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?"
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.”
