Resource Hub | Spinnaker SCA

Why Change Management: Technology alone is not digital transformation

Written by Team Spinnaker SCA | April 15, 2025

Change management is the unsung hero of digital transformations

Healthcare and life sciences, like many other industries, can no longer overlook the need for digital transformations. In an environment defined by squeezed margins, volatile demand, regulatory complexity, and patient-critical delivery windows, many companies like Merit Medical are investing aggressively in planning technology.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: Most of those investments fail to deliver lasting impact. Why? Because implementing technology is not same as adoption. And nowhere is that paradox more evident than in supply chain planning. 

When technology alone isn’t enough

At Spinnaker SCA, we’ve seen this story play out across countless supply chain transformations: A company licenses a market-leading platform, configures the modules, runs the tests—and then quietly struggles to get users to trust the system, let alone act on its recommendations.

What’s missing isn’t software sophistication. It’s organizational readiness. It’s cross-functional collaboration. It’s trust—in the data, in the system, and in each other. Which brings us to one of our favorite client stories.

How Merit Medical made their digital transformation stick

Merit Medical—one of the world’s leading medical device manufacturers—recently partnered with Blue Yonder and Spinnaker SCA to modernize its supply chain planning function. But this wasn’t your typical build, configure, then launch story.

It centered around building a Center of Excellence. About communicating well. About getting planners to see their data and believe in it. And about empowering users post go-live—not abandoning them.

For the full story, you can read our Merit Medical client story or listen to the team directly in a Blue Yonder on-demand webinar. Either way, you'll have some key takeaways, including: 

  • Why overcommunication is your most underutilized tool
  • How to de-risk a go-live in a conservative, regulated environment
  • What makes a supply chain Center of Excellence (CoE) actually work
  • Why planners need to see their data before they believe it
  • The difference between implementing software and achieving transformation

Listen in for a change management playbook that leads to digital transformation in the real world. As for Merit Medical, they experienced:

  • 25% improvement in eCRD performance
  • 4% fill rate improvement on day one of the ESP go-live
  • Significant boost in forecast accuracy and system trust
 
 
Software alone won’t transform your business. But your people can—if you set them up to succeed. Let’s talk if you want to learn more about what that takes.