Ecclesia Group successfully transitioned to Microsoft 365: With a clear change story, targeted leadership engagement, and formats, the entire organization was brought on board. The result: secure data storage and a sustainable, collaborative data and communication culture across the company.
Ecclesia: Change Management as a Driver for Modern Collaboration
Creating acceptance for modern data storage towards connected and transparent collaboration
Challenge
Transition from on-premises storage to M 365 (OneDrive and SharePoint)
Aligning technical migration with cultural and organizational change
Group-wide rollout across diverse corporate cultures and hierarchies
Building a strong leadership coalition to drive and support change
Solution
Development of a clear change story communicating strategic goals and benefits
Tailored change and adoption approach aligned with organizational culture
Supporting management with leadership-focused formats: workshops, use case sessions, and consultation hours
Ongoing support as a sparring partner to address challenges pragmatically
Benefit
Establishment of a connected, collaborative way of working in M365
Clear governance framework including roles, responsibilities, data protection and data retention policies, as well as binding guidelines for collaboration and information storage
Transparent and structured information management, reducing redundancies
Standardized principles for content structure, discoverability, and usage across all storage locations
Sustainable change strategy addressing new employees as well as future organizational and technological developments
Change as a Key Success Factor in the M365 Transformation
With more than 2.400 employees, the Ecclesia Group faced a pivotal decision: the transition to modern data storage in the Microsoft Cloud using OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams had already been technically prepared. As the topic was highly relevant for the entire organization, responsibility was deliberately
not assigned solely to individual change agents. Instead, the internal project team sought a partner to work closely with all leaders, ensuring broad adoption, active participation, and sustainable acceptance across the organization.
A Tailored Change Approach
The technical migration to Microsoft 365 was leveraged by Ecclesia as an opportunity for sustainable organizational change. The concept was built on two pillars: a clear data storage framework and the establishment of a leadership-level change coalition. Together with novaCapta, Ecclesia developed a clear change story that emphasized the group’s strategic objectives: transparent, collaborative work and secure data management.
Leadership workshops, use case workshops, and interactive consultation hours were used to actively engage management. The focus was on strengthening the role of leaders and creating a space in which they could understand and translate the change for themselves and their teams.
The leadership coalition as an active enabler
The leadership coalition was empowered to understand, communicate, and embed the change within their teams. Workshops were conducted across all management levels – from executive leadership to team leads. In use case workshops, team and department managers were involved to identify and evaluate changing ways of working as well as specific use cases across different business areas. This targeted engagement enabled leaders to actively support and drive the transformation.
In addition, learner-centric self-service formats for M365 such as video snippets, one-pagers, and a dedicated self-learning landing page ensured continuous enablement and guidance for all employees.
Sustainable Change for the Entire Organization
As a result, the new way of working was successfully embedded across the organization. Leaders felt strengthened in their roles, while employees benefited from clearer processes and more efficient workflows. The structured change approach not only increased acceptance of the new Microsoft 365 tools, but also established a foundation for onboarding future employees in a consistent and structured way.
The project clearly demonstrates that technical transformation alone is not sufficient to ensure long-term success. Only through targeted change and adoption measures can people be empowered to use the new technologies. Ecclesia is now well positioned for the future – both technologically and culturally.
Company Profile: Ecclesia Gruppe
With more than 2,400 employees and an annual premium volume of around €3 billion, Ecclesia Group is one of the leading insurance brokers for companies and institutions in Germany and Europe. Headquartered in Detmold, the group operates across Germany and in four additional European countries.
Technologies used
We would be happy to advise you on your change and adoption initiatives
My team and I look forward to hearing from you.
Carsten Schulz
Head of Modern Work