Many SAP S/4HANA rollouts fail to realise their full benefits due to insufficient change management rather than technical issues. At Storopack AG, the Swiss S/4HANA rollout was completed successfully, but differences emerged between strong operational execution and long-term change embedding. This created the need to systematically analyse change-management success factors and derive lessons for upcoming rollouts.

The study follows a qualitative case-study approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, an anonymous end-user survey, and internal project documentation. Findings were analysed using Kotter’s 8-Step Model and Prosci’s ADKAR Model, combined with a Fit–Gap analysis across pre-go-live, go-live, and post-go-live phases to identify strengths, weaknesses, and improvement potential.

The findings show that the SAP S/4HANA rollout at Storopack was operationally stable and successfully executed, but only partially embedded in daily operations. Within the project team, the need for change was clearly understood, creating strong commitment and execution focus. Among end users, however, engagement was driven mainly by deadlines, testing activities, and go-live pressure rather than by a shared understanding of the business rationale. Support during go-live and hypercare was perceived as very strong, largely due to highly committed individuals and direct access to key contacts. At the same time, this reliance on personal support masked missing structures, unclear ownership, and limited formal reinforcement mechanisms. Communication worked well under pressure but lacked consistency over the full project lifecycle. While short-term successes supported motivation, they were not systematically used to reinforce new behaviours. As a result, change anchoring remains incomplete: new processes are not yet fully standardised, legacy ways of working persist, and reinforcement is strong at a personal level but weak structurally, limiting long-term adoption and value realisation.