Recurring decision challenges, ranging from conflicting priorities to disagreement over workflow migration, can create delays in ERP implementation. Understanding these barriers can help your team navigate them more effectively and keep your project on track.
Why ERP Projects Get Stuck: The Power and Pitfall of Decision Making
Stakeholder diversity is a source of strength in ERP implementations, but it can also contribute to a project environment that’s prone to decision paralysis. Dissimilar perspectives, competing priorities, and fundamentally different objectives must all be addressed before moving the initiative forward. Reaching agreement is sometimes a long process, from finalizing platform functionality choices early in the project lifecycle to working through late-stage organizational disagreements over unexpected customization requests.
Project teams working on ERP implementation efforts should be aware of these five common decision hurdles that can delay progress.
Conflicting Goals and Priorities Between Departments
With so many different functional areas participating in an ERP implementation project, there are bound to be conflicting goals and priorities. Some departments may value features that support compliance, for example, while others emphasize faster workflow completion. It may be impossible to optimize an ERP platform for every use case and getting participants to agree on how best to balance the various needs and desires is a common ERP implementation problem.
Short-Term Wins vs. Long-Term Strategy
In instances where ERP implementations involve a phased rollout, the competition between short-term and long-term perspectives can bring the decision-making process to a halt. Stakeholders focused on seeing value quickly may push for simplified software configurations to expedite completion. Others might prioritize long-term operational needs to stay ahead of future growth plans. Finding harmony with these competing viewpoints is essential for progress, but this sticking point can hold up key decisions.
Technical Concerns Versus Business Requirements
The push-pull of technical versus business concerns can derail ERP project decisions. IT stakeholders may prioritize system stability and cybersecurity, while users put a high value on functionality and easy navigation. Assessing the initiative’s technical issues alongside user experience considerations could uncover deep and unanticipated conflicts. If the recommended security measures are likely to introduce friction into the user experience, for example, the project team and stakeholders will need to agree on a strategy, and it sometimes requires extensive negotiations to finalize those choices.
Workflow Migration: Lift-and-Shift or Redesign?
Any lack of consensus on workflow migration plans can significantly slow ERP project decisions. Which tasks should be digitized as-is and which should change as part of the implementation? The addition of a robust ERP platform often creates new opportunities for departments to rethink how they tackle certain tasks. Some legacy workflows may be complete in their current form, but others are likely to have adjacencies that encourage more innovative thinking. Making the decision to combine, adjust, and enhance existing workflows can be surprisingly complex. It’s not unusual for employees to prefer a clean lift-and-shift approach, where today’s processes are moved into the new ERP intact and unchanged. Some groups, however, may seek a transformation that consolidates, expands, or streamlines current workflows to take advantage of the new system’s increased capabilities. Issues such as maintaining productivity, ensuring ongoing compliance, automation applicability, integration options, and others might all be part of a nuanced, time-consuming decision process.
Lift-and-Shift Migration: The process of moving existing workflows and processes into a new system without modification. This is faster but may limit the benefits of modernization.
Customization Conflicts and Scope Creep
As users begin dabbling in the new ERP platform, the project team may see divisions over how different groups want to further develop the system. Some customization requests may fit cleanly within the original scope of the project, but others might not be as straightforward. Across the stakeholder base, there might be requests that appear important enough to warrant discussion about whether to add them to the initiative—along with related funding and other resources—or to address them post-implementation as a separate effort. These discussions are sometimes lengthy, since hard data to justify particular requests may be difficult to come by.
Delays Are Decisions in Disguise
Many ERP project delays are not technical—they’re strategic and interpersonal. Misalignment on goals, resistance to change, and differing risk appetites all surface as decision-making slowdowns. Recognizing and proactively managing these five key decisions can help teams maintain momentum and avoid costly bottlenecks.
FAQ: Common Questions About ERP Implementation Delays
Why do ERP projects often run over schedule?
Most delays stem from decision-making bottlenecks, not technical problems. Misalignment between stakeholders is a common cause.
What’s the best way to resolve stakeholder conflicts in ERP projects?
Clear governance, decision frameworks, and executive sponsorship help align priorities and facilitate faster consensus.
Should we customize our ERP system before launch?
Only when essential. Too much customization early on can delay launch and increase complexity. Focus on critical needs and defer the rest.
How can we balance short-term wins with long-term ERP goals?
Use a phased roadmap that outlines quick wins without sacrificing scalability. Prioritize features that serve both immediate needs and future growth.
What role does change management play in avoiding ERP delays?
A strong change management plan ensures user buy-in, reduces resistance, and accelerates workflow migration and training timelines.