How change management drives success in the telecoms industry
Our Approach The Darwin Programme was built around one core principle: the people receiving the change were actively involved in shaping it from day one. Change management was embedded into programme delivery, governance and decision‑making, ensuring adoption and readiness were never treated as an afterthought. Business‑led from day one The programme was driven by clear business outcomes rather than technology milestones. Commercial and operational leaders: Defined the vision and success criteria Owned delivery of outcomes Made key design decisions before technical build began. This created early alignment and genuine ownership across the organisation. Shaping the design together Operational teams were actively involved in designing how the future would work, not just validating it at the end. This included: Direct involvement in process, system and operating‑model design Leaders contributing through a Design Authority Dedicated capacity and backfill to enable meaningful participation. Building this change capability early proved critical to adoption. Designing the change, not just the solution Change was planned from an operational and employee perspective, with releases shaped around usable business capability: Technology deployments grouped into logical, relevant releases Each release combining systems, processes, training and support Delivery priorities shaped jointly by business, customer and technology needs. This ensured teams were ready to operate each release from day one.
The Challenge Following Telenet’s acquisition of mobile operator BASE, the business faced the challenge of consolidating two separate CRM and billing landscapes into a single, future‑ready platform. The ambition was to simplify IT, enable a digital‑first customer experience, and support faster change across both brands. Rather than extending legacy systems, Telenet chose a bold greenfield approach. The Darwin Programme was launched to retire BASE legacy platforms, optimise operations, enable customer self‑service and support growth in corporate sales, delivering a business‑wide transformation underpinned by a new digital platform. Project One led the programme, providing delivery leadership, change management and the programme management office to ensure the organisation was ready to adopt and realise the change. Telenet is the largest provider of cable broadband services in Belgium, and they were going through a business-wide transformation. It was all about empowering their people and simplifying their processes, underpinned by a new digital platform. To do this successfully, it was imperative they had effective change management in place.
The Value Add and Outcomes The Darwin Programme was business‑led and people‑centred from the outset. Operational teams and leaders were actively involved in shaping the vision, design and deployment of change, ensuring ownership, readiness and adoption were built in, not added later. Change management was embedded into programme governance, with joint business and programme decision‑making at every stage. Releases were planned “Project One was the glue behind every controlled acquisition meeting and made sure everyone felt perfectly comfortable sharing their feedback in a respectful way across all the different departments that were part of this big project.” CEO
Aligned leadership and transparent governance Readiness decisions were taken jointly by programme and operational leadership: Go/no‑go decisions made with full visibility of impacts and risks Change impacts clearly communicated to leaders ahead of each release Business Acceptance Testing led by operational teams, alongside technical testing. This alignment built confidence, realism and resilience across leadership. Front‑line‑focused training and communications Training and communications were designed through the lens of front‑line teams: Detailed impact assessments completed before each release Training and communications shaped by operational teams and testers Face‑to‑face training delivered to retail, contact centre and back‑office teams. This ensured change felt relevant, practical and actionable. Sustaining and embedding change Embedding change continued well beyond go‑live: Operational SMEs supported testing, deployment and post‑go‑live coaching Continuous improvement built into the programme schedule Experiences from early use fed directly back into the solution. This ensured new ways of working became business as usual, not project artefacts.
around complete, usable business capability, combining technology,
processes, training and support so teams could operate effectively from day one. Operational teams played a central role in design, testing and readiness decisions, supported by targeted training and communications developed through a front‑line lens. The focus extended beyond go‑live, embedding continuous improvement and ensuring new ways of working became business‑as‑usual.
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real change • real difference
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