Helena Mann, Crunch’s Transformation and Programme Lead, talks about why she’s on a mission to make change as pain-free for everyone. Interesting fact: Helena hates change!
Tell us about your role at Crunch
I was Crunch’s ninth-ever employee! I started as a client manager, then became a Salesforce and operations manager. Today, I lead the transformation team.
It’s my job to make sure that change happens effectively. I’m involved in every aspect of change and help to bring everyone together. Projects can involve a range of people from different teams, for example, business analysts and product managers, who all play a key role in enabling change at different stages. I liaise with all these different stakeholders to check we’re staying on track.
As someone who hates change, I go to great lengths to make it as painless as possible for everyone!
How is Crunch different from other accountancy firms?
Crunch is a Trailblazer for online accountancy, serving nearly 11,000 clients. We’re shaking up the market with innovative software and services to make accountancy simple and efficient for sole traders, limited companies, and small businesses. We even offer a wealth of advice articles, free templates, tax calculators, and jargon-free business guides via our website and online community.
Our goal is to take the pain out of accountancy, combining great technology with great people to deliver great outcomes. Clients trust us to do the boring stuff for them, leaving them to focus on what they love.
Tell us about your latest Salesforce implementation
Salesforce has always been part of the business, but we were growing and evolving so rapidly that we needed to take a step back. We were relying on people’s tribal knowledge of how things worked; this approach and our old system wasn’t scalable when we wanted to grow our client base.
We decided to rebuild our processes from scratch and also move to the Salesforce Lightning interface. We had 10 years of data that we needed to clean up before we could embark on the transformation, but we still managed to execute the migration in a single weekend without any impact on clients or our revenues.
What are your tips for delivering successful change?
Moving to the Lightning experience was a big change but a very positive one. We conducted user acceptance testing as part of every sprint to ensure people were involved in the transformation process. These users became our super-fans and their enthusiasm had a domino effect on the rest of the team when we went live.
We also put together user guides to explain key processes and capabilities and communicated changes via our intranet and large-format screens in the office, with floorwalkers supporting people for the first few days.
What advice do you have for new Trailblazers?
Energy and a positive attitude go a long way. If you’re faced with a big challenge, then overcoming it will be all the more rewarding. There are plenty of resources at hand to help you guide your users through a big change, while it’s a good idea to make sure the business sees what you’re doing as an opportunity to review procedures.
You also need to make sure each project is scalable for the future. If you can help people see change as an opportunity rather than a challenge, they will be more supportive. At Crunch, we often provide staff with cakes to celebrate successfully completing projects, and to make sure they know they’re appreciated, so change is extra sweet!
Empowering clients and employees with new digital technologies can drive greater growth and satisfaction. Read more about how Crunch is disrupting the accountancy industry in the full story.
