Why do ERP projects fail?

Software is a business tool. By itself, it won’t cause failure – and it won’t ensure success.

Implemented by the right people, people from within your organization as well as from trusted external partners, software can be harnessed to help bring your strategic business vision to life. With careful planning, your team can utilize ERP software to bring many cost-saving and revenue-increasing benefits to your business.

There are several reasons an ERP project fails. I’ve learned over the course of my career that there are three broad categories to strategically consider to make an ERP project successful: the people, the processes, and the technology involved. This post will focus on the people you need to include to ensure a successful ERP implementation.

Gathering Your ‘A’ Team

An ERP project is not an IT project. It’s a business project. To be successful, top executives from your organization must be involved in the project. One of those top executives needs to function as a project sponsor – a leader to champion the project and be the final decision maker throughout.

In addition to leadership involvement, your company’s ‘A’ team needs to be involved. And you’re going to need them to invest a significant amount of time to the project – probably between 30-60% of their time for the duration of the implementation. These team members need to know the business, need to be able to be drivers of change, and need to have authority to make some decisions.

Setting Your Team Up for Success

The people that you choose should be leaders, innovators, and come from different areas of the business. Different departments have different needs and your project team needs to work together to make decisions that have the best interests of the business as a whole in mind.

As a business leader, you must be prepared to give your project team adequate time to focus on making these critical business decisions, empowering them to make the success of this project a priority.

Read Part 2: The Processes You Need in Place for a Successful ERP Project

Read Part 3: Technology Isn’t the Reason Your ERP Project Fails