Institution building and change management for IT organizations is challenging even for small cases. Success rates can be improved by careful collection of verified good practices. NATO experience provides examples of good practice. Learning from one of the largest efforts in NATO Reform, launched after the 2010 Lisbon Summit, i.e. the establishment of the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is indispensable. The focus of this article is on the identification of the process and related good practices and, in some cases, recognizing mistakes to be escaped in the future. It presents an attempt to structure the experience as a methodology to support institution building and change management in similar service-based or technology-oriented organizations. The transition from five different organizations to one service-based and customer-funded agency is reviewed in the framework of the NATO Comprehensive C4ISR Approach, noted by Nations in November 2009, considered as an appropriate framework to present and understand the process of change.