REPORT
The 2025 Top 10 ERP Systems Report
Our experts have highlighted ten vendors that can help your organization make data-driven decisions.
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Can Traditional Project Management Keep Its Place in the IT World?
Revelations about the IT failures of the new millennium suggest not! A recent study of over 1,400 organizations reveals some startling new facts about mega-failures in IT, including huge overruns. Whilst the study found average overrun was 27-percent, one in six...Project Leadership Versus Management in an ERP Implementation
Which is more important for the success of an ERP implementation: project/technical management skills or project leadership skills? Before getting into the answer, lets try to define both management and leadership. There are various definitions for both. In its...Thirty-Five Guiding Principles for Every ERP Project Manager
Project Managers are leaders and managers. While their focus is generally centered on managing the actual ERP project, they always need to lead and manage themselves first. Over the years I’ve had a great deal of experience, dealt with a variety of clients, and...Overcoming ERP Project Fatigue
It’s inevitable. It’s often ignored as part of the ERP selection and implementation process. Yet ERP project fatigue jeopardizes the quality and timeliness of deliverables. It also decreases job satisfaction for some of your best and brightest employees who have been...Limited ERP ROI – Technology Versus Business Focus
The majority of large ERP software implementations are executed as IT projects rather than strategic business initiatives.  An IT budget is established, an ERP implementation team is assembled, significant investment is made, and a “go-live” date is embarked upon....Charting The Course
Launching an ERP Implementation means clear communication about the purpose and expected benefits. A Project Charter is a good way to clearly and concisely make a statement about why it’s important. Here is a sample Project Charter that fits the bill. Project...Three Things That Cause ERP Projects to Fail
As we outlined in the four-part series of our 2008 ERP Report, most ERP projects go over budget, take longer than expected, and fail to deliver expected benefits. Based on this research of 1,300 ERP implementations across the globe, there are three common things that...Four Reasons Why ERP Projects Take Longer Than Expected
During the ERP software selection process, it can be difficult to know exactly how long the chosen software will take to fully implement. While software sales reps will typically provide optimistic scenarios, they often do not take into account key activities and...Pitfalls of the ERP Business Case
One of the biggest selling points that ERP or IT software vendors use is that implementing their product can result in a short payback period with a healthy return on investment (ROI). While there is some truth to this possibility, such an ROI is only achieved if you...Open Source ERP Solutions, Ready For Primetime?
When we evaluate ERP solutions for our Perfect Fit clients we are sometimes asked for our opinion on Open Source ERP solutions. We are starting to see more Open Source solutions entering the ERP market and as they mature we expect to see them become more mainstream....Seven Key ERP Success Factors
We recently conducted an ERP poll to identify the factors that ERP experts find to be the most important to successful ERP projects. Based on the findings of the study, here’s what percentage of participants find each of the following the most important success...The Downside Of ERP’s Increased Visibility to Data
One of the big advantages of ERP is visibility to enterprise data. Companies without ERP often times have fragmented silos with no knowledge of what is going on in other departments. For example, when a customer calls customer service to order a product, the CSR may...ERP Training: More Than Software Transactions
In any ERP implementation, it is generally understood that training is a key component of organizational change management and of the overall success of the ERP implementation. However, there is a subtle and distinct difference between training and training...ERP Success Factor: The Importance of Communications
Most ERP project teams understand the value of training. Ensuring that employees understand how to complete transactions in a new ERP system is very important, and training in an ERP software package helps enable that level of understanding. However, much more than...ERP System Details: Don’t Let Them Slip Through the Cracks
We have published several pieces on what it takes to turn an ERP system purchase into a successful ERP implementation. However, there are several small details that our clients often forget. All of the details, although they seem minor in nature, can add up to big...Supporting Your ERP System After Go Live
Those of us that have been involved with ERP projects know what it’s like to experience the thrill of an ERP go-live. It’s exciting, confusing, difficult, and full of opportunity, all at the same time. While it may be a huge step in a long battle, it is by...ERP’s Big Bang Theory
One of the difficult decisions of an ERP implementation is the implementation strategy: do you take the big bang approach and get it done with quickly, or do you slowly phase in new processes and technology over time? The answer is that it depends. The appeal of the...Why Are ERP Projects Always Over Budget?
Our last post addressed the fact that our ongoing ERP Benchmarking Study reveals that 100% of participants went over budget, most of them by 10% or more. But what we didn’t address is why projects go over budget. I recently blogged about some of the hidden costs...The Politics of ERP Projects
Large ERP and IT projects can be exciting: they can provide new technologies, new business processes, and endless possibilities to organizations that implement them. However, implementing the technologies and overcoming some of the organization’s political...
