change Management
Don’t Let Your IT projects Fail Because your People Weren’t Ready
70% of IT projects fail to deliver expected benefits - not because of the technology, but because people were unprepared. At Cohesis, we help organisations, not-for-profits, and businesses adopt new systems effectively.
This is an initial call to explore how we can support your IT project. No obligation, no hard sell - just practical insights and tips you can use immediately.
What Is Change Management & Why It Matters?
People-First Approach
Change management starts with understanding your team’s makeup, work habits, and potential resistance. We make sure everyone knows why changes are happening and feels supported throughout the process.
Structured Methodology
Each step in our framework comes with clear deliverables, timelines, and success metrics. This approach keeps everyone informed, accountable, and confident about what happens next.
Benefits Realisation Focus
We don’t stop at go-live. We track adoption, measure proficiency, and ensure your IT investment delivers real outcomes. Our Benefits Realisation framework proves value with measurable results, not assumptions.
Our Approach: The Cohesis Change Management Framework
We use a practical, proven methodology for IT change, inspired by ADKAR but tailored to the needs of organisations across industries.
Whether you’re implementing an ERP, moving to cloud tools, or rolling out new software, our framework focuses on four core pillars:
- People: Ensuring your staff understand why change is happening and feel supported.
- Process: Mapping, analysing, and redesigning workflows for the new system.
- Systems: Configuring technology to match operational realities.
- Culture: Embedding new behaviours into your organisational DNA.
“Technology might be ready, but people must be ready too. Adoption drives ROI.”
The Six Phases of Successful Change
Our six-phase change management approach provides a clear path that guides organisations from initial resistance to adoption, ensuring IT implementations succeed and deliver measurable results.
Phase 1: Assess
Discovery & Risk Audit
We start by reviewing your current systems, workflows, and organisational readiness. We uncover hidden resistance, technical debt, and risk factors, setting clear baseline metrics.
What we do: Comprehensive needs analysis - Organisational readiness assessment - Risk and resistance identification - Baseline metrics for Benefits Realisation
Phase 2: Define
Vision & Benefit Mapping
We align IT objectives with your organisation’s strategic priorities and define how success will look in practice.
What we do: Define changes across people, process, and systems - Map future state and identify gaps - Develop a clear change vision - Establish measurable success criteria
Phase 3: Organise
Governance & Capability
We set up robust governance structures, empowering Change Champions and building your Intelligent Customer capability.
What we do: Recruit and train Change Champions - Establish communication and feedback channels - Develop change and communications plans - Define roles and responsibilities
Phase 4: Prepare
Enablement & Skill Building
We prepare your workforce with tailored training and ready your systems for the transition.
What we do: Bespoke training materials for user groups - Quick Reference Guides and job aids - Intranet resources and collaboration spaces - Data cleaning and process mapping
Phase 5: Transform
Deployment & Adoption
Go-live is just the beginning. We support people through the transition, mitigating risks and ensuring adoption.
What we do: Engage staff with practical training - Execute communication plans - Implement system and process changes - Provide intensive go-live support
Phase 6: Sustain
Sustainment & Benefits Realisation
We ensure changes last and continue to generate value. Monitoring, coaching, and knowledge transfer keep improvements embedded.
What we do: Embed cultural change through reinforcement - Track Benefits Realisation metrics - Transfer knowledge to internal teams - Conduct lessons learned sessions
What You Get from Our Change Management Services
Change Impact & Risk Assessment
We analyse your organisation’s current state to identify challenges, potential risks, and readiness for successful IT adoption and transformation.
- Identify risks across people, processes, and systems
- Evaluate organisational readiness for upcoming changes early
- Highlight potential resistance points before they affect progress
- Establish baseline metrics to measure success during implementation
Stakeholder Engagement
We involve and align key decision-makers, influencers, and staff to secure commitment and ensure smooth adoption of new IT systems.
- Map key stakeholders, decision-makers, and influencers
- Engage leadership to champion adoption and project goals
- Maintain feedback loops to capture concerns and progress
- Build internal support networks using trained Change Champions
Training & Enablement
We equip your staff with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to confidently use new systems from day one.
- Deliver role-based training tailored to job responsibilities
- Provide guides, job aids, and reference materials
- Offer e-learning modules and on-demand resources
- Conduct train-the-trainer sessions to build internal capability
Communications & Updates
We ensure timely, clear, and consistent communication across all teams to increase awareness, engagement, and adoption of the new IT system.
- Develop clear messaging for employees at all levels
- Provide leadership briefings on project progress
- Execute internal campaigns to increase awareness and engagement
- Share timely updates to ensure consistent communication
Collaboration Tools Setup
We implement and configure digital collaboration platforms that enable teams to share information, communicate effectively, and work efficiently during adoption.
- Configure intranet sites for project resources
- Set up Microsoft Teams channels for collaboration
- Organise SharePoint libraries for easy information access
- Create self-service support hubs for troubleshooting
Benefits Tracking & Governance
We monitor adoption, measure outcomes, and track benefits to ensure IT changes deliver value while improving organisational capability.
- Monitor adoption and system usage across the organisation
- Conduct post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned
- Track proficiency and benefits realisation metrics
- Ensure continuous improvement and sustain long-term change
The Cost of Inaction
When organisations underestimate the human side of IT projects, the consequences go far beyond missed deadlines or technical issues. Poor adoption erodes staff confidence, frustrates users, and weakens trust in leadership decisions.
Without a structured approach to change, investments in ERP, cloud platforms, or enterprise software can quickly become liabilities instead of long-term assets.
- IT projects in local governments fail between 67% and 90% of the time due to poor adoption and resistance.
- Large public sector IT initiatives have recorded $1.6 billion in cost overruns, exceeding original budgets by 62%.
- Only 55% of intended users actively engage with digital services, leaving value unrealised.
- Staff lose hours working around inefficient systems instead of using them as designed.
Why Cohesis: Trusted by Local Governments
- Deep Local Government Experience: We’ve supported numerous WA councils through ERP replacements, cloud software migrations, and digital transformation programmes, managing regulations, audits, and service continuity challenges.
- Independent and Vendor-Neutral: Our recommendations prioritise your council’s needs, not software vendor agendas.
- Proven Track Record: Refined through real-world delivery, our approach mitigates risks that generic consultancies overlook.
- End-to-End Support: From early planning to post-go-live stabilisation, we adapt to your organisation’s needs.
- WALGA Preferred Supplier: Pre-qualified via WALGA’s PSP, reducing procurement delays and ensuring risk-mitigated engagement.
proudly Delivering Strategic ICT Services to Local Governments Since 2019
Cohesis offers Local Governments a full spectrum of ICT Services to help improve ICT maturity and drive improvements in Risk Management, Compliance and customer service delivery.
How We Work With You
We work closely with your team, guiding planning, training, and adoption, addressing risks, and ensuring IT changes succeed while delivering measurable, lasting benefits across your organisation.
Week 1-2: Discovery
We meet your leadership, IT staff, and end users to understand what is working, what is not, and where hidden problems lie. Questions are direct, focused, and honest.
Week 3-4: Readiness Assessment
We check how ready your organisation is for change. Who supports it? Who resists? What could slow progress? We identify real risks early.
Month 2-3: Planning
Together, we map out the change strategy. Governance, communication, and training are practical, achievable, and aligned with your team’s daily work.
Month 4+: Execution
We stay on site or online to help your team implement the plan. We guide, train, troubleshoot, and solve problems as they arise. No handover gaps and no surprises.
Post Go-Live: Sustainment
After launch, we continue monitoring adoption, fix issues quickly, and make sure new ways of working stick. Your investment delivers results long-term.
Continuous Improvement
We regularly review how the system and processes are performing. We capture lessons, refine workflows, and adjust training to keep adoption high and outcomes improving.
Common Challenges in IT Implementations
We help organisations tackle the most frequent IT project obstacles, including resistance, engagement gaps, insufficient training, and budget risks, ensuring smooth and successful adoption of new systems.
“Our staff are resisting the new system”
Resistance is often quiet, passive, and easy to miss. We address it directly by identifying concerns early and supporting trusted Change Champions who influence peers from within the organisation.
“Our executive team is not fully engaged”
When leadership is distant, change stalls. We connect system outcomes to business priorities and keep executives involved through focused updates and clear decision points.
“We ran training, but people are still struggling”
Single training sessions rarely work. We deliver practical, role-based learning at the right time, supported by clear guides and ongoing reinforcement.
“We are worried about budget and scope creep”
Unclear ownership and weak controls drive cost overruns. We establish benefit clarity, decision authority, and vendor oversight to keep delivery on track.
“How do we know this will deliver real value?”
Value is measured, not assumed. We track adoption, usage, proficiency, and realised benefits at defined intervals after go-live.
“No one owns the system after go-live”
Once the project team disbands, accountability often fades. We define clear ownership, support models, and internal capability so systems continue improving, not drifting.
Transforming IT Implementations Into Tangible Results
- Increased user adoption and engagement across departments
- Fewer help desk tickets and lower support costs
- Faster staff proficiency and confidence with new systems
- Higher satisfaction among stakeholders and leadership teams
- Benefits realisation aligned with project objectives and goals
- Reduced project risk, delays, and budget overruns
- Smoother transitions from legacy to modern IT platforms
Ready to De-Risk Your IT Implementation?
Common questions
Everything You Need to Know About Change Management and IT Success
Change management is a structured approach to preparing staff, processes, and culture for new IT systems. It addresses human factors including awareness, training, stakeholder engagement, and benefits realisation, ensuring your IT investment delivers expected outcomes. Without it, even well-planned projects often fail due to resistance or low adoption.
While inspired by ADKAR, Cohesis extends traditional methodologies to account for organisational culture, business processes, system alignment, regulatory compliance, and hidden resistance. We also build your Intelligent Customer capability, empowering your team to manage vendors and implementation risks effectively.
Planning ideally begins during the business case phase, six to twelve months before go-live. Major ERP projects typically run 12–18 months, cloud migrations 3–6 months, and smaller rollouts 1–3 months. Even mid-project interventions can rescue struggling implementations.
We support ERP, cloud tools, HR and payroll, asset management, CRM, finance, GIS, field service, and legacy system migrations. Our training includes role-based sessions, Quick Reference Guides, e-learning, video tutorials, and train-the-trainer programmes to ensure staff are confident with new systems.
Yes. We conduct rapid assessments to identify root causes like resistance, governance gaps, or inadequate training, then implement targeted interventions. Success is measured by adoption speed, system utilisation, staff proficiency, and organisational resilience, providing measurable ROI from day one.
Typical change management investment is 10–15% of total project cost, reflecting its importance in achieving adoption. Start by booking a free discovery session to assess your organisation, identify gaps, and outline a tailored approach to secure success.
