When an ERP rollout goes wrong, the software usually takes the blame. In the projects we take over, the cause almost always lies earlier: nobody had a reliable picture of how work is actually done in the company.
The Quote Comes Before the Analysis
The typical sequence looks like this: a vendor shows a demo, the feature set is convincing, a quote is submitted. It is based on a requirements list compiled within the company — usually by the people who had time for it, not by those who run the process every day.
During the project it then turns out that key workflows work differently than described. Each of these deviations becomes a customization. Customizations cost money, delay the schedule, and make every later update more complex.
What a Process Assessment Has to Deliver
A process assessment is not a documentation exercise. It has to answer three questions before software is even discussed.
- How the process really runs today, including the Excel files and verbal hand-offs that appear in no org chart.
- Where waiting times, duplicate entries, and follow-up questions occur, and what they cost in hours.
- Which workflows evolved deliberately and which were simply never questioned.
Use the Standard Instead of Bending It
Once the as-is picture is clear, the real decision can be made: which workflows do we adapt to the standard, and which are genuinely part of the business model and need their own solution.
This distinction is the most expensive point if you skip it and the cheapest if you make it early. In our projects, around half of the originally requested special solutions disappear as soon as it is clear what the standard already covers.
The Team Decides Whether It Holds
A system that works technically but is worked around in daily practice has failed. Whoever runs the process has to help shape it — not as a feedback round at the end, but during the assessment.
This takes more time in the analysis phase and saves it several times over during implementation, because training then becomes explanation rather than persuasion.