The Critical Role of Organizational Change Management

Never Underestimate the Organizational Change Management (OCM) Required

As a Managed Services provider, we see it time and time again—organizations making significant technology investments, expecting a seamless transition with transformation outcomes, only to struggle with user adoption, poor engagement, and underwhelming results. ?This unfortunate outcome can often be attributed to underestimating the necessary Organizational Change Management (OCM).

Buying a new solution or implementing a new platform is just the first step. The real challenge lies in helping your organization embrace the change, ensuring employees are educated, engaged, and ready to use the new system effectively. Without a deliberate OCM strategy, even the best tools will fail to deliver on their promised outcomes.

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Any significant change requires preparation and planning

Making a major IT investment without an OCM strategy is just like making a big investment in your personal life—buying a house, a boat, or even getting married—without thinking through the long-term implications.

Let’s take buying a boat as an analogy. At first, you are simply excited by the possibilities. You envision weekend adventures, time on the water, and working on your killer tan. But what many don’t consider are all the practical aspects:

• Storage + Maintenance: Where will you keep it? How much upkeep does it require?
• Costs Beyond the Purchase Price: Gas, insurance, marina fees, repairs—expenses add up quickly.
• Lifestyle Adjustments: Boating takes time, you will need to reprioritize other activities.

Now, bringing this back to technology…think of this in the context of your IT investments. Too often, organizations buy new software, platforms, or features (AI agents) without fully understanding or preparing for the change necessary to integrate them into their operations.

• Training & Support: Have you budgeted for training, internal adoption programs, and ongoing support? Will additional support be needed initially?
• Process Changes + Employee Engagement: How will this change affect end-users and workflows? How will employees shift their behaviors and processes?

Without proper OCM planning, your “boat” (or in this case, your new IT investment) may sit unused, underutilized, or lead to frustrated end users.

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Every significant IT investment should have a dedicated OCM strategy.? Here is why:

Technology will not be successful without adoption.

A platform or tool is only as powerful as the people using it. Employees must understand why the change is happening, how it benefits them, and what’s expected of them to make it successful.

There is a natural resistance to change

People inherently resist change, especially when it disrupts established process and practices. Without proactive engagement, employees may avoid using the new system or revert to old ways.

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OCM Must be a Priority

To ensure your IT investments deliver on their intended outcomes, OCM must be a part of your strategy. Here’s how to do it:

• Start OCM Planning Early: Before purchasing a solution, understand how it will impact users and workflows. Conduct interviews to assess resistance to change.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: Keep employees informed about the upcoming changes, communicate the “why” behind them, the benefits, and how it will affect their roles.?
• Provide Multimodal Training & Support: Don’t just rely on one-time training—offer ongoing resources to support adoption.? Make it easy to consume and deliver the content in ways that make it easy for users to access.
• Monitor & Adjust: Have a process to gather and respond to employee feedback.? Adjust and adapt as needed based upon this feedback.? Ensure users can see their feedback is being acted upon.

The bottom-line is that any significant IT investment requires a thoughtful change management strategy. If you don’t plan for how, it will be adopted and used, the investment will be wasted as the technology will not achieve the desired outcomes.

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