3 Ways to Avoid ERP Failure
They say learn from your mistakes, but equally important is the value gained in learning from the mistakes of others as well. Each year hundreds of extremely successful organizations experience subpar or failed digital transformations each providing nuggets of educational elements we should all consider when embarking on our own digital transformation journeys. Take the […]
Is Your Organization Suffering from Transformation Change Fatigue?
When we see opportunities for improvement in our organizations, it is tempting to swing for the fences with a big transformation. After all, if things are broken, why wait to fix it? But there is a problem with this approach: people inherently don’t like to change. Even if they are excited on the surface for […]
Minimizing Risk in ERP and Digital Transformation Projects
Sam Graham Too many ERP and digital transformation projects fail, and fail unnecessarily. Risk comes from different directions, including: consultant selection system selection a misalignment between software and business strategy the company’s own people post go-live requirement changes lack of previous experience Taking these in turn; it is perhaps ironic that, whilst companies hire consultants to […]
What Is the Most Common Cause of Digital Transformation and ERP Failure?
Digital transformation and ERP failures are caused by a number of things. Poor project management, lack of internal alignment, and poor organizational change management are just a handful of reasons by transformations so commonly fail. Behind these and other common symptoms lurks a deeper root cause: lack of independence and objectivity. Simply put, ERP vendors […]
Hertz Bankruptcy and the Future of Digital Transformation
It has become clear in recent months that many companies won’t survive the pandemic and recession of 2020. Hertz recently filed for bankruptcy – the latest in a string of casualties in an uncertain economic environment. What did Hertz do wrong? While this may not be a surprise given that travel plummeted 90% earlier this […]
Executive Buy-In: The Final Frontier to ERP Success
Why is executive buy-in so darn hard and fraught with surprises? Well the answers are many, and in this blog, we’ll explore a few that you may not have considered. Executive buy-in is a subset of organizational change management (OCM) and more than just terminology. An effective and well thought out OCM strategy is critical […]
How to Ensure ERP Success vs. Failure
It seems that ERP failures are becoming increasingly common in recent months and years. Lidl, Haribo, and Revlon are some of the more recent ones. Many of us still remember historic ERP nightmares such as Hershey’s, Nike, the US Department of Defense, and other well-publicized train wrecks (see the top 10 all-time ERP failures here). […]
Digital Transformation Gone Wrong at PG&E
Even if you don’t live in California, you’re probably aware of the devastating fires that sadly took lives and property over the last few years. A big part of this story can be pointed at electrical utility grids and lines and the poor maintenance thereof. When tested by high winds, massive fires and outages have […]
Lessons from LeasePlan’s SAP ERP Failure
Just weeks after releasing our ranking of the top ERP failures of all-time, European-based fleet management company LeasePlan announced its massive SAP ERP failure. In this same announcement, the company also announced that it was taking a 100M Euro write-off and pulling the plug on its SAP project. What went wrong? Like many past failures […]
The Biggest ERP Failures of All Time
The enterprise technology landscape is riddled with ¬ERP failures from the last twenty years. Some are more extreme than others, but all have stories behind them. More importantly, they all contain important lessons that can help us in our digital transformations going forward. Overview of ERP failures I used to dislike writing about ERP failures. […]
How ERP Software Industry Hoaxes Lead to ERP Failure
Big ERP vendors can sell software and services like nobody’s business. Companies such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Infor, and others have created monstrous machines capable of turning even the biggest skeptics into converts. But it all comes at a cost. In their quest for technology dominance, the vendors and their respective ecosystems have – presumably […]
Why Do ERP Implementations Really Fail?
I have spent the better part of 20 years trying to help clients crack the code on why ERP implementations fail. It first started to click 12 years ago when I was engaged for my first ERP expert witness engagement for one of the highest profile lawsuits that the industry has seen. In this and […]