Six in ten software implementations miss their original goals. The reflex is to blame the software. But in practice it almost always lies elsewhere. These are the real causes.
Cause 1: the need was never sharp
If no one could say upfront exactly which problem was being solved, there's no yardstick for success. A vague need delivers a vague result. This is by far the biggest cause, and the easiest to prevent.
Cause 2: data was underestimated
Old, dirty or fragmented data is the silent killer of implementations. Migration always takes more time than expected, and without clean data even the best system won't work.
Cause 3: no one took adoption seriously
An implementation is 20% technology and 80% behaviour. If the team isn't brought along, trained and heard, people fall back on the old way of working, however good the system is.
“The software did exactly what was promised. We'd just never agreed what we wanted to achieve with it.”
Project lead, retail chain (90 employees)
How to stay on the right side of the statistic
- Make the need concrete: which problem, which yardstick, which budget over three years.
- Start early on your data: cleaning takes time, plan it in.
- Treat adoption as a project in itself, not an afterthought.
- Choose the right match upfront, so you don't discover halfway that it doesn't fit.
A good match upfront prevents the vast majority of problems later. We help with that for free: a sharp need, an independent shortlist, the right vendor.