Success Factors: Change Management Methods for ERP Transformation in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
October 9, 2026
In a project for a medium-sized company, the number of administrative staff was reduced from 5 to 2. Such a cost savings was only possible because the processes mapped in Haufe X360 eliminated the need for duplicate data entry. However, the result did not come from the software alone; rather, the team helped shape the new processes from the very beginning, thereby setting the course for the optimizations.
What is described here is a classic change process. Employees do not always view new procedures positively. Change management specifically addresses reservations and creates opportunities to overcome them. In this article, we’ll look at some of the classic change management methods and explain how they’re applied in a transformation project.
First things first:
- ERP transformations are most likely to achieve their goals when change management is integrated from the analysis phase onward
- Five models provide the greatest practical benefit for ERP projects: Lewin, Kotter, ADKAR, Krüger, and the Bridges Transition Model
- A mid-market project can realistically go live in 4 to 6 months, with change management ongoing throughout every phase
- Early involvement of key users is the most effective lever for a successful transformation
What is change management?
Change management, also known as transformation management, describes the structured planning, support, and implementation of change processes within a company. Individual processes, departments, or entire companies are to be transitioned from their current state to a new target state. Technical and organizational changes are not the only factors at play here. Employees are at the center of the vast majority of change processes.
Goals of Change Management
Overcoming Resistance: New technologies and processes often cause a certain degree of uncertainty or skepticism among employees. The stated goal of change processes is therefore to address these reservations.
Fostering Motivation: When employees are involved in the transformation early on, they are often motivated to positively influence the outcome.
Ensuring Competitiveness: In a globalized business world, companies of all sizes must be able to adapt to changing market conditions. Change management methods help implement these changes in a timely manner, thereby improving or maintaining a company’s market position.
Success Factor No. 1: Involve People Early On
An ERP system maps out processes. Whether employees actually use these processes in their day-to-day work the way they were intended depends on one single factor: how early they are involved.
Ultimately, an ERP system is “just” a piece of software. How well employees use it in their day-to-day work depends primarily on how they were introduced to the tool. Projects that don’t incorporate change management until the training phase squander most of its impact.
A second factor for success concerns adherence to the software standard. Many companies assume that staying as close to the standard as possible automatically means less effort. Often, the opposite is true: the standard process frequently differs significantly from current work practices. Implementing it means bringing employees on board, training them, and guiding them through the phase in which the new way of working is still unfamiliar.
Five Change Management Models for ERP Transformation
Kurt Lewin’s three-phase model is the simplest roadmap for ERP projects. The “unfreezing” phase highlights the benefits of the new way of working compared to Excel spreadsheets, siloed systems, and manual data entry. The change phase is when the actual transition takes place, including training and the first use of the new system. The stabilization phase ensures that the new way of working persists once the pressure of the project subsides, and it is precisely this third phase that usually determines whether a transformation truly takes root in day-to-day operations.
John Kotter’s model is suitable for companies with multiple departments or locations where the ERP implementation is part of a larger transformation. The most important steps: clearly communicating why the change makes sense now, building a coalition of executives and key users, highlighting early successes, and embedding the new way of working in job roles and performance agreements. The factor that drives projects forward the most when planned consciously: The go-live is the transition to actual embedding, not the goal itself.
Prosci’s ADKAR model focuses on the individual employee: Awareness (Why is something changing?), Desire (Do I want to support this?), Knowledge (How does the new system work?), Ability (Can I actually use it?), and Reinforcement (Will the new way of working stick?). ADKAR is particularly well-suited for accounting, purchasing, or sales—that is, departments where a small number of people work intensively with the system on a daily basis. If training has taken place and people are still hesitant to use the system, the issue almost always lies with “Desire,” not “Knowledge”: People generally know how a new process works. What’s needed is an incentive to integrate it into their daily work. This could be, for example, the time saved as a result of the new processes.
Wilfried Krüger supplements pure process logic with the emotional aspect: initialization, conceptualization, mobilization, implementation, and consolidation. The difference from Lewin or Kotter lies in the mobilization phase, during which reservations and uncertainty are actively addressed rather than merely managed. For ERP projects, Krüger’s model is particularly valuable in situations where resistance stems less from a lack of knowledge and more from concerns about losing one’s role within the company—for example, when processes are automated.
William Bridges distinguishes between the change itself—which, technically speaking, happens relatively quickly—and the individual transition, which takes significantly longer: the end of the old way of working, a neutral zone of uncertainty, and a fresh start with the new way of working. This model effectively explains why employees may still seem uncertain even four weeks after the go-live, even though the system has been up and running for some time and everything is working technically. Knowing this, one can consciously plan for a longer stabilization phase.
An Overview of Other Change Management Models
- McKinsey 7-S Model: Considers seven interrelated factors: Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Skills, Style, and Staff. Suitable for transformations involving multiple companies or locations; often too broad for a single project at a medium-sized company.
- Kübler-Ross Stages of Grief: Originally developed in grief research, this model describes emotional stages such as shock, denial, bargaining, acceptance, and integration. It helps leaders view resistance as a normal stage rather than a warning sign.
- Burke-Litwin Model: Analyzes how external factors—such as the market or regulation—impact the organization all the way down to individual performance. Highly analytical in nature and intended primarily for corporate structures with multiple levels of management.
- Agile Change Management: Operates in short cycles with ongoing feedback rather than a fully planned end-to-end process. Suits companies that implement ERP modules incrementally rather than planning everything around a single deadline.
- Prosci 3-Phase Approach: The organizational framework surrounding ADKAR: Preparation, Management, Reinforcement. In practice, it is usually used in conjunction with ADKAR, not as a standalone model.
- Management by Objectives (MbO) and OKR: These are actually leadership models, not change management models in the strict sense. They are useful after ERP implementation to embed new processes through clear objectives.
Change Management During the Phases of ERP Transformation
BOLD & EPIC Transform relies on two tools during the analysis phase: a Change Impact Assessment, which identifies which teams are affected and where resistance is likely to occur, and a Change Readiness Assessment, which measures the organization’s actual readiness for change. An ADKAR baseline analysis also shows which stage—Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, or Reinforcement—individual departments are currently at.
This information is used to develop communication strategies for the design and implementation phases that are tailored to specific target groups: executives receive different information at a different time than the line departments that will be working with the system on a daily basis. A RACI matrix defines, for each task, who decides, who implements, who is informed, and who is merely a reader. For the period following the go-live, this means: follow-up training, a review of the goals set at the start of the project, and an assessment of whether the new way of working is still effective after several months.
Real-Life Example: Carnal Desire
Fleischeslust, the market leader in high-quality pet food for dogs and cats, has migrated its sales and accounting functions to Haufe X360 with the help of BOLD & EPIC Transform. Other case studies showcase similar examples from manufacturing, facility services, and renewable energy. The processes that were phased out had long been technically feasible before they became part of everyday operations. The change management process bridges this gap: a communication strategy, training, and key users who have embedded the new way of working within the team.
Change Management at BOLD & EPIC Transform
BOLD & EPIC Transform incorporates Change Impact Assessments, Change Readiness Assessments, ADKAR baseline analyses, and RACI matrices into every project in its ERP consulting practice, drawing on over 20 years of experience working with mid-sized companies. We’ll demonstrate exactly what our change management consulting for your ERP transformation looks like during an initial consultation.
FAQ on Change Management in ERP Transformation
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Change management encompasses all measures designed to help employees adopt the new software and associated processes and use them in their day-to-day work—from early involvement and training through to stabilization after go-live. At BOLD & EPIC Transform, this process runs from the analysis phase through to embedding after go-live.
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A combination of Lewin’s three-phase model for the overall project structure and the ADKAR framework for working with individual departments and key users provides a solid foundation for most projects at medium-sized companies. Krüger and Bridges supplement this approach in cases where resistance is driven by emotional rather than technical factors.
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Change management continues throughout the entire project duration; for a typical mid-sized company project, this means 2 to 6 months until go-live, plus a stabilization phase of several months afterward.
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A RACI matrix specifies, for each task, who makes the decision, who implements it, who is informed, and who is copied on the communication. At BOLD & EPIC Transform, executives and key users from the line departments sit down with us to discuss this.