When you’re rolling out a large-scale technology implementation—whether it be an ERP, HRIS or CRM—it’s not just an IT project. It’s a business-wide transformation that touches nearly every team, function and process. And because of that, it can’t be managed with a traditional resourcing approach.

These kinds of changes are different. They’re bigger, more complex and more disruptive. The old model, where change managers are brought in late or asked to carve out 20% of their time, doesn’t suffice with a change of this scale.

You need a team that can march alongside the program from the beginning to make sense of the impacts, ensure readiness and set the organization up for success. You need to build a resourcing model that’s responsive to the scale and shape of the change—one that flexes based on what’s actually required, not what’s convenient. Here’s how to get it right.

Start early, embedding change management from the beginning

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is waiting too long to bring in change management. Change professionals should be at the table from Day 1, working alongside program teams to identify impacts, engage stakeholders and craft a rollout strategy.

Early involvement ensures that critical business process shifts, role changes and even cultural adjustments as a result of the technology are factored into the implementation plan—not discovered when it’s too late to pivot. If change managers show up only after resistance kicks in, they’re stuck scrambling to fix avoidable problems. Embedding them from the start allows for a proactive, structured approach.

Right-size resources for the scale of change

Every change is different, so every resourcing plan should be too. The right number of change resources depends entirely on the variables at play—organization size, scope of the system, how much you’re customizing, who’s already on the team and how quickly you’re moving. You could end up needing one person or 10.

That’s why it’s important to start by asking the right questions. Not every transformation needs an army of change managers, but underestimating the need can cause things to fall apart. Consider these factors:

• How big is the organization? A company of 500 people undergoing a single-system update has very different needs than a 50,000-person enterprise overhauling its entire tech stack.
• What’s the scope of the tech change? Implementing an out-of-the-box LMS system is straightforward compared to a fully customized ERP system that touches every department.

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