70% of ERP implementation programs will fail by 2027, and 25% (or 1 in 4) will fail catastrophically. The impact of an outcome like this could lead to talent loss, reputational damage, and financial setbacks. Avoiding this fate could be as simple as having a rock-solid Phase 0 foundation.
On July 15, 2025, Robert Half's sister company, Protiviti, hosted an online event to explore, through real client case studies, why building solid foundations through Phase 0 is crucial in ensuring a successful enterprise resource planning implementation.
Speakers Charlotte Stern (Associate Director – Change & Transformation), Michael Melrose (Director – Finance Transformation), and Mahendra Balasaria (Managing Director – Enterprise Applications & Solutions) shared insights and expertise on how a well-planned foundational phase based around five key pillars can stop yours from becoming one of the 70% of ERP implementations that fail.
1. Establish governance, roles, and responsibilities
A solid implementation plan starts from the top down. Establishing leadership alignment, decision-making structures, clear roles and responsibilities, and strategic stakeholder involvement are vital for success.
"This is what drives all the downstream implications, whether it's around scope, timelines, budgets, various aspects around accountability, whether it's around the system integrators or driving change, and data readiness,” says Mahendra.
“In the absence of getting the right model, what typically happens is an overdependence on a third party, where the primary objective is to get the project delivered and done, not really ensuring business value or outcome, which needs to be the focus of any such program.”
2. Clearly define your business objectives
When setting your business objectives, look beyond efficiency and cost reduction to focus on clear, measurable project KPIs that have top and bottom-line business impacts. "The focus should always be on end-state business outcomes, and that should be driving your ERP journey," says Charlotte.
"We often think of ERP success metrics on two different fronts: project delivery and business impact. And these metrics and KPIs need to be aligned with the organisational strategy established upfront,” says Michael.
"We typically see KPIs around project delivery. Did we go live on time, on budget? Were there minimal disruptions? What does adoption look like? Are users trained? Are they using the system? And then business outcomes — what were we looking to achieve? Are our processes faster? Is the data cleaner? Can we make decisions more quickly? And is the ERP driving real transformation?"
3. Create comprehensive change management strategies
Change starts at individual and team levels. Begin by categorising the change impact across the organisation's individuals and teams with a 'change impact analysis' and a 'people readiness analysis' to establish a baseline. This will serve as the basis for tailored, targeted communication approaches and change strategies.
"Incorporating this type of change and communication planning within a foundational phase will really help you to understand potential impacts better, assess individual readiness for change, and set your change management activities up for success. This will ultimately ensure a sustainable implementation and will make sure that the change is accepted and, most importantly, adopted across the organisation," says Charlotte.
Read more: How to successfully unlock the true value of your project
4. Give data your full consideration from Phase 0
Your data strategy is a critical component of the Phase 0 plan and should be started early in the process. For best effect, Mahendra recommends aligning it with business objectives and implementation goals. He also recommends having all data available to gain maximum transparency over the outcome of the program at its completion.
“You need to start looking at what's available from a data standpoint currently versus what needs to be further enhanced or added, and the sources of data, etc. Getting the right data strategy is critical,” he says.
"A vital element which is typically undermined in ERP implementation is how you are going to manage your data, data cleansing, readiness, etc. What are the roles and responsibilities around data? And when you get further into the implementation, you'll realise there's a tooling requirement, because the data is huge and may need more people to manage it. So, it's equally important to consider a tooling strategy right at the start of your program, too."
5. Build the right team
“There's always an underestimation of the internal resource load that such programs can take as part of implementations,” says Mahendra. “Not just putting the right top performers or the right leadership who can take the right decisions as part of the program, but an underestimation of effort and resource estimates is another key challenge that we've seen, where others have gone wrong.”
Engaging with talent experts like Robert Half can give you flexible and reliable access to interim talent to fill potential skill gaps and share workloads. Likewise, working with experienced consultancies like Protiviti can help you make a clear and objective assessment of your resources concerning the project's demands.
“I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention leveraging expert consultants — specialists who do this all the time,” says Michael. “They have deep expertise with implementations and can provide a lot of valuable insights to ensure that the project is set up for success and continues to trend towards achieving our desired outcomes.”
Explore interim talent
6. View solutions architecture as future state design
Solution architecture should be viewed as a strategic, forward-looking approach to technology implementation, not just a technical exercise. You'll need to consider whether to use cloud or on-premises solutions, plan integrations between systems, and consider continuous innovation. It should be a flexible, scalable technological foundation that evolves with the business.
“Your future state design is equally important as part of designing the solution before you even embark on that entire journey of actual technical implementation,” says Mahendra. “What’s your reporting or analytics strategy? What sort of security and controls will you need to ensure that your system is compliant? From a future standpoint, these considerations are critical to embed as part of your solution design.”
“We’ve seen a number of compelling success stories with ERP implementation, and the core reason for that success is that the organisations implementing these solutions looked beyond just the technology,” says Charlotte.
“They took the time to consider the other critical elements of people, process, data, and importantly, establishing a well-structured program, road map and business case with the identification and prioritisation of risks upfront to enable the effective management of these throughout the program.”
Watch now: Avoiding ERP implementation failure
Welcome to today's webinar. As a global consulting firm, Proivity is here to help you connect, grow, succeed. We invite you to visit us online at rotivity.com/webinars to find other great content and subscribe. Now, let's begin. Welcome everyone and thank you so much for joining Proivity and Robert Half's webinar today which is all about helping you set your ERP implementation programs up for success. Now before we start I would just like to recap on some key pointers for today to ensure that you gain the best experience and get the most out of today's session. You may have already seen the guidance on this, but we would recommend using Google Cro Google Google Chrome to access this platform. If you do experience any issues throughout the session, then please feel free to update your your browser. We will be recording the session and it will be available to watch afterwards uh on demand as well. And there is a Q&A function available. So, please feel free to pop questions in here throughout the session. We will be answering some of the questions later on. uh if we don't get to all the questions though, we will be responding individually to those after the webinar as well. So let's get an introduction to your speakers who will be joining me today. First of all, I'm Charlotte. I'm associate director at Proivity within our change and transformation practice and I have a specific focus on the people side of change. Mahendra Balisario is one of our managing directors and senior leaders within the UK. He looks after our technology modernization and enterprise architect practice. And finally, Michael Malrose is a director in our UK business and leads our finance transformation practice. Now, some of you may not have heard of the two sides of our business, both Proivity and Robert Half. So, I will just provide a very brief overview before we get started. Robert Half is a leading talent solutions provider offering skilled professionals across a whole host of areas including finance, accounting, technology, change and project and others. Productivity is a subsidiary of Robert Half and we provide expert consulting services in risk management, internal audit, technology, business process, data analytics and much more. And together we combine both deep industry knowledge and a broad talent network to deliver comprehensive solutions across both staffing and consulting. So again welcome and thank you for joining us today and let's get into the topic for the session which is really around setting your ERP initiatives up for success. Now, a commonly cited statistic is that by 2027, over 70% of recent ERP implementation programs will have failed. And put simply, this means that these initiatives will not have met their original business case objectives. However, what is quite alarming is that 25% of these programs will fail catastrophically, potentially resulting in significant financial setback, reputational damage, and talent attrition. So the question is as you are embarking on your ERP implementation initiatives, how do you make sure that you are not part of that 70%. And I hope that is what has drawn you to this webinar today and we will be covering a number of topics to help you answer this question. We will be delving deeper into the risks of not conducting a foundational phase for your ERP implementation programs. How in fact to set yourselves up for success through a phase zero and some of the benefits of doing so. We will be weaving real life examples throughout the session today. I would note as well that we are focusing today on setting your ERP initiatives up for success. However, the topics and strategies that we will be discussing can be applied much more broadly. This is not just applicable to ERP. These are foundational strategies that can be applied to any large transformation program across your business. It is also not simply constrained to ERP technology per se. This is about building the capabilities, understanding mentality to be open and responsive and to be enable you to embrace and optimize technology related change in the future. I will now hand over to Michael who will set out the why in relation to conducting a foundational phase for your implementation program. Thank you Charlotte. Good afternoon everyone. I thought it would be helpful to start with a bit of a story um about a global client headquartered in the UK uh whose story might sound a bit familiar. So to set the scene um this client's a multinational organization with a bold ERP vision single standardized ERP rolled out across all of their markets and their business case was really built on some pretty aggressive timelines and tight budgets. Um and they had a simple mindset. get it done fast, standardize everything, and leverage out of the box functionality. Very quickly though, things started to go wrong. Um, individual divisions started to push back, particular clearly on areas that had commercial implications. Um, it seemed like nobody wanted to give up control of their unique processes. And unfortunately, difficult conversations about some of these trade-offs were never made at the executive committee level. and leadership wasn't aligned and critical decisions ended up being avoided. And the project also faced a lot of leadership and governance challenges. The CETO who was the executive sponsor left midway through the project and a divisional leader stepped in who had a very different mindset and that mindset was just get it over the line and that really became the new tone for the project. The governance structures didn't evolve to meet the complexities of the program and unfortunately leadership didn't want to hear bad news and the culture was really c uh conflict averse. Internal audit later conducted a formal review and concluded that the program team didn't have the capability to deliver. So in addition to some of the leadership and governance challenges, there were also several technical and operational gaps. Um the as I mentioned the client wanted standard out of the box functionality but they hadn't done the work upfront to align business needs processes and data to that model. Integration between finance and operations teams was very weak. Um key processes um key endto-end processes really were never joined up. Even something as foundational as data loads failed repeatedly and poor data quality and lack of ownership meant the team couldn't move forward and this led to some very challenging outcomes. So go live was delayed multiple times and that really killed user confidence and by the time it did go live users were really disengaged and many of the original promised capabilities were deferred. So this client ended up with a functioning ERP, but it wasn't a transformative one. And the program didn't fail outright. They did, after all, have a new ERP. It was working, but it fell well short of the value that it sought to deliver. And so the the core lesson here is this foundational phase really matters. It's the space where you can surface misalignment be before it becomes failure and where you're really pressure testing the business case, challenging assumptions and creating the right environment for standardization and change. And in this client's case, many of the many of their results simply weren't achieved. And it's again not because the technology failed, but bea because they hadn't truly engaged the people. Users again were disengaged. Leaders weren't aligned. and the business didn't feel ownership of the change. So let's break down a few reasons why ERP's phase zero, this foundational phase is critical for a successful ERP journey. So first of all, it helps detect risks early. So in this case, the client ran straight into issues that could have been predicted if they'd only placed more focus on risk during the discovery phase. And this phase is really where you uncover hidden risks. Fragmented data, immature governance, cultural barriers, those types of things. And identifying them early means you can design around them. Second, alignment with the strategic business outcomes. So there was a fundamental disconnect between the ERP scope and the company's broader strategy. And this foundational phase really forces a reset. Why are we doing this? What does success look like? what kind of metrics and KPIs are we trying to achieve? And it really ensures that the technology decisions are grounded in strategy, not just functional needs. Third, effective program setup. So in this case, roles weren't clear. The team didn't have the right delivery experience and leadership lacked alignment. And this foundational phase is really where you build that foundation, a realistic timeline, appropriate resourcing, decision-making structures, and escalation paths. And when we're thinking about appropriate resourcing, it's both from the right skill set and the right availability perspectives. So thinking through, do we have the right people for change management, technical expertise, process design, data, and reporting. Of course, Pertivy and Robert Half support clients to fill these critical gaps. So whether it's full endtoend delivery of some of these work streams, interim support or specialist resources to derisk delivery, um those are all elements that partially and Robert Half can support. And finally, buyin of key stakeholders. So in this case, users didn't believe in the program. The go live had been delayed many times and they lost trust. And this foundational phase is really your window to get real engagement, bringing in those key voices into the design, managing expectations and building change champions across the organization. So again, think of ERP as not just a technology implementation but really a enterprise transformation and this foundational phase is where you make sure that the transa transformation is actually delivering. So, let's continue with a polling question to better understand where your head is at. So, what is your biggest blocker heading into ERP implementation phase zero? So, here are your choices and we'll give folks um a couple seconds to respond. All right, just a couple more seconds. Seeing some responses come in. again. What is your biggest blocker heading into an ERP implementation phase zero? All right, let's see how the group responded. Interesting. So, we've got two leaders here. Um, lack of clarity on business objectives and scope and data quality and readiness. And these are certainly consistent with what we hear when we're speaking with our clients and and those in the market. Um, Mahindra, be great to hear your perspective on how you would practically address some of these concerns in the foundational phase. So, I'll toss it over to you. Thanks, Michael. Uh, so I guess Michael, an interesting case study uh in terms of what went wrong in one of your examples. I guess before I talk about the framework, maybe let me share with uh another example where things actually went right uh for this particular client and they pretty much had a successful implementation. Uh so so this was a a client which operated across four different business lines u had presence across uh different warehouses across 40 or different warehouses across multiple countries. um global presence as well as more than thousand plus users uh for operating the entire system. uh they were on a SAP ECC environment a 20 year old environment highly customized basically made fit for purpose uh for that particular organization to the extent that they had almost probably more than 10,000 plus customizations in the environment and uh so the users were to the extent that everybody would talk more in terms of a language of a custom transactions when they were doing their business process transactions and nobody really knew what the core standard uh out of the box functionalities were. Uh so as part of the reset uh the company decided to move to a new ERP platform and the first and the foremost thing was in terms of defining the right governance structure and the governance leadership uh to the extent that the entire typical steering committees were finalized for the whole program uh right on day one and there were not a single steering committee missed which were like fortnightly So being attended by the entire leadership on the day not a single one being shifting. Two I guess it was clear in terms of defining the objectives of the program and the value realization from the program and typically when we talk about value realization from these programs the focus is mostly on around efficiency and in terms of cost reduction. But uh if you look at the real value realization in this particular case was how can we impact the top line the bottom line from a business standpoint and in this particular case uh the company actually figured out five key KPIs which are core to the business which any KPI that gets impacted would either add my top line or my bottom line and every pro you know design right from design of the program to the actual realization the build and go live. Every decision was looked at from a value realization a cost you know uh measure standpoint. So if the the design doesn't result in a value impacting those KPIs, it went through multiple iterations and with that focus in mind, the entire implementation went through uh to the extent that the implementation was fully in terms of adopting standard out of the box with very minimal customizations went live on the go live date that was planned right on day one uh as per the plan timeline. lines. So absolutely no delay on the project. So So what did they do? Right. Right. Uh in that particular scenario, uh they had the right structure, program structure, stakeholder commitment and leadership. Right. From day one, uh the entire focus from a business standpoint was on value realization and standardization. Uh there was a huge focus on getting the data right right from day one. And gi given the organization was coming from being a users of a highly customized environment to moving to a system of standard adoption that was a massive change from a user standpoint and I guess putting those right frameworks in place to manage that entire change and you know for the whole program was foundational uh for that entire program success. So, so I guess if you look at some of those key elements, they were absolutely right done at the start of the program before even the program kick started and that actually resulted in them having a real smooth go live to the extent that obviously the benefits were realized in first 6 months uh returning the entire cost or ROI in the program. So, so what are the key foundations when we talk about how uh for such programs? So if you look at the overall framework typically for such uh you know getting the phase zero right I think uh typically would evolve around five pillars let's say if we can uh say right uh process right uh I think uh we we've seen that organizations have been on various legacy environments the processes probably are not uh keeping pace in terms of the growth of the business or you know the technology ies have evolved, the systems possibly are now outdated and you know OEMs possibly or the technology providers basically are also asking organizations to move to the latest platforms or the latest versions of the platform. However, uh the focus always ends up being more an ERPdriven uh whether it's a new platform or a technical migration or an upgrade. A lot of these are becoming driven through lenses of what the technology can offer, what the ERPs can offer. Whereas I think the key thing that is important here is to really do a fit gap in terms of the process. What are the current ways of working? What are the current process? What is it that can be really looked at? Uh basically standard versus build. What are the key processes which we can now automate? uh I guess we're talking about you know embedding artificial intelligence into everything uh from a business standpoint right from automation of processes to deriving the maximum benefits from the data uh in you know as part of such technology initiatives. identifying up front the processes which can be automated. I think the change right we always talk about people and impact of change I think just really identifying the impact of these process changes on the current business the people side of it what's going to be my future targeting operating model what's going to be the ways of working in terms of the future roles and responsibilities between different departments functions etc is equally critical as part of setting this entire process foundation an equal element ment an equally critical element along with the process is the data and I it's interesting to see you know uh the poll question that Michael just had uh the second uh critical you know challenge that we see was the data readiness and strategy and um one of the things that we've typically observed in uh such ERP programs is u when such uh assessments are being made in terms of looking at a new ERP P platform or whichever be the platform in this particular case the in everybody talks about data being critical but in terms of the real focus around data is something that's possibly left for later in the program once the platform selected and once the implementation journey is typically started I guess just knowing the data what's available what's going to be the entire strategy of data you know we talk about data being the new currency data needs to be monetized. I think just having the entire data available even for be able to utilize let's say maximum insights later once the new platform is in place I think that the decision needs to start right from the end as to what do you want to get as an outcome of the program what's the final value that's need to be realized and for achieving those objectives you know you need to start looking at what's available from a data standpoint currently versus what needs to be further enhanced or added and the sources of data etc. So getting your right data strategy is critical. I think the second critical element which is typically undermined in such scenarios is also about how are you going to manage your data data cleansing readiness when you embark on such programs the roles responsibilities around data etc. And typically when you get in later in the program there's a realization that know then there's a tooling requirement that needs to come in because the data is huge cannot be done or we need more people possibly to manage that track and I guess it's equally important to even think from a tooling strategy right at the start of this program. The third critical thing is whether it's around process or data, it's important to really understand have you got the right people on the program leading those various uh tracks in such programs. So identification of the right leadership to drive those program work streams in the program with enough decision-m capabilities. So a lot of times we've seen uh the people are part of the program not necessarily the best persons to drive those programs but possibly more in terms of you know you know people who can be freed up from the business to run those programs and work streams and that obvious also can lot of times have resulted in a lot of challenges. So as part of the framework, defining what that program governance structure should look like, identifying the right stakeholders, defining the right vision and objectives and strategy is pretty key in setting the foundation. The solution is all about what's going to be your deployment strategy, right? uh we've seen various scenarios where organizations are moving from let's say a a tier three tier four ERP to probably let's say a tier 2 tier one ERP or clients are on SAP ECC moving to S4 HANA because SAP is looking at customers to move to S4 HANA or clients on Microsoft Navision AX etc need to move to either FNOS's business central Oracle to fusion and obviously there you know that for even different ERP products there are different versions where everybody needs to upgrade so what the deployment strategy should look like what's the integration architecture should look like what should be your 2B future state design uh is equally important as part of designing the solution before even you embark on that entire journey of actual technical implementation what's going to be your reporting or analytics strategy what sort of security and controls are to be looked at to en to ensure that your system is going to be compliant uh from a future standpoint. All of that again are critical to embed as part of your solution design. So again from a framework phase zero framework standpoint it's equally critical that we look at all of these aspects. The next key thing uh from a people standpoint is and I've already talked about couple of them but it's having the right stakeholders for the whole program not just at a stakeholder level but at at the various layers of program governance whether it's program directors program leadership managers people leading various work stream. So having the right people with the right skills and decision making is equally critical when you're setting up the whole program driving change. I think Charlotte talked about change uh Michael talked about change being critical and it's absolutely critical to work on the change workstream right from day one. In fact, identifying the impact of change, doing the entire change impact analysis right at phase zero would help you in terms of setting up the foundations as you embark on the implementation journey for your ERP platform. So, uh it you know there's a huge focus that needs to be given on your entire change impact assessment change strategy up front. Once you've looked at all these aspects, I think the critical thing then is based on uh the impact on process data having looked at your overall solution design from change what's going to be the entire implementation approach the phasing of the implementation approach your entire resource strategy. So uh one of the challenges that we've seen and you know that's also come out u in the polling question is just being able to have the right level of resources either to be put on part of the program or if let's say you're moving you know people from the business to the program just managing the BAU itself. So what should be the right resource strategy is equally important as part of your overall uh road map. The then apart from you know the strategy the phasing implementation approach it's all about value realization business benefits and defining the right program KPIs itself. So uh what the business case would look like, what's the business benefits that needs to be articulated right up front. The cost estimates not just about the technical costs of implementation but around your entire implement people related cost uh of not just uh again getting people from outside but it's all your own internal people's cost who are put typically put as part of those programs. The time commitment of people on such programs are equally important to assess the entire cost of the program and not just probably cost of technical implementation whether it's around license infrastructure implementation cost etc. And at the end I guess if you've got the right strategy in place if you've got the right road map with the entire phasing resource strategy the governance I think heading into then selection of the right ERP platform or you know doing the right system integrator selection is is very focused in terms of you're going with very clear goals and objectives and very clear expectation as what you want to get as as an outcome of the program and we've had a couple of questions which have come through earlier as well in terms of you know what are the key factors that you should look at from selecting a system integrator right I I guess the key thing uh you know we always talk about documenting the requirements applying the Moscow principles uh looking at the product capabilities credentials etc I think one of the key experience that I've seen which has worked well is I think giving a entire proof of concept approach which are very similar or very critical to your business I think and expecting the partners to come and present a right solution which is more relevant to the business I think has at least in my experience I've seen clients really benefiting out of it in the evaluation process earlier on the program and I think that's equally critical when you're looking at in terms of your selection of your ERP or your uh system integrator platform. So I guess uh understanding how you know this uh the framework looks like and what what are the key components of the framework I think it's equally important to understand what are the benefits or outcomes of such program and Charlotte uh if you want to just talk about them. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, absolutely. What should you expect from a foundational phase zero for your ERP initiative? Well, ultimately everything that Mahendra has just talked about that should really be helping you to ultimately be able to set your program up to enable you to realize your business case and anticipated benefits. So part of the building of the business case and the roadmap and setting up the program to enable you to actually deliver on that and realize those benefits and this means realizing the desired outcomes that are aligned with broader strategic business objectives. Maximizing the value from your implementation initiative. Better understanding, estimating, and controlling costs so that you can minimize the risk of incurring unknown and unexpected costs through thorough planning and well-informed assumptions as part of that initial foundational phase. Now, there are some well-known public stories of failure that I'm sure a lot of us will have heard of and similar to the story that Michael set out earlier as well as a number of compelling success stories similar to what Mahendra uh alluded to earlier. And the core reason really for the successes is that the organization implementing the ERP solution looked beyond just the technology. They took the time to consider the other critical elements of people, process, data, setting out that road map and importantly establishing a well ststructured program road map and business case with the identification and prioritization of risks up front to enable the effective management of these throughout the program. And as an example and as a result of a successful implementation of a of a new ERP solution, a leading British consumer goods company was able to achieve 15% reduction in operational costs, improved sust sustainability through a 10% reduction in carbon emissions across their supply chain operations, improved process efficiencies across procurement, manufacturing and distribution, and greater standardization across their global operations. And this was all through a successful and a sustainable implementation of their chosen ERP solution. Now this success was significantly bolstered by a wellexecuted phase zero which laid the groundwork for the entire project. And during this foundational phase, the company focused on aligning business objectives with technological capabilities, engaging stakeholders across various departments and conducting thorough requirements gathering. This preparatory work helped identify key areas for improvement and ensured that the chosen solution would effectively meet the organization's diverse needs. The phase zero stage in this example was crucial in setting the program up for success by ensuring that the system was tailored to their specific requirements. And ultimately this led to significant operational improvements and strategic benefits. And ultimately this led to the organization achieving their business case, realizing those desired outcomes, maximizing the value, controlling the costs and understanding and being able to manage the risks associated with the implementation. Now we wanted to move on to to some questions at this stage and thank you so much to everyone that shared questions when they registered for this session in advance and we have reviewed these and and there were some common themes coming from them which is which is really great. We've included three questions here that we'll touch on in a minute which we believe cover those most common themes. And I do see that there's a there's a there's a good number of of of questions coming in um in the the Q&A inbox as well. So, thank you so much for those. We will look to weave responses to some of those through our our our responses to your questions now. Um and as I say, we will um make sure that we respond to those individually um after the webinar as well. So I'll take the first question here which is really around how you can get your employees on board for a change like implementing an ERP and there were other questions as well that have come up in the chat which is around managing resistance to change um and really how do you bring on board you know key stakeholders. So for this I think it's really important to to to go back to the fact that any organizational change such as an ERP implementation requires individual change that change at an individual um and a team level to achieve that desired future state. So as you embark on a change journey, you first need to understand who exactly these individuals and these teams within your organization are and you need to categorize the level of change impact across the individuals and associated teams through change impact analysis and people readiness um analyses. Conducting these analyses up front will set that baseline. So it's important to do that as part of the phase zero as part of that foundational phase to set that baseline and that will form the basis for uh communications approaches communications and change strategies and it will enable you to target your communication approach and tactics and ultimately establish a really um comprehensive focused tailored and targeted change management strategy and plan which is focused around your different types of stakeholder groups And when you're looking to bring employees on board for a change um and you are thinking and and and concerned about managing um some of that resistance, you need to consider and align the broader organizational objectives to individual benefits and outcomes. And some of those out outcomes will be beneficial and they will be positive and some will be more challenging and you need to consider all of those outcomes as you link the organizational benefits and outcomes to those. And you should set out a clear and tailored communication plan that starts early and engages individuals throughout that process. And you should follow the individual journey as you think about people readiness for change through the process of making them aware, making them clear and being clear on the reason for change, on driving desire for the change. And that's really critical and and probably one of the most challenging areas is is is driving that desire at an individual level for change, helping support knowledge and the ability to actually implement and adopt the change and then reinforcing that. And that reinforcement um can come, you know, earlier on in the change process. And it's really about identifying and and and celebrating successes, even small successes and small wins as you go through that process and trying to build momentum for change across those individuals and and stakeholder groups. So incorporating this type of change and communication planning within a foundational phase will really help you to better understand potential impacts, assess individual readiness for change and set your change management activities up for success. This will ultimately ensure the sustainable implementation and will make sure that the change is accepted and most importantly adopted across the organization. Mahendra, I wondered if you could just provide your perspective on this next question which is around the most critical decision a business must get right in phase zero. So it's an interesting question Charlotte and I think there you know similar kind of questions that I can see in the Q&A chat. uh I guess if you look at uh the key foundation as we talked about uh you know is setting up the whole governance model on the program right I think to me setting up the right governance model with the right leadership right stakeholder involvement which needs to be set up right in phase zero is absolutely critical uh that business needs to get right the this is what would drive all the downstream implication whether around scope, timelines, budgets, uh various aspects around accountability, whether it's around the system integrators or driving change, data readiness, pretty much everything. So getting that entire governance model with absolutely program strong program leadership is absolutely fundamental and foundational for me uh from my perspective uh to get it right in phase zero. I think in absence of getting uh the right model what typically tends to happen is there would be lot of reliance or dependence whether on the third party who might be involved in such programs or there could be various other system integrators invol or responsible for delivery where the objective is primary to get the project delivered and done not really ensuring you know basically focusing on business value or outcome that would typically that needs to be you know the focus on any such program. So, so to me I think that's the most critical bit uh which is important to set right. Why I guess so many get it wrong. I guess there are multiple reasons and factors what we've seen and you know in experience over over years right I we've always seen uh there's always misalignment of priorities uh how do you manage dependencies on business priorities versus technical technical priorities or the program priorities uh having the right ownership as well as ensuring that the whole program is delivered to meet the business vision and outcome. Um I think there always there is a misalignment of priorities. Uh there's always an underestimation of the internal resource load that such programs can take as part of implementations. So, so typically I think it's always underestimated the effort and resource estimates that need to be put in these programs and even not just putting the right top performers or the right leadership who can take the right decisions as part of the program also is the other key challenges that we've seen where others would have gone wrong. Uh the third thing uh which is probably critical is a lot of these programs start with defining the right strategy, defining the governance model but with possibly not a clear understanding of what the success criteria would look like. So agreeing what the success criteria post goive would look like is absolutely critical to get it right in phase zero. uh which again in the many such programs we've seen people haven't got got it right right another important one is uh which is again critical right if you look at uh typical project plans of such implementations uh the focus tends to be more on going live as per the plan rather than really focusing on are you really getting the future outcomes future state benefits that were desired at the start of the program uh whether the organization is really ready for go live uh or you know whether the the relevant processes etc are in place uh I think there was a question around what's the right balance between standard versus custom uh I guess that varies from organization to organization complexities of business and I guess that again becomes an important evaluation criteria the start of your program In phase zero itself in one of my uh you know in one of the clients where we observed was the client was working on the ERP platform old platform Rajan saying we will go in an out ofthe-box standard system only 6 months down the line realized that their existing asis processes were so much customized users were so much embedded into that ways of working they were not even willing to change and adopt out of the box and the whole you know the program basically ended up customizing the entire functionalities to basically replicate as his ways of working. So uh I guess getting that right target operating model up front as well as uh identifying the candidates the processes which should get standardized not just from a tech standpoint but if it needs to be standardized even from a business standpoint is equally important upfront before you embark on such programs. Michael do you want to uh look at the third one? Sure. So this next question is about deploying assurance over the life cycle of the program. And when we're thinking about assurance, it's really about giving stakeholders confidence that the project is being managed effectively. Um that we're managing risks appropriately and really that the program is on track to meet its objectives. Um, assurance really should be its own separate work stream and we should establish it during phase zero and and that's really to ensure that we're setting the program up for success and that that assurance work stream should really support each phase of the program through design build deployment hyperare to again ensure that each decision that we're making throughout the program is aligned with the plan that we established during phase zero. So, a couple things to consider when when considering setting up an assurance program. Um, do we have a clear objective with success metrics? And do we know what success looks like? Um, have we executed a comprehensive risk assessment from the outset to identify potential risks and do we have a framework to manage those risks? Have we engaged the right stakeholders and how are we communicating them and and communicating with them early and often to really build trust and ensure that their concerns are addressed? Um, do we have a robust change management strategy? And that's really going to prepare users for the transition and and minimize resistance, enhance adoption. Do we have the right performance metrics and monitoring to measure progress? And I saw a a question in the chat about KPIs and and how do we use KPIs to to measure success of the program? And it really goes back to why are we implementing this new tool? What sorts of transformation um outcomes are we looking for? Um we often think of of ERP success metrics on two different fronts. Um project delivery and business impact. So did we deliver it well? Is it making a big difference? Um and and these metrics and KPIs again need to be aligned with the org strategy established upfront. Um so we typically see um KPIs around project delivery. Did we go live on time on budget? Were there minimal disruptions? What does adoption look like? Are users trained? Are they using the system? And then business outcome KPIs. Again, this gets back to what were we looking to achieve? Um, are our processes faster? Is data cleaner? Um, are we able to make decisions more quickly? Um, and is the ERP really driving real transformation? So, a couple examples, finance, it might mean shorter month close operations. You could consider, you know, inventory accuracy or cycle time reductions. Um when we think about leadership, are we replacing Excel dashboards with real time interactive um you know datadriven dashboards? Again, a couple other items to think through when we're when we're thinking through um program assurance. Um you could consider an independent review um at various stages of of the process um just to ensure that we've got an objective assessment. Um and then finally I I probably wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention leveraging expertise consultants specialists um who do this all the time. They have deep expertise with implementations and can provide a lot of valuable insights um to ensure that the the project is uh set up for success and and continues to um trend towards re uh achieving our desired outcomes. Mahendra, was there another question in the chat that uh that you wanted to address? I guess there's a there's a question which uh which is what are the main challenges for a startup moving to an ERP? Uh I think that's an interesting question. uh and I guess uh you know this again goes back to really looking at what are the the real business outcomes and the values that you're really looking at getting out of the initiative or let's say embarking on this entire ERP platform uh for a startup organization let's say do you have the right processes or do you just want to adopt the asis what the application platforms would offer. I guess the key thing in such uh thing is not as much about uh you know what are the main challenges. I guess the key thing is uh really looking at whichever is the ERP platform is that fit for purpose to really meet the business requirements not just today but probably uh let's say 3 years 5 years down the line for the business. uh in a startup scenario the processes can evolve. You may not have as much of data challenges to start with uh and hence I guess uh the key thing becomes more in terms of adopting and ensuring that the product is fit for purpose for uh the business. Um so I guess couple of other questions would you have any different approach for implementing a cloud-based ERP compared to an on-prem ERP? I think absolutely uh the key thing lies again uh I talked about the entire deployment approach and deployment strategy as part of the interphase zero. Uh there are various considerations that would go into in really deciding what should be your uh the right ERP platform. Should it be onrem versus cloud? Uh there are various cost factors that come in in decision making. Uh there are various in terms of the processes what a cloud-based pro platform can offer versus what you get from an on-prem based. So there are various considerations that go in and again that becomes a key consideration as part of your interphase zero uh uh uh basically arriving on your deployment strategy. So, so hopefully I've been able to cover that. Uh M I think um I think there's similar things which we've covered uh as we've gone through this but we're happy to take this separately just in the interest of time. Maybe I'll just cover one more uh question here which is around the what is seemed as a failure to implement an ERP system. And I think this links back to the the sort of 70% failure rate that we've talked about. And so I think ultimately a lot of implementation programs can fail, you know, due to cost, resources, time, you know, overruns, failure to to meet essentially the business case that was set out either from a cost perspective or the inability to, you know, realize the benefits and actually actually realize the benefits that are set out in the business case. So failure can kind of cover a whole host of different things. I think personally the really sort of alarming statistic as I mentioned earlier is that 25% of you know catastrophic failure which is really to do with the sort of you know abandonment of the program or or the the the kind of fundamental inability to actually deliver um on on the the kind of foundational minimum um benefits and objectives that were set out as part of the the program. And so that is real that is a real concern because um that is a uh you know that is that is something to to to to be concerned about and to challenge. And now understanding and and setting out this foundational phase this phase zero you know will really help you to identify and prioritize the risks of failure um you know both on a on a on a smaller scale but also on that kind of catastrophic scale. And that will help you to um manage you know mitigate where possible but manage and understand and anticipate those risks um so that you can plan around that and you can take that into consideration and those risks into consideration when you are planning and you're you're building out your road map and your approach. Um, so I think that's the uh, you know, that a failure can cover a whole whole host of different things, but I think it's that real catastrophic failure that that that is the that is the alarming thing and really, you know, can be um, can be helped to to to be managed and reduced as part of this initial phase zero. And the activities carried out as part of a foundational phase are not wasted, you know, should not be wasted if you decide to um, move forward on a different path. the lot a lot of those activities and the the the framework that Mahendra set out earlier. All of these activities are really valuable things to be doing you know within your organization in any case from a process from a people um you know from a future technology perspective. Um so it absolutely is a valuable exercise actually in and of itself. Um but but importantly will help you to set you know the future implementation programs up for for success. Okay, should we um take I guess uh so I think uh you know we've talked about all the different risks uh on such programs. I think the the criticality of the phase zero framework why it's important um I guess to summarize I think it's important plan carefully the focus should always be on end state business outcomes and that should be driving your ERP journey invest in the right road map up front if you get it wrong it's really expensive um and the costs and the ROIs can just go for you know in the middle of the program itself right your cost can spiral it's important that you investigate impacts the critical impacts on your process people data your integration with various other applications what the landscape strategy should look like investigate those impacts much earlier before even you start this entire journey right then consider innovation deployment right so it's not just as much about the platform. It's important equally important that you're considering continuous innovation as you're going and adopting the new ERP platform whether it's around adopting various AI capabilities of the platform or even uh embedding it around the overall deployment. The key is start early with your entire data strategy change adoption. It should start much earlier even before your technical implementation and that is a key foundation u which can be which can lead to your strong foundation as you start your entire implementation. Great. So, so that just leaves me really to say thank you uh again so much for joining this session today and we hope you have found it insightful and interesting um and we hope that it has helped you answer that all important question which is how do you make sure that you are not part of that 70% failure rate as you embark on your ERP implementation programs. So please do reach out to Mahendra, Michael or me with any further questions or if you would like to delve deeper into any of the topics that we discussed today. Uh as I mentioned earlier, we we will be following up individually uh on on some of the questions that have come through on that Q&A chat as well. So thank you so much for everyone um that has put those uh those questions in the chat and and thank you for uh engaging in this session today. Thank you again and I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon.
