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). […]
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 […]
How to Fix a Failing SAP S/4HANA Implementation
Sometimes I get the feeling that people get tired of hearing me talk about some of the recent string of high-profile SAP failures. But then I post another article about the SAP failure at Revlon, Lidl, Haribo, or any of the others, and the article inevitably goes viral. Still, I don’t feel right dissecting these […]
SAP’s 2025 Deadline: Remember Y2K?
SAP recently announced its “2025 Deadline,” suggesting support will end for all legacy products such as ECC and R/3 come December 2025. This has sent a shockwave through the industry and companies are scrambling to take action, and not all in a good way. Y2K Déjà vu We all remember 1999, when the threat of […]
ERP Failure: Is it Time to Take it on the Run?
I have recently been listening to some of the classic hits from REO Speedwagon. As they once said in their heyday, “you’re under the gun, so you take it on the run.” I heard this particular song (“Take it on the Run”) while I was writing my recent blog about Revlon’s SAP failure, so I […]
Lessons from Revlon’s SAP Implementation Disaster
A few weeks ago, Revlon announced that its SAP implementation was a disaster. This came on the heels of delayed financial reporting because of said SAP implementation failure. The company’s stock fell 6.9% within 24 hours of reporting the news, which led to an investor lawsuit against the company. Not good, especially for a publicly-traded […]
How to Negotiate an SAP S/4HANA Contract
It’s not every day that most of us negotiate multi-million-dollar contracts with significant cost implications for the future. When we do, it’s important to get it right. Before embarking on an SAP transformation or bringing SAP S/4HANA consultants on to your team, it is important to understand how to negotiate an SAP S/4HANA contract. We […]