What Does ERP Success Look Like?
A new ERP can go live and still fall short of the reason you bought it. Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of recently implemented ERP initiatives will fail to fully meet their original business case goals. That is a forecast about business outcomes, not a claim that most systems never go live.
For your company, the question is more useful than any industry-wide percentage: What must the replacement enable you to accomplish, and how will you know whether it has?
Success is more than going live
An implementation can finish on time and within budget while leaving the business with manual work, poor visibility, or benefits that never materialize. Conversely, a project may take longer than planned but ultimately deliver substantial value. Success is a matter of degree.
Before selecting software, agree on the outcomes that matter to your business. They might include supporting growth, improving margins, integrating acquisitions, serving customers faster, or making decisions with reliable information. Define how you will assess those outcomes after go-live.
Decide what an acceptable transition looks like before implementation begins. Third Stage Consulting reports that approximately 52% of organizations experience significant operational disruption at ERP go-live. A system may eventually deliver the expected benefits, but disruption can still be costly. For example, if you cannot invoice customers for six weeks after go-live, the resulting delay can strain cash flow and customer relationships.
Define what the system must accomplish
The first major risk is being unclear about what you need. Examine the processes that create value, then turn the findings into specific, prioritized requirements.
Those requirements help you compare software against your needs. They also provide a basis for controlling implementation scope, testing what has been delivered, and deciding whether the business is ready to go live. When a gap appears, you can distinguish a capability the business genuinely needs from a request to preserve an old way of working.
Requirements alone cannot guarantee success. Data, integrations, training, adoption, and implementation decisions matter too. Clear business goals and requirements give everyone a shared basis for making those decisions. As Panorama Consulting advises, organizations should quantify how they expect new technology to improve the business and track those measures through the project.
First decide whether replacement is the right move
If your current ERP is holding back your business, the next step is not necessarily to select a new one. Wayferry’s ERP Replacement Decision Assessment helps you determine whether to keep the current system, replace it later, prepare before replacing it, or proceed now.