Getting the dematerialisation of mail adopted

Context

Departmental local authority, 2023 to 2025, alongside running the weekly leadership committee. My role: business analyst and change management consultant, from process analysis through to user support after go-live.

The problem

All incoming and outgoing mail went through paper. Hundreds of staff, habits built up over years, approval circuits that differed from one directorate to the next. Setting up the tool was the easy part. Getting a thousand people to change how they work was the real job.

What I did

• Analysed mail processes directorate by directorate, to rebuild the circuits inside the tool rather than paste them on top.
• Ran acceptance testing with the business teams, then the go-live.
• A standard training path for all staff, delivered over three months: e-learning first, then in-person sessions.
• Tailored support for around 120 members of leadership (directors, division heads, deputy directors-general): short sessions built around how they actually use it, instead of a generic module.
• User support after launch, to deal with blockers before they turned into people giving up.
• Weekly progress point at the leadership committee, so decisions came fast.

The result

Around 1,000 staff trained in three months, from executive assistants to deputy directors-general, HR included, and some 120 members of leadership supported individually. Mail flows through the tool, not around it. The method, standard for the many and tailored for leadership, is the one I have reused on every adoption topic since, whether it is business software or AI.