ERP Trouble: Four Reasons You Have It

ERP Trouble Stems from Complexity

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the backbone of modern business operations, integrating functions across finance, supply chain, human resources, and more. However, implementing or upgrading an ERP system is no small feat. It’s a complex project that can involve significant time, resources, and change management. While many ERP vendors and systems integrators promise streamlined processes and improved efficiency, the road to a successful ERP implementation is often fraught with challenges. In fact, many ERP projects experience delays, cost overruns, or fail to deliver the expected benefits.

So why do these projects face problems? In this post, we’ll explore the top four reasons ERP projects struggle, and how businesses can avoid these common pitfalls.

Reason 1 | Too big a change

Upgrading an ERP system is seldom as simple as just swapping systems. Typically, an ERP upgrade or implementation requires significant changes in culture, competencies, and processes.

If the scale of change needed in these areas in order to be successful is too large, or change management has been underestimated and / or under resourced, then it is likely the ERP project will see trouble.

Reason 2 | Digital immaturity

Some organizations do not have the basic technological infrastructure and supporting resources to be ready to adopt new ERP systems. If an organization’s underlying IT is not sufficiently developed, this may hinder an overhanging ERP project.

Reason 3 | Lack of project governance

It takes a village: for an ERP system to serve an organization well, it needs to account for requirements across all business functions and stakeholders.

Therefore, during planning and implementation, there needs to be strong project governance mechanisms in place to manage cross-functional interplay, and provide clear leadership, well defined roles, and oversight on tracking risks and deliverables, with key sponsors and decision makers involved throughout the process.

Without this, ERP projects typically suffer, delivering late, over budget, and not to requirements, if at all.

Reason 4 | Over-customization

An insistence on replicating a highly customized legacy ERP within a new ERP system is often a large red flag. Either there is not enough organizational buy-in to be truly ready to embark on the change, or the level of complexity and risk is multiplied, often by an order of magnitude.

Either way, such insistence typically negates much of the financial and business benefit logic of upgrading to a new system (but the vendors and systems integrators will not tell you this, as they make more money when a client customizes / over customizes). This also means that the client may miss out on the best out-of-the-box and configurable features of the modern ERP system they chose to move to (as they are replicating a less modern system).

Want to avoid these mistakes?

Core Catalysts has a wealth of experience and expertise in helping clients assess their current readiness for ERP projects, prepare for change, align stakeholders, and select the right ERP vendors and systems integrators to ensure success.

Likewise, we are skilled in guiding clients through the complex choices of customization versus out-of-the-box functionality and configuration, and in assisting clients with ERP project management and governance so that their projects are delivered on time, on-budget, to specification, with business disruption minimized, in order to realize the business benefits that underwrote the original ERP implementation / upgrade decision.

Find out more

Are you considering implementing a new ERP system? Do you want to make sure you avoid these potential pitfalls and are set up for success?

If so, reach out to schedule an initial call or meeting with our ERP project subject matter experts, where you can tell us about your situation, we’ll ask questions and listen until we understand, and then offer suggestions on next steps.

You won’t regret it!