From scope drift to controlled go-live

Context

Mondelēz International Benelux is one of the largest players in the snacks, chocolate, biscuits, and cream cheese markets across Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The region has deep historical roots dating back to 1870 and employs approximately 2000 people.

‍The HR policy landscape was quite scattered due to takeovers and mergers. As a result, a simple optimization of the links between payroll engines, HRIS, and T&A systems quickly turned into a major challenge.

HR challenges

• No segregation of duties between the internal departments HR, Finance and IT.
• Vendors abused the lack of internal alignment by frequently raising expensive change requests
• Slow decision-making matrix resulted in extensive discussions between operational HR teams, lacking accountability to confront and solve the underlying challenges.
• Severe employee impact from payroll/HRIS/T&A errors, risking HR's reputation

Intervention

• Governance set up : cross functional steerco's + task forces, cadence, escalation path and decision log
• Scope baseline : in/out, assumptions backed up by data, succes criteria and change control proces implemented
• Vendor alignment: one integration plan [Acerta] + [Workday] + internal teams, with clearly defined dependencies
• Risk & compliance rhythm: risk register, checkpoints (GDPR, access/security), audit trail agreements
• Execution cockpit: weekly status update (narrative + KPI/milestones), issue/blocker log and actions with owners

Result

By seeking internal alignment at the highest level, we managed to receive a mandate to go back to the operational teams and coordinate the necessary optimizations. Securing the client’s buy-in put us in a stronger position to push back against the vendors' costly proposed workarounds.

Deliverables

• Governance rhythm + RASCI
• Integrated master plan + dependency map
• Risk register + mitigation plan
• Decision log + change request log
• One-page status reporting template

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