Dynamics Partners: Do your customers understand ERP project success?

Organizations around the world make misjudgments, unfortunate choices, and sometimes even stupid mistakes when selecting, contracting, and implementing ERP software systems.

Every single day.

Over and over again.

Unfortunately, the choice of an appropriate solution and the right implementation partner is anything but easy! Executives are asked to make significant investments with the knowledge that these projects carry a high risk of failure. Choices, once made, cannot be easily changed due to the large financial and organizational impact.

For this reason, these projects must go well the first time!

But according to Gartner, still 55 to 75 percent of all ERP projects either fail or don't meet their intended objectives.

Customers are inexperienced

Fact is that most organisations are pretty inexperienced when it comes to selecting, contracting, and implementing ERP systems. After all, most of them only do this every 8 to 10 years. And most professionals carry this responsibility only 1 or 2 times in their career. It is therefore quite logical that they run the riskof overlooking important matters. And underestimating certain topics.

Most Dynamics 365 partners acknowledge privately that the majority of their current and future customers have no idea of the qualitative and quantitative damage that occurs if their implementation unexpectedly fails. Nevertheless, D365 partners start new projects with these kind of customers every day. After all, there are revenue targets that must be met, right?

The result of poor preparation

If your customers are poorly prepared for their ERP projects, this usually leads to (big) problems!

Common problems on the customer side are:

• exceeding budgets for quality, time and money
• migrating old processes, habits, and mindsets
• failing to achieve the desired project goals
• or even worse: never putting the new system into use
• and as a result: not realizing their potential

And when your clients experience these outcomes, some of the problems you as a D365 partner can expect include:

• customers who do not change or cooperate sufficiently
• unpaid bills, credit invoices and unpaid work
• frustrated employees and loss of scarce capacity
• complaints that escalate to legal cases
• and finally: churn and loss of customers

How to prepare your customers?