The top 7 change management tools

Over the past few years, change has accelerated in the workplace — especially during and in the post-COVID-19 environment. Change — whether motivated by technical initiatives or otherwise — can impact people and processes significantly, complicating how work gets done.

Change management is a discipline that combines processes, tools, and goal-oriented models, such as ADKAR, to guide organizations through the changes necessary to achieve business goals. 

Effective change management involves three broad phases: preparing for change, implementing and managing a change plan, and reinforcing the desired change by gathering and analyzing feedback, identifying gaps and managing issues, and adjusting changes as needed. Along the way, change management tools can be deployed to help reduce confusion and uncertainty, as well as aid in communicating the impact of changes throughout your organization.

The following seven change management tools can assist your organization in planning, mapping, managing, tracking, and reporting organizational changes that result from change management initiatives, major projects, personnel changes — or other factors. With most teams working remotely today and into the future, change management tools are a must-have for teams to effectively and efficiently manage workflows and communication.

ChangeGear Change Manager

ChangeGear by Sunview Software use advanced automation and workflows to support teams through significant, complex changes in business processes. It also simplifies change and release management processes to help companies meet their auditing and compliance requirements.

ChangeGear’s key features include:

• Expedited approvals by using pre-authorizations

• Increased approval and routing automation efficiencies 
• Codeless, built-in change model workflows 
• Visual reporting, metrics, and KPIs dashboards
• On track changes to SLA management

Target industry and company size: ChangeGear is built for DevOps, IT, and other business teams to meet compliance requirements such as NERC/CIP, FDA CFR 21, and PCI by implementing documented change control processes.

Integrations: Integrations include Google Cloud, SAP Crystal Reports, Microsoft Azure, Jira Software, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other applications.

Pricing: Contact Sunview Software to arrange a demo and to get more information about pricing.

Freshservice

Freshservice is a cloud-based change management tool that enables organizations to streamline every step of planning from launch through approvals. It helps companies better manage daily tasks, minimize redundancy, and have greater control over approvals.

Freshservice’s key features include:

• Problem management: isolates issues, enables linking to current or past incidents, and identifies the root cause of any problems
• Incident management: handles support tickets and automates repetitive workflows
• Release management: improves planning by helping to document builds and test plans
• Reporting: flags bottlenecks, monitors software performance, and improves delivery through canned and custom reporting capabilities
• Additional features include workflow approvals, audit trails, change calendaring, change planning, compliance management, prioritization, and task management

Target industry and company size: Freshservice is aimed at advertisers, e-commerce businesses, software companies, financial and educational institutions, medical service providers, human resource firms, and government organizations, ranging in size from two to more than 1,000 employees.

Integrations: Freshservice integrates with many team-meeting apps, including TeamViewer, MS Teams, Slack, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Skype, as well as apps and services such as G Suite, Office 365, Dropbox, Box, Zapier, AWS, Salesforce, SugarCRM, Slack, Jira, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Microsoft SCCM, and more. See the full list of Freshservice integrations.

Pricing: Starter plan: $29 per agent, per month; Growth plan: $59 per agent, per month; Pro plan: $109 per agent, per month; Enterprise plan: $129 per agent, per month (each based on annual billing). Monthly billing options are also available. Check Freshservice for pricing and to start a trial.

Gensuite

The Gensuite change management solution is geared toward helping teams discover and manage risks and compliance requirements as operational, equipment, and people-related changes occur.

Gensuite’s key features include:

• Flexible and self-configurable: enables the identification, tracking, and documenting of risks that might surface during operational, equipment, or personnel changes
• Standardized process stages: engages stakeholders in process stages, from assessing change and recommending controls to process validation
• Documents “Replacement in Kind” to determine which formal management of change (MOC) evaluations are not required
• Automatic communication of changes and status updates
• Creation of MOC checklist content online
• Compliance status data mining, reporting, and trending to identify issues

Other features include, audit trail, a change calendar, change planning, compliance management, prioritization, release management, task management, and training management.

Target industry and company size: Gensuite serves the defense, distribution, electronics, energy and renewables, entertainment, communication, and food and beverage industries, with 10 to more than 10,000 employees.

Integrations: Gensuite offers an integrated suite of software applications, including MOC Manager, Action Tracking System, LockOut TagOut (LOTO) and Equipment Tracker. Through its API, Gensuite integrates with other applications for scope-specific data extraction, QRC coding, customer formatting, and data security.

Pricing: Contact Gensuite for information on pricing.

Intelligent Service Management

Intelligent Service Management by Serviceaide helps organizations plan rollouts and execute changes using best practices aimed at both speed and accuracy.

Key Intelligent Service Management features include:

• Helps organizations plan communication, schedule, and identify whether policy and compliance standards are enforced, reviewed, and approved prior to implementation
• Rollout and change execution planning via Intelligent Service Management’s process automation; proven process flows can be used to implement changes, thereby reducing risks and ensuring consistency and compliance with policies and procedures
• An Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-verified change management function to manage seamlessly the change process, while reducing risks and ensuring service level agreement and contractual obligations can be met

Other features include approval workflow and change planning.

Target industry and company size: Intelligent Service Management works for medical service providers, higher education institutions, public sector companies, healthcare organizations, and startups, covering 10 to 10,000 or more employees.

Integrations: This change management solutionintegrates with team meeting tools such as Skype, as well as tools such as Zapier, Bomgar Remote Support, and Salesforce.

Pricing: To find out about pricing and arrange a free demo, contact Serviceaide.

Remedy Change Management 9

The Remedy Change Management 9 platform by BMC Software helps IT service management organizations address uncertainty and potential risks when dealing with change. The platform successfully covers a wide spectrum, including planning, tracking, and delivering changes.

Key Remedy Change Management 9 features include:

• Collision detection to help organizations automatically identify changes that may be in conflict
• Impact analysis for visibility into the services, assets, and people affected by a change
• Multi-level approvals for ensuring changes are approved by all appropriate individuals before they are enacted
• Policy enforcement to ensure best practices and compliance are enforced to meet with industry-specific regulations

Remedy Change Management 9 also includes KPI dashboards and process-specific reports, which offer insights for fast and accurate decision-making, and other features, such as change planning and compliance management.

Target industry and company size: Remedy Change Management 9 is targeted at companies across most industries with 50 to more than 1,000 employees.

Integrations: Contact BMC to find out more about available integrations.

Pricing: To find out about pricing and get access to a free trial, contact BMC Software.

WalkMe

WalkMe provides change management tools that guide and foster goal completion using customizable desktop notifications and interactive walk-throughs that increase visibility and insight into behavior. It simplifies regular tasks and helps resource planning during software onboarding. 

Key WalkMe features include:

• Interactive walkthroughs that improve employee productivity
• No-code creation of interactive walkthroughs
• Self-serve contextual help
• Personalized dashboards for visual insight and metrics
• Customized onboarding

Target industry and company size: WalkMe is aimed at enterprises and nonprofit, government, and other organizations.

Integrations: WalkMe offers a range of integrations, including Amazon Web Services, GSuite, Google Analytics, Azure, PureChat, Snap Engage, LiveChat, LiveAgent, Okta, Active Directory, Zendesk, Slack, and more.

Pricing: WalkMe offers a Basic and a Customizable plan with a free demo available.

Whatfix

Whatfix change management guides stakeholders through the change processes and helps to increase adoption rates for software products without the risk of productivity gaps.

Key Whatfix features include:

• Interactive guides to assist employees through on-the-go support
• Embedded interactive guidance to make it easier for employees to understand and adopt software
• Contextual support for employees based on their application needs and behavioral data, enabling a higher degree of help response accuracy
• Other features include approval workflow, compliance management, and training management

Target industry and company size: Whatfix services a broad range of small-to-midsize businesses and large enterprises across many industries and sectors, including retail, technology, healthcare, charitable trusts, entertainment, finance, and more.

Integrations: Integrations include Zendesk, Salesforce, PeopleSoft, any Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)-compliant Learning Management System, and more. Visit Whatfix to see all third-party integrations.

Pricing: To arrange a demo, starting a free trial, or get a quote, contact Whatfix.