire prevention can be started.

• Being proactive in the sense, identifying weakness in the infrastructure before they cause

service outages is the key to plan and implement service transition. Having an effective

change management system can help prevent unplanned outages. About 60-80% of all

unplanned outages are caused by badly conceived changes. By implementing this process,

even companies with minimal budget can be benefitted. Step by step, the organization

should be able to put out the fire and start preventing them. When return on

investment(ROI) is visible, it gets easier to justify the investment in change management.


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CHAPTER 3 - CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN IT

As discussed in the previous chapter, changes are strategic, prudent or operational. Within this

scope, they can either be reactive or proactive. A proactive change is made to seek benefits or

value to the business such as avoiding risk. The intent of a reactive change is to correct an

immediate situation which would impact the business in terms of quality of service and experience.

With this background, we can define two important terms that are important to understand the

process of change and service transition.

• Change Management: The process responsible for controlling the lifecycle of all changes.

The primary objective of change management is to enable beneficial changes to be made,

with minimum disruption to IT Services.18

• Request of Change(RFC): A formal proposal for a change to be made. An RFC includes

details of the proposed change, and may be recorded on paper or electronically. The term

RFC is often misused to mean a change record, or the change itself.19

Several analysts and IT think tanks have claimed that a weak change management system can lead

to high volumes of urgent and unplanned work. Mistakes and oversights causing disruption to the

business and service provided could also be one of the altercation for not having an efficient change

management process. Managing change effectively will increase and enable business continuity,

operational value and reduced risk. An efficient change management system ensures that the

changes to the environment goes through a proper approval and post-review process. This aids in

reducing the risk to ongoing operations.

3.1 Change Management Concepts

Release and Deploy management(RDM) and Service asset and configuration management

(SACM) should be integrated with each other. The benefits of doing so include balancing release

and change activities with managing configurations and understanding the potential impact of

activities before they are even started. In change management, each task is associated with tasks

that occur either sequentially or in parallel and these tasks include risk and impact analysis,

planning and approval before implementation. These tasks and activities must be supported by an

established workflow. Configuration management system (CMS) is an accurate and reliable



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system that ensures and efficient risk assessment and impact analysis, thus contributing in large to

the success factor of the organization.

All other lifecycle activities depend on

change management to manage the

risk of changes and this itself proves

how important change management is

in extracting the maximum business

value from any organization

RFC’s can be classified into three

types:

1. Standard Changes: They are

often pre-authorized and

represent low-risk and regular

activities with a standard

outcome. Standard changes are routine and low-impact IT changes. For example, these

can be services entered in the service catalog such as cloud services, new users,

modifications to applications and access rights.

2. Normal Changes: These are the changes that should follow the change management

process from the beginning, including all the activities. It is based on the assumption that

the change has a significant impact until it is determined that it is a low impact. If the

changes fall under the low impact category then, the standard change procedures are

followed and the changes can be prioritized, authorized and scheduled. Change

management is coordinated with the change implementation whereas release and

deployment, executes the change.

3. Emergency Changes: It follows the same procedure as normal changes but the timescale

is accelerated. The testing and documentation phase can be minimized so as to allocate

adequate time to release and roll out phase. This is done to compensate the high risks

involved. Once the implementation has been done, the change has to be fully documented

and also tested to assure stability to the implemented change.

Change Request

Risk Mitigati

on

Fast Tracking

Re-Estimati

onCrashing

Process Improve

ment

Figure 8: Feature of Change Requests

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A change request should not be approved for high impact emergency that does not contain a

detailed back-out plan in the event of failure. If any change is irreversible, it must be fully tested

to ensure that it works as planned.

3.2 Change Management Procedures

The IT change management procedures typically consists of 5 procedures. These procedures form

the basis of the change management process.

Figure 9: Change Management Procedure

1. Request for change review: This procedure is used by change coordinators when they are

dealing with change requests.

2. Change Planning: During this procedure, change coordinators and specialists prepare the

implementation plans for changes.

3. Change Approval: In this phase, the change manager and approvers (eg: customers and

service owners) approve planned changes.

4. Change Implementation: Infrastructure changes are implemented by specialists.

5. Change Closure: Specialists follow this procedure when they perform production tests after

changes have been implemented, and change coordinators employ it when they close out

changes.20

These procedures may vary slightly for different types of IT changes. IT organizations should

standardize and automate the process as much as they can to ensure effectiveness.

20 http://www.bmcsoftware.it/guides/itil-change-management.html

Request for change review

Change Planning

Change Approval

Change Implementation

Change Closure

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3.3 Change Management Roles

1. Even before implementing the ITIL procedures, the following roles must be implemented:

2. Change Coordinator: The responsibility is to assess change requests originating from

incident, problem, release, or continuity management. The change coordinator registers

changes as needed to handle requests for change or receives change requests from other

change initiators; determines the risk and impact for requested changes; prepares

implementation plans by creating tasks; and monitors the progress of changes.21

3. Change Manager: The need for change manager is generally in mid-sized and large

organizations. The responsibility of these individuals is to manage change procedures,

prioritizing change requests, risk evaluation and effectively recording the outcomes of each

change.

4. Change Advisory Board: The board is responsible for accrediting changes and evaluating

results when the change manager determines that there is a high risk associated with these

requests. During such situations, the board schedules a meeting to sketch out a detailed

agenda to determine how to proceed with the high-risk requests.

5. Approver: The role of approver is to accept or reject the requests.

6. Change Implementation Team: This team consists of people who are responsible for

carrying out the actual change process.

3.4 ITIL Change Management Process

Change Management helps organizations understand and work towards minimizing risks of

changes to the IT environment. The following depicts the change management process.

1. Creating a request for change

When creating change requests, it is important to document the details of the change that

needs to be implemented for others to understand better the nature of the request and

change. A change request consists of the following information


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• Incidents the enabled the change

• Description about how change can be implemented

• The impact the change could make on other systems

• Risk assessment

• Contact information of all people who are involved in the change

• A brief outline of the approver of tickets

• A backup plan

2. Assessment and review of Change Requests

When reviewing the change request, the evaluation criteria should be based on practicality

and priority. During this phase, it is important to determine if the request is reasonable and

provide feedback related to the request. Practical requests will be evaluated according to the

originator of the request, the impact that making a change would have on the company, the

estimated return on any investment made in relation to the request, and the resources that are

needed to fulfill the request.22 Another important aspect during this phase, is to determine

who would be responsible for fulfilling the request and to assess the time taken to implement

the change.

3. Planning the change

Once the change request is done, it is necessary to plan the changes. A change plan should

consist of information related to the course that the change would take, resources that are

needed to complete the change and a timeline for implementation.

4. Testing the change

Testing the change is vital when the change made is related to software debugging or changing

a system. It will also provide an insight on any problems in the procedures that have been

developed.


Page | 27

5. Create a change proposal

During this phase, an outline is drawn to indicate the type of change, the priority associated

with the change ant the outcomes that could occur if the change is not made. A clear

explanation pertaining to why the change has to be made has to be given as, the request will

be assigned to a person who is empowered to authorize the change.

6. Change Implementation

Implementing a change is not as simple as talking about it. The change has to be constructed

during the planning process and implementation is just one step in the change management

process. Once the change has been made, tests have to be conducted to validate the change.

If the change is not successful, change has to be remediated and a backup plan must be

designed to alleviate the issues that necessitated the change.

7. Reviewing change performance

This is a vital phase of the change management process. Post-implementation review is an

essential part. All records must be reviewed to determine whether the change was successful

or was it a failure. Time and expenses spent on the change has to be recorded to determine the

accuracy of the estimates that were made before the request was fulfilled. This gives an

opportunity to fine-tune the change management process.

8. Closing the process

When the change process is complete, one must make sure that the entire process is

documented in the database and all the stakeholders have access to it. Once this activity is

performed, the process is closed out.

The below figure depicts the change management process with the people and roles responsible

for each stage of the process.

Page | 28

Figure 10: Change process Management Roles and Responsibilities

Page | 29

The below image depicts the lifecycle of a change request of a sample request by ITIL.

Figure 11: Lifecycle of a change request (ITIL)

3.5 Change Advisory Board

The role of change advisory board(CAB) is to evaluate the proposed changes, categories of

proposed changes which are not defined as standard before and after approval. CAB also validates

if the higher-impact changes have been tested and properly documented.

CAB meetings include the stakeholders responsible for the change requests – service owner,

representatives from business areas affected, problem management, incident management and

service and configuration management.

All the changes that have been implemented should be reviewed for a particular reason. A review

discloses if the change, actually met its desired outcome and objectives and will also help

Page | 30

determine whether the change required more or fewer resources than planned. CAB will also verify

if the change has met budget targets and was implemented during the proposed window. All in all,

CAB is responsible for the smooth transition of the change request and this board will enhance the

functionalities of change management process. The below flowchart depicts the role of CAB in

change management process.

Figure 12: Role of CAB in Change Management Process

Page | 31

3.6 Change Management KPI’s

Metrics are an important tool to measure and understand causes, effects, trends and velocity of IT

response. They are essential before, during and after the change. ITIL service transition publication

have listed a few KPI’s for change management.

Key Performance Indicator

(KPI) Definition

Number of Major Changes Number of major changes assessed by the CAB (Change

Advisory Board)

Number of CAB Meetings Number of CAB (Change Advisory Board) meetings

Time for Change Approval/

Rejection

Average time from registering an RFC with Change

Management until a decision on the RFC is reached (i.e.

until it is either approved or rejected)

Change Acceptance Rate Number of accepted vs. rejected RFCs

Number of Emergency Changes Number of Emergency Changes assessed by the ECAB

(Emergency Change Advisory Board)

Table 1: KPI for Change Management Process23

23 Key Performance Indicators for ITIL Change Management from the ITIL Process Map

Page | 32

CHAPTER 4 – EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the concepts that were reviewed in the previous chapters of literature review and

change management will be discussed by draw parallels from my internship at Amplifon in order

to provide an empirical analysis of this specific sector.

The healthcare industry is ever growing and changing rapidly. Increasing prevalence of hearing

loss with rising demand for technologically advanced devices are expected to expand the market

growth over the forecast period.

“The global hearing aids market was valued at USD 4.5 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow

with a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period. The high growth is expected because increasing

deafness resulting from increased noise pollution levels, genetic factors, ear infections, birth

complications and other factors. The aging population is at a high risk of suffering from hearing

loss. In addition, the rise in demand for technologically advanced and aesthetically appealing

miniature devices propels the market growth.

The WHO estimates suggest that over 5% of the global population, suffers from disabling hearing

impairment. Moreover, nearly 15% of the global adult population is affected by some degree of

hearing loss. Majority of which is found in the less developed nations. Additionally, the estimates

also suggest that approximately one-third of the population over 65 years of age suffers from

disabling hearing loss. The inability to communicate leads to feeling of social exclusion,

loneliness, and frustration, especially amongst the aged people. Moreover, the prevailing high

unmet need of these instruments globally is anticipated to lead the market growth.

Many manufacturers are developing devices that can be embedded in the ear making them

invisible, to overcome the social stigma associated with such devices. Bluetooth connectivity

feature in the devices helps the users have a better quality of life. Furthermore, the introduction of

digital signal processing has revolutionized this market. Technological developments such as

digital noise reduction and speech enhancement are also expected to facilitate the market growth.

‘Europe is the largest regional market with a share of 38.3% in 2015’

In 2015, Europe accounted for the maximum revenue share of 38.3% followed by North America.

The large share of Europe can be attributed to factors such as growing geriatric population base,

Page | 33

increasing prevalence of hearing loss in the region, and high purchasing power of the patients.

Also, the growing awareness about these healthcare devices contributes to the large share of the

region.

Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the fastest growing region with a CAGR of 5.4% over the

forecast period. The developing countries in Asia-Pacific region, such as India and China, exhibit

potential market expansion opportunities due to various contributing factors, such as the large

patient pool and surge in the aging population, upsurge in hearing-related problems, increasing

awareness amongst the patients, and developing healthcare infrastructure & services due to the

growing government funding”.24

4.1 About Amplifon

“In the 1940s the development of the transistor revolutionized electronics, bringing us the

transistor radio and the first electronic hearing aids.

Among the pioneers in this new development was Englishman Algernon Charles Holland, who

founded Amplifon in Milan, Italy in 1950 to distribute and fit hearing aids throughout the region.

The company grew quickly and between 1950 and 1970 helped many thousands of people with

hearing loss to improve their hearing and reconnect with the world around them.

Always at the forefront of technical innovation and customer care, in 1971 Amplifon established

the Centre for Research and Studies (CRS). The Centre is a not-for-profit foundation to support

scientific and clinical research programmes into hearing loss. To this day, the Centre provides

services to ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) specialists, GPs, pediatricians, neurologists and hearing aid

specialists worldwide.

By the 1990s we'd helped millions of people with hearing loss and become a widely-trusted name.

Meanwhile, the development of the microchip meant that hearing aids could be made smaller and

less obtrusive, with more scope to fine tune and personalize them for individual needs. In 1996,

Amplifon began fitting the first fully digital hearing aids.

24 Report: Hearing Aids Market Analysis by Product Type (In-The Ear, Receiver-In-The-Ear, Behind-The-Ear,

Canal Hearing Aids ITC, CIC, IIC), By Technology Type (Digital and Analog Hearing Aid), And Segment

Forecasts To 2024

Page | 34

In 2006 Amplifon acquired The Ultravox Group - an established and trusted brand in the UK since

1961.

Today Amplifon has more than 5,700 specialist centers in over 20 countries around the world

staffed with our highly-qualified professionals. Our success is global. But it's also very personal

and individual.

Our true successes are the millions of people who have had their quality of life improved by what

we do, and the way we do it. Amplifon, listed on the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange,

is the global leader in hearing solutions and services for retail expertise, customization and

consumer care. Through a network of 9,500 points of sale, of which approximately 4,000 direct

shops, 3,700 service centers and 1,900 affiliates, Amplifon is active in 22 countries across 5

continents.”25

4.2 Market Analysis

According to World Health Organization(WHO) more than 650 million people suffer from

different levels of hearing loss. Only 20% of them decide to see a specialist, while more than half

a billion individuals continue to live with the problem without seeking a solution, representing a

potentially enormous market.

The key growth drivers in hearing devices are:

• Demography: The growing ageing population and increasing life expectancy are the major

contributors to this factor.

• Increasing points of sale: Increase in the new and innovative channels with a few showing

some amount of sustainability, increased marketing and increased access to hearing aids

are the key factors for the increase.

• Emerging Markets: Growing penetration rates, improved healthcare systems and higher

average income are the major contributors to this factor.

25 Amplifon Corporate Website

Page | 35

Figure 13: Growth drivers in hearing devices

According to the research conducted by William Demant, the Organization for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) countries continue to dominate in terms of market value.

Figure 14: Market Value Split26

26 Report from William Demant | Hearing Devices

Page | 36

Figure 15: Growth driven by Baby boomers27

Off late, the North American market has some major players growing. A large number of people

are made aware of the various buying channels. The growth of the market is commendable.

Figure 16: Growth figures for North America

In Europe, France, Italy and UK are met with encouraging growth rates while the Scandinavian is

still developing with a slower pace.


Page | 37

Figure 17: Growth figures for Europe

The hearing aid distribution channel is varied and consist of several players. The below diagram

depicts the various channels for distribution, level of specialization, players and market split.

Figure 18: Distribution Channels28

According to an article by CNBC, “Amplifon has been buying up hearing-aid retail chains, largely

in Europe, and says it now has 9 percent of the market, but it faces challenges from hearing-aid

makers Sonova of Switzerland and William Demant of Denmark.


Page | 38

Sonova is already the second-largest retailer with around 7 percent, according to Credit Suisse,

after buying Dutch retail chain AudioNova for about $1 billion last year. It has said it is looking

to buy retailers in the United States and Australia.

The retail market for hearing aids is made up largely of small independent store chains, but has

begun to consolidate as demand for hearing aids grows among ageing populations and as

manufacturers move into the retailing and servicing side. Amplifon's stock has surged more than

30 percent over the past 12 months but its market value of 2.7 billion euros is smaller than some

of the big manufacturers moving into retail.

Amplifon is also building up businesses in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and Turkey,

and hopes to enter the potentially vast Chinese market within 12 months, targeting metropolitan

markets such as Beijing or Shanghai. Currently, China's emerging retail market is worth 300-400

million euros.”29

4.3 Business Model of Amplifon30

Amplifon is the global leader in hearing solutions and services in terms of retail expertise,

customization and consumer care. It operates under different business models, enabling it to better

adapt its offer to the peculiarities of each market where it operates.

Business-to-consumer model

In EMEA and APAC, Amplifon mainly adopts a B2C business model, operating mostly through

direct points of sale, which can be either corporate shops or shop-in-shops and corners.

• Corporate shops are direct points of sale managed either by Amplifon staff or by people

working on behalf of the Company on a commission basis. Amplifon has 2,512 of these

fully equipped shops, where customers get in direct contact with the Company.

• Shop-in-shops and corners are direct points of sale located in third-party premises (e.g.

pharmacies, opticians and medical surgeries) that are visited by audiologists on a regular

basis. They are very common in rural areas with low population rates. Customers for whom

29 CNBC News 30 Amplifon Sustainability Report - 2016

Page | 39

these outlets represent the first point of contact may be directed to a store when necessary.

Amplifon’s points-of-sale network consists of 3,667 shop–in–shops and corners.

Business-to-business model

In the USA, Amplifon operates two different B2B business models:

• Franchising (Miracle-Ear): a network of retailers who run outlets under a franchising

agreement and using Amplifon’s Miracle-Ear brand. Such retailers benefit from a leading

brand, advanced marketing tools and other value-added services provided by Amplifon.

They purchase products exclusively from Amplifon and can make use of Service Centers

as their first contact point with customers.

• Value-added buying group (Elite Hearing Network): a buying group serving the

independent market (audiologists, ENTs). These independent retailers, affiliates of the

Elite Hearing Network, operate with their own brands, purchase products from Amplifon

and benefit from favorable price conditions thanks to economies of scale. In addition, the

Elite Hearing Network offers its affiliates a variety of support services.

Figure 19: Value Chain

4.4 Change Management at Amplifon

The mission of Change Management is to facilitate successful implementation of changes while

minimizing negative business impact, ensuring Service Level commitments are maintained and

customer expectations are met.

The Change Management process has both reactive and proactive aspects:

Page | 40

• The reactive aspect is concerned with adapting to changing circumstances and applying

solutions and fixes suggested by Incident and Problem management processes.

• The proactive aspect is concerned with seeking business benefits such as reducing costs

or improving services or increasing the ease and effectiveness of support.

4.4.1 Process Goals:

• Optimize risk exposure,

reducing or eliminating

disruptions and business

losses due to changes.

• Minimize the severity of any

impact and disruption.

• Be successful at the first

attempt.

4.4.2 Change Management Process Flow

The process begins with a need for an IT change. It may be initiated by:

• The Change Requestor, who is an IT staff member that creates a new change request in

the Change Database, with a proactive perspective focused on innovation and

improvement.

• The Incident, Problem, Capacity, Availability, IT Service Continuity or Service Level

Management processes.

The process ends with a closed change or a rejected change and comprises the following sub-

processes. The organization for Change Management process is split in 2 levels. The change

request from a specific country is processed and approved by the local support (first level) and the

Corporate Support (second level).

Figure 20: Level of organization

Page | 41

1. Change Raising & Recording

This sub-process is the starting point for the Change Management process. The purpose of

this sub-process is to formally track change requests, which must be detailed in a formal

Request for Change (RFC) and entered in the Change Database.

The Change Analyst has to validate the RFC for completeness and accept it only if it meets

the completeness criteria. If not accepted, the RFC is rejected and the Change Requestor is

notified.

Figure 21: Sample Process flow for Change Raising and Recording

2. Change Classification

During this sub-process, when the RFC is accepted, the Change Analyst establishes its

category, urgency and priority. If the requested change is a “Standard” change that is pre-

approved for implementation, it is automatically scheduled in accordance with SLAs and

moves to sub-process “CM.04 Change Authorization and Schedule”.

CM.01 Change Raising & Recording

To

ol

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

stC

ha

ng

e R

eq

ue

sto

rE

xte

rna

l Pro

cess

Use

r

New Request

for Change

Proactive CM: Innovation or

Improvement CM.01.01 Create

change request

Start

Yes

Start

New change request

Change

passes

filtering?

Incomplete RfC, not in policy

or Wrong assignment

CM.01.03 Accept

Change Request

CM.01.05 Receive

advice

Resubmitted

changeResubmit

request?

CM.01.04 Notify

Change

Requestor

NoEnd

Change database

CM.01.02 Validate

change request

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Cap

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

IM.04

Incident

Resolution &

Recovery

Inc

Mgt

Prob

Mgt

PM.05

Problem

Resolution

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Cap

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

IM.04

Incident

Resolution &

Recovery

Inc

Mgt

Prob

Mgt

PM.05

Problem

Resolution

3.A

CM.02 Change

Classification

No

Rejected change

3.I

CM.06 Change

Review &

Closure

Time to Answer - Stop

Time to Answer - Start

Time to Plan - Start

Time to Market - Start

Page | 42

Figure 22: Sample Process flow for Change Classification

3. Change Assessment

The Change Analyst working with the Change Manager, if required, evaluates the

documentation supporting the RFC and analyses competencies needed for the assessment.

In this sub-process, the involvement of Change Analysts from each Area impacted by the

change in order to perform a complete assessment is crucial.

The Change Analysts performs three types of assessment:

• Technical impact.

• Financial impact, including resource requirements.

• Business impact.

The sub-process ends with the collection of all assessment results by the Change Manager.

CM.02 Change Classification

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

st

To

ols

Ch

an

ge

Re

qu

esto

rU

se

r

Change database

CM.02.02 Obtain

Additional

Information

Additional

Information?

CM.02.01 Review

Accepted Change

Request

CM.02.04

Categorize

Change Request

CM.02.07

Indicate Change

Request is

Authorized

CM.02.06

Estabilish Priority

Yes

No

Standard

(Pre-approved)

Change

Classified Change

Standard

(Pre-approved)

Change

Accepted

Change

Request

3.B

CM.03

Change

Assessment

CM.02.03

Provide

Additional

Information

CM.02.05

Estabilish

Urgency

Standard

change?

No

3.C

CM.04

Change

Authorization

and Schedule

3.A

CM.01 Change

Raising &

Recording

Define category and

evaluate Areas impacted by

the change

Configuration database

Page | 43

Figure 23: Sample Process flow for Change Assessment

4. Change Authorization & Schedule

Based on the assessment results, the Change Manager decides if it is necessary to involve

the Change Advisory Board (CAB) in order to correctly assess and prioritize the change

and to define a proposal for the Change Requestor.

The Change Manager is accountable for the final approval of the proposal that has to be

submitted to the Change Requestor for final authorization.

The sub-process ends with the activation of the Release Management process if the

proposal is authorized by the Change Requestor, vice versa the change is sent to the last

sub-process for formal closure, if the change is rejected or the change proposal is not

authorized.

CM.03 Change Assessment

To

ols

No

Ch

an

ge

Ma

na

ge

rU

se

rE

xte

rna

l P

roce

ss

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

st

CM.03.01 Analyse

competencies

needed for

Assessment

CM.03.02 Assign

change to

Analysts for

assessment

CM.03.05 Assess

for Business

Impact

CM.03.03 Assess

for Technical

Impact

CM.03.06 Collect

Change

Assessment

Results

CM.03.04 Assess

for Financial

Impact

3.B

CM.02

Change

Classification

Performance

impact

Identify competencies for

each impacted Area


Change database

Serv Lvl

Mgt

Cap

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Service targets

Fin

Mgt

Approved

investment

case

Estimate resource

requirements

- Review of the competencies assessed by the Change Analyst

- Involvement of other Areas’ Change Managers

- Assignment to proper Change Analysts

3.H

CM.05 Change

Implementation

Coordination

Service targets

Serv Lvl

Mgt

CM.04

Change

Authorization

& Schedule

3.D

Page | 44

Figure 24: Sample Process flow for Change Authorization and Schedule

5. Change Implementation Coordination

This sub-process is focused on the coordination of the change implementation performed

by the Release Management process. The Change Analyst, based on the change

implementation plan defined in detailed by Release Management, is committed to a

scheduled date and oversees continuously monitoring activities and milestones of the

implementation process.

If implementation is successful, the Change Record and any modified Configuration Items

(CIs) are updated, and stakeholders (Change Requestor or processes that raised the RFC)

are notified.

CM.04 Change Authorization and Schedule

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

st

Ch

an

ge

Re

qu

esto

rT

oo

ls

No

Ch

an

ge

Ma

na

ge

rE

xte

rna

l P

roce

ss

Use

r

No

Yes

3.D

CM.03

Change

Assessment

CM.04.01 Review

Assessment

Results

CM.04.05

Confirm Change

Authorization

PackageCM.04.02 Define

CAB and

schedule meeting

CAB

Required?

No

Yes

3.C

CM.02

Change

Classification

CM.04.10 Reject

Change

CM.04.07

Communicate

proposal

CM.04.11 Receive

advice of rejection

CM.02.09 Activate

Release

Management

Rel

Mgt

Release

request

Change database

Approve

proposal?

CM.04.03 Review

forward schedule

of changes

CM.04.04 Define

Change

Schedule

RfC from

Incident or

Problem Mgt?

No

Yes

CM.04.08

Evaluate

proposal

Authorize

implementation

?

Yes

No

Standard

(Pre-approved)

Change

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Cap

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Cap

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

IM.04

Incident

Resolution &

Recovery

Inc

Mgt

Prob

Mgt

PM.05

Problem

Resolution

3.F

CM.06 Change

Review &

Closure

For Pre-approved changes

there are predefined SLAs that

specify time for implementation

CM.04.06

Approve proposal

CM.05 Change

Implementation

Coordination

3.E

Time to Plan - Stop

Page | 45

Figure 25: Sample Process flow for Change Implementation Coordination

6. Change Review & Closure

After the RFC, has been implemented, it requires a Post Implementation Review, which

takes into consideration feedback from stakeholders. Prior to closing the change, it is

important to review any impacts to customer service and to ensure that the appropriate

configuration and change record data have been updated. If the results are inadequate or

CM.05 Change Implementation Coordination

Ch

an

ge

Re

qu

esto

rT

oo

ls

No

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

st

Exte

rna

l P

roce

ss

Use

r

CM.05.02 Verify

Change

Requestor

readiness

CM.05.04 Monitor

Change

Implementation

Milestone

Initiate

Another

Milestone?

NoCM.05.03 Initiate

Change

Implementation

Milestone

Implementation

Progress

Data

Milestone

Complete?

All Milestones

Complete?Yes

No

CM.05.01 Review

Change

Implementation

Plan

Yes

No

Yes

3.E

CM.04

Change

Authorization

& Schedule

Rel

Mgt

Request for

implementation

approval

Rel

Mgt

Authority to

implement

Rel

Mgt

CM.05.06 Update

Assets and CIs


Change database

CM.05.07

Communicate

Change

Implemented

Rel

Mgt

Implentation PlanCM.05.08

Receive

Completion

Notification

PM.05

Problem

Resolution

Cap

Mgt

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

IM.04

Incident

Resolution &

Recovery

Inc

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Prob

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

CM.05.05

Evaluate need for

re-assessment

Re-assessment

needed?YesNo

3.H

CM.03

Change

Assessment

3.G

CM.06 Change

Review &

Closure

Time to Market - Stop

Page | 46

incomplete, follow-up actions, such as new RFC raised by the Change Requestor, are

executed.

Figure 26: Sample Process flow for Change Review and Closure

7. Change Monitoring & Reporting

This sub-process is executed to monitor changes throughout their lifecycle. Selected

changes are identified and their progress is reviewed. Unsatisfactory progress can require

either functional or hierarchical escalation. Monitoring continues throughout the life of the

change.

CM.06 Change Review & Closure

Ch

an

ge

Re

qu

esto

rT

oo

lC

ha

ng

e A

na

lyst

Exte

rna

l P

roce

ss

Use

r

Yes - New Request

for Change

Change record

complete?

CM.06.02 Conduct

post

implementation

review

Completed

changes

Change database

CM.06.04 Request

Change Closure

CM.06.03 Update

change record

No

YesCM.06.01 Collect

stakeholder

feedback

Follow up

initiatives?

EndCM.06.05 Close

Change

PM.05

Problem

Resolution

Cap

Mgt

IT Serv

Cont

Mgt

IM.04

Incident

Resolution &

Recovery

Inc

Mgt

Avail

Mgt

Prob

Mgt

Serv

Lvl

Mgt

Rejected proposal

3.G

CM.05 Change

Implementation

Coordination

CM.04 Change

Authorization

and Schedule

3.F

CM.01 Change

Raising &

Recording

3.I

CM.06.06

Evaluate follow-up

initiatives

No

In the new RfC specify

link to previous change

Page | 47

Figure 27: Sample Process flow for Change Monitoring and Reporting

8. Change Management Performance Evaluation

The purpose of this sub-process is to evaluate the performance of the Change Management

process activities against defined performance criteria and measures, and to define

potential improvement initiatives.

CM.07 Change Monitoring & Reporting

To

ol

Ch

an

ge

An

aly

st

Ch

an

ge

Ma

na

ge

rE

xte

rn

al

Pro

ce

ss

Use

r

CM.07.03 Provide

information

Yes

No

CM.07.01 Select

change

Functional

escalation?

CM.07.05 Resolve

exception

Change database

CM.07.04 Perform

hierarchical

escalation

Change

monitoring?

Progress

satisfactory?

CM.07.02 Review

progress Yes

Yes

No

No

End

Start

Svc Lvl

Mgt

Page | 48

Figure 28: Sample Process flow for Change Management Performance evaluation

CM.08 Change Management Performance Evaluation

To

ol

Ch

an

ge

Ma

na

ge

rS

take

ho

lde

rE

xte

rn

al

Pro

ce

ss Monthly monitoring

Both verbal feedback and

formal surveys

CM.08.08 Produce

Gap Analysis

CM.08.10

Complete

EvaluationCM.08.04 Assess

Process Execution

CM.08.02 Produce

Process

Measurements

Periodic Event

Any

process

CM.08.12

Receive update

Change database

CM.08.05 Review

Existing

Documentation

CM.08.01 Collect

Feedback

CM.08.03

Research Trends

and Best Practices

CM.08.07 Collect

Evaluation Results

CM.08.09

Recommend

Initiatives

CM.08.11

Communicate to

StakeholdersCM.08.06 Audit

Process

Any

process

Perform Tasks as Appropriate

Change

activity data

Responses

or

Requests for Information

Request for

information or update

Page | 49

The below flowchart depicts the change management process flow.

Figure 29: Change Management Process Flow

4.4.3 Nature of Change Requests

Change Requests are of different nature based on the type of activities to implement and different

control systems. Listed below are different types of Change Requests encountered in the daily

work scenario.

• System enhancement: This kind of CR involves a change or upgrade to the existing system

to meet the new specifications.

• User Creation: As Amplifon is spread over 22 countries and with rampant acquisitions,

the creation of users to access the Back-Office Applications is constantly increasing.

• Data Maintenance: There are quite a lot of Back Office applications like Oracle’s

J.D.Edwards, Master Data Management, HR applications and tools. Thus, the CR usually

consists of a consistent number of requests for updating database information for massive

setup changes, data quality improvement or data migration.

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• Problem Determination: Problems occur sporadically and often unpredictably. Automatic

procedures, human intervention in terms of planning and forecasting will foster

determination and elimination of problems.

4.4.4 KPI’s for Change Management

As discussed earlier, KPI’s are vital to measure the performance of the change management

process and it helps in evaluating the gaps and fine tuning the process. Key Performance

Indicators(KPI) for tracking the success of the IT Change Management process at Amplifon are:

• Backlog of Changes: This factor measures of the number of changes that are not yet

completed.

• Time to Answer: time necessary to take in charge the Request for Change, between the

creation of the RFC by the Change Requestor and the beginning of the validation activity

performed by the Change Analyst.

• Time to Market: This factor measures the efficiency by tracking the time from the “Request

for Change Review” up to the “Change Closure” stages.

• Quality of Changes: This factor provides qualitative data based on the quality of the

changes evaluated, considering the completeness and time variable of the changes.

4.4.5 Change Management Tools

To employ change management processes efficiently, the right tools must be used. On an average,

800 change requests are created per year at Amplifon. The tool used to manage these requests is,

BMC Footprints Service Core.

BMC Footprints is a flexible, comprehensive, integrated IT service and asset management

platform. It is a web-based platform which can be customized and easy to use. It supports the

convergence of IT service and asset management and provides the visibility and control that is

required that is required to continuously improve service delivery and manage IT assets while

improving efficiencies, controlling costs, maintaining compliance and reducing IT vulnerability

and financial risk. The key feature of this platform are31:

31 BMC Footprints ServiceCore Datasheet | Digital Service Management

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• Automated workflow – Easily initiate, route, and manage incidents and services

• Effortless administration – Drag and drop tools require no programming

• Track compliance – Visual reporting tool enables instant insight

• Usability – Included mobile capabilities and easy-to-use interface

• Powerful integrations – Integrate with authentication, email, and external data sources

• Optional client management – Deliver to endpoints faster via simple integration with BMC

Client Management

BMC Footprints ServiceCore can be used to manage the following:

• Incident Management

• Problem Management

• Change management

• Service Request

• Service Portfolio

• Knowledge Management

• Configuration Management

Database

• Workflow Automation

• Executive dashboards and

business analytics

• Visualization and Reporting

For the Change Management process, this platform helps to plan changes to avoid any serious

outages. It is also helpful in managing assessments and approvals, linking related items such as

configuration items, problems, solution articles and incidents.

At Amplifon, this platform is used to manage and link both incidents and changes. It is also used

to customize workflows and assignments. The dashboard and analytics feature of this platform

helps in generating real-time reports and graphs. The below two images depict the sample

footprints dashboard.

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Figure 30: Footprints Dashboard

Figure 31: A sample change request

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4.5 Roles and Responsibilities

1. Ticket management

Footprints is the platform used in Amplifon to manage the change requests. Tickets (CR)

are raised by the countries and at the Corporate level the CR’s are analyzed and validated.

These CR’s are then assigned to external software service providers to implement the

change. Once the analysis is done by the external service provider, Corporate approves the

change and the change is implemented.

My responsibility is the ownership of the entire process. I have to track and analyse the

journey of each ticket and create an estimated timeline for the closure of tickets. I should

also make sure that the time taken to implement the change is well within the stipulated

timeline. Communicating with Corporate team, countries and external service provider to

ensure a smooth flow of activity as per the plan.

2. Quality Analysis

Quality is an important factor to ensure the effective implementation of change

management process. My role in ensuring quality are:

• Validate the information of the initial change request

• To ensure completeness of the request, i.e. preciseness, clarity, context and

examples

• Track the time between the creation of requests and assignment to external service

providers.

• Track the time between the assignment and implementation of requests by the

external service providers.

3. Backlog management

Backlogs are created when one CR is dependent on any incident, project or any other factor.

To have an effective change management process it is vital to minimize the number of

backlogs and dependencies.

My responsibility is to ensure no backlogs are created during the process and to ensure

closure of backlogs which have continued to remain in the same state for around a year.

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4. Reporting

Documenting and communicating the results of a certain activity is a key to measure the

progress. My responsibility is to document the status of each change request and report the

results periodically. This ensures the quality and also meets the KPI’s.

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CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION

In simple words, this report was put together to provide insight on the change management process

and quality control in the world of IT. The concepts of change management process were stated in

the literature review and its applications were described in the chapter of empirical analysis. All

of the above are supported by illustrative workflows.

Implementing a change management process could prove difficult due to the factors associated

with change, compliance, configuration data, synchronization of updates and lack of management

support. But, based on the understanding and research carried out in this paper, we can deduce that

to have an effective and successful change management process, the following are of prime

importance.

• Ensure support from the management: Change Management is something that could be

difficult initially and hard to grasp. When the purpose and the benefits of the change

management process is properly communicated with all levels of organization, it becomes

easier to implement the process. The fundamental aspect to the success of change

management is to get all the stakeholders involved and on board.

• Defining a Change: This is a very important aspect in ensuring a successful implementation

of the change management process. While defining a change in the organization, all the

external and internal factors that could be affected by implementing the change should be

considered. Once the change has been defined, it has to be communicated to all levels in

the organization

• Defining key roles and responsibilities: Defining distinguished roles and responsibilities to

all the people involved in the change management process is a way to ensure proper

implementation and functioning of the process. Right from the change initiator and change

manager to the approver and change management team, the responsibilities must be clearly

specified.

• Designing change management process: Each change that is defined in the organization

requires a process that will be followed by all stakeholders and helps in setting expectations

for requestors. By defining a process, a set of protocols will be established that will keep

the change management system up and running.

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• Defining Key Performance Indicators(KPI): Measuring the success of the change process

is important. This shall identify the gaps in the process and provide inputs for improvement.

Measurements that are important to business stakeholders has to be identified.

• Continuous Service Improvement: There is room for improvement in any process or

methods. Similarly, the change management process, people involved in the process,

technology used and everything concerned to the process has to be audited or reviewed for

performance on a regular basis and improvements should be made to achieve operational

efficiency.

• Understanding risk tolerance levels: This aspect is based on the governance and maturity

of the change management process in successful administration of various change types.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Creasey,2009

2. Rousse, 2015

3. Beer & Nohria, 2000

4. Hayes, 2002

5. Burnes , 2014; Siegal et al., 1996; Genus, 1998

6. http://itsm.fwtk.org/History.htm

7. Best Practice Insights | BMC

8. ITIL Glossary 2011

9. http://www.bmcsoftware.it/guides/itil-change-management.html

10. Key Performance Indicators for ITIL Change Management from the ITIL Process Map

11. Report: Hearing Aids Market Analysis by Product Type (In-The Ear, Receiver-In-The-

Ear, Behind-The-Ear, Canal Hearing Aids ITC, CIC, IIC), By Technology Type (Digital

and Analog Hearing Aid), And Segment Forecasts To 2024

12. Amplifon Corporate Website

13. Report from William Demant | Hearing Devices

14. CNBC News

15. Amplifon Sustainability Report - 2016

16. BMC Footprints ServiceCore Datasheet | Digital Service Management

17. Amplifon Documents

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