The automotive industry as we know it has been undergoing significant changes in recent years. With challenges like the pandemic, war, inflation, and factors affecting supply capabilities and consumer purchasing power, not to mention the increase in car brands from Asia in particular, the traditionally conservative automotive sector has faced challenges.
Photo: Møller Mobility Group. Photographer: Kilian Munch.
While established brands used to sell cars like hotcakes, they have recently been challenged by brands offering a completely different customer journey than what was previously customary. Customers use apps and web-based solutions that practically allow you to customize your car, select additional equipment, and place an order as if it were any product purchased online. The customer journey continues in the same apps even after the car is delivered, for instance, when booking a service or workshop appointment.
Whether looking to strengthen and maintain market position or struggling to survive this paradigm shift, it's essential to stay current.
«I can't imagine ever going back to a life without Teams»
- Thomas Hansen, Managing Director, Møller Logistikk Bekkelaget.
Møller Mobility Group (MMG) has certainly heeded this advice. MMG is Scandinavia's largest automotive group with nearly 8,000 employees in Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic countries, including mechanics, painters, body workers, economists, controllers, marketers, communications advisors, corporate executives, and other managers at various levels.
Møller Mobility Group, through its subsidiaries Harald A. Møller (HAM), and Møller Bil (MB), imports and markets the well-known brands Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, and Cupra.
Since October 2021, we at Puzzlepart have had the pleasure of collaborating with an organization that takes digital transformation seriously, assisting in establishing Microsoft Teams as a platform. The ultimate goal for Teams is for the app to act as an employee portal where business applications for sales, service, time recording, and various other Microsoft 365- and Dynamics 365-based solutions work together in a harmonious symphony where smart digital collaboration takes the driver's seat.
How do you start working towards such a visionary goal? The first step is to recognize that technology is secondary, and the key to success lies in change management, user adoption, and leadership anchoring.
Over these two years, we have gone through different phases where the project staffing has varied. The first 3-4 months involved what we call a technical pilot, where we were a technical advisor and a change manager working 2-3 days a week with a selected unit in the organization with about 100-130 employees. The purpose of this phase was to validate the technology, or, simply put, to test and evaluate Teams and answer the question, "Is this something that can be used by us?"
Based on the technical pilot, we got solid answers that the technology is good, and it was confirmed that this would add value to the organization by simplifying several processes related to collaboration and interaction.
From there, the technical pilot transitioned into a business pilot. This involved a larger part of the organization in the rollout and establishment of Teams. The number of affected users was then around 1,000 employees at HAM (the importer in MMG). The purpose of the business pilot was different from the technical pilot; we were allowed to try and fail, evaluate and adjust, all to tailor and validate the implementation process so it could scale well when Teams is rolled out to the remaining 6,800 employees in and outside Norway.
Lise Hansen, educational advisor from Puzzlepart, hosting a workshop for one of the ambassador groups in Møller Mobility Group.
It was during the business pilot that our educational models and frameworks were truly tested for the first time. It was here that we first encountered operational staff working in the field, who therefore do not have a PC as their primary work tool. It became very important to create success stories among this group of employees, and we did, after literally several rounds of trial and error.
The point of a success story is to share it with others to inspire and motivate. After feeling ignored for weeks because operational activities were always deemed more important, we experienced a turning point when we trained the management team responsible for receiving the cars coming to the dock. We received several fantastic pieces of feedback from the managers just a few weeks after they formally left old systems and switched to Teams with accompanying new work habits and routines for use.
«... from now on, all internal communication will take place in Teams. No more emails from me in Outlook - and no replies to emails from you either 😉»
- Lars Gervin, Managing Director for Møller Bil Tønsberg, informing employees about new routines.
Further, surveys were conducted with several of the management groups we worked with, and in one group, 13 out of 15 managers reported that they already experienced receiving fewer emails after three weeks because communication had shifted to teams and channels.
When asked what is good about Teams, responses included "Quick responses to questions", "Easier to notify", "Safer and better flow of information", "Clear with all conversations and files in one place" and "Not so formal". Communication with operational employees and other staff who do not sit at a PC daily has also become easier. This helps bring operational and non-operational environments closer together.
Little did the managers behind the feedback know that this would be the "beginning of the end" for resistance and frustration. We had cracked the code for "the local conditions," understanding how to communicate to ensure optimism and continued support.
The business pilot lasted from about April 2022 to February 2023, and consisted of a larger team where we were two change managers, a technical advisor, and a communication advisor from Puzzlepart, spread over 3 man-years. In addition, the team consisted of about 2 man-years from Møller, where business was represented throughout the period.
The next step, after the technical and business pilots, was mass rollout. 150 dealers with a total of 6,800 employees in Møller Bil Norway, Sweden, and the Baltics, as well as several independent dealers, were to go through a well-anchored and tested process in a controlled implementation of Teams.
We were now sure that the process was good, we had achieved the support we needed in key parts of the organization, dealer associations, and the like, so here it was more or less full steam ahead. Still, we focus little on the technology itself and spend a lot of time talking about the big "why" behind the transition from traditional ways of collaborating to modern sustainable methods.
After the project has been completed and transferred to the line organization, we can look back on a task that has contributed to modernizing a flagship company, simply put, "just" by going in and looking at internal processes for collaboration and coordination, as well as how these can be improved, both with the help of attitudes and work habits, and technology and system support.
Screenshot of an analysis of the use of Teams as a collaboration tool.
We delivered concrete value by increasing the percentage of employees who used Teams within a month from 40% to 80%. At the same time, we saw a significant increase in traffic on Teams, including channel messages, while we noticed that the traffic for the number of sent emails went down. All these are clear indicators that the flagship is about to turn because employees at all levels have understood the importance of working smarter and by adopting new work habits.
Screenshot of a graph over the use of Teams as a collaboration tool.
(Translation: "In the last 180 days, 123% more people have used Microsoft Teams-channels for communication.")
In the main project for the mass rollout of Teams, we were a larger team totaling 8 man-years. We established 3 teams within the team, each with dedicated responsibility for their dealer groups. The project team was divided into three groups consisting of one change manager and one migration manager.
Finally, it's important to add that we also had strong support in the business, where each dealer had their managing director through a joint kick-off, where the roles of "teams racer" (super user), and dealer coordinator were appointed. These were roles that supported the project team during the implementation process for the individual dealer. In total, over 300 teamsracers were appointed in Møller Mobility Group.
Together, these form a network of "racers" where everyone is engaged and interested in new technology, new ways of solving tasks, and simply in working a bit smarter. These participate once a month in racer-webinars where several success stories, the latest and greatest in Microsoft Teams, are shared.
The purpose of the network is to ensure that success stories and knowledge spread throughout the organization, and the racers also serve as the fir st point of contact for colleagues who wonder about something or have simple questions about the use of Teams.
Screenshot of the ambassador team in Møller Mobility Group illustrating best practices for sharing tips, advice, and experiences.
What's Next?
“What happens next then?”, project owner and head of Digital Workplace at Møller Digital, Erlend Egeland was asked at Puzzlepart's 15th anniversary in the fall of 2023.
Daniel Wiese-Møller, sales director at Puzzlepart, and Erlend Egeland, head of Digital Workplace at Møller Digital, share experiences from the project around implementing Microsoft Teams as a collaboration tool - at Puzzlepart's seminar on October 19, 2023.
Teams is now an established collaboration platform in MMG, and 8/10 are actively using it from month to month. The general knowledge about Microsoft 365, and specifically Teams, has been raised to a good basic level. In addition, simple and concrete guidelines for the use of Teams, supported by a channel strategy that visually tells about which tools to use and which to park, have been established. A larger digitization program has also started with the goal of replacing outdated business systems with modern Microsoft 365- and Dynamics 365-based solutions that integrate with Teams.
A natural next step is therefore to think that other communication solutions such as intranets and various portals built on old technology can be developed as modern apps and solutions that benefit from the breadth of the Microsoft platform with Viva, Power Platform, all the exciting Copilots, concepts like "Intranet as a service" built into the Teams interface for the user, and so on. All this is possible since one is already on an established and scalable technological platform, which unfortunately very few know the potential of. This last, of course, does not apply to Møller Mobility Group, who has spun up their digital transformation.
We at Puzzlepart wish MMG good luck on the path ahead, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with you on different parts of the Microsoft platform.
Please follow us on our channels on LinkedIn and Instagram, and check out our podcast "PzlPod" where you can learn a lot of exciting stuff about change management, project management, AI & Copilot, Power Platform & Dynamics 365, project solutions, and a lot else related to Microsoft technology.
And finally – book a chat with us to hear about how we can help you specifically.
Daniel Wiese-Møller
