Published: 19 March 2025
Author: Marc Selzer, Business Development Director, Preos
We have all seen or been part of it; you are starting your ERP deployment after having been through a slick sales process, meeting the A team, and speaking to a carefully curated reference customer.
And yet, things are not going smoothly.
What did you miss?
ERP project challenges are nothing new. Since the early days of MRP/ERP deployments, there has been a rich lore of ERP cautionary tales. Certainly, early products were complex and cumbersome, and many project issues could reasonably be blamed on the products.
But since the emergence of true cloud-native platforms, such as those pioneered by Workday, the product quality and the ease of deployment have improved beyond recognition.
So why can deploying a modern enterprise ERP still feel like such a slog?
In many ways, a modern cloud ERP gives you much more choice in how the product reflects your business; configuration instead of custom code means choices are easier to make and change. Instead of trying to make your business fit the ERP – as was the case with early products – you can configure a modern ERP to suit your business today and change it easily for tomorrow. Perhaps too much choice is the problem.
But if choice is the issue, quick deployment methodologies such as Workday Launch, where you get an out-of-the-box configuration, would be a much smoother affair. However, our experience is that these deployments are even more challenging.
At Preos, we specialise in Workday – from implementation to optimisation and beyond. Our business is focused on helping Workday customers get more from their investment, and we think we know the answer; when the implementation partner is ready to get started, the customer simply is not ready.
They haven’t got their team properly resourced (and backfilled), the project objectives haven’t been adequately communicated, and no one has thought through the governance model, to name just three challenges we see.
This is not to criticise customers in this position – it is easy to see how it happens. Firstly, few businesses have a corporate memory for a project like this; it could be ten years or more since they deployed a new finance or HCM system.
Secondly – and I am not going to win many friends for making this point – vendors tend to skim over the critical readiness steps during the sales process.
It’s cloud, and therefore, it’s easy, seems to be the mantra. Rapid, out-of-the-box deployments compound the issue because the focus is speed to go live, and the pace of the project from the start means there is no time to think about getting prepared. These problems only become apparent later in the project, and I have spoken to several companies who found themselves going live with a product they felt was some way below MVP.
So, what are the critical components of readiness, and how should a business get to an adequate state of readiness?
Based on our experience, the checklist below is the minimum needed to be ready for an ERP implementation:
- Timeline: what do you need in place, and by when
- The organisation chart for your team and RACI with roles, responsibilities and assignments defined
- Assign a full-time project manager; we see far too many part-time PMs, and our experience is that they cannot sufficiently cover all the moving parts.
- Governance structure – must include IT and Finance (especially if Payroll, Expenses or Finance are being deployed)
- Empowered decisions: the governance structure must enable the team to make decisions
- Assigned roles and responsibilities for integrations and data; this is frequently only addressed once the project is underway, by which time too many design decisions have already been made.
- The operating model for HR and/or Finance – you can’t figure this out successfully in the design workshops.
- Post-go live/BAU support model; who, skills, role (if any) for 3rd party support.
- Understand project phases; be clear with your implementation partner about what you should expect to see in each phase, the purpose, and the confidence level required for exiting a phase.
This will look like a daunting list for many – especially if the vendor has skirted over it in the sales discussions – but it needn’t be.
The critical activity is to carve out some time with your partner before the project starts (you don’t have to wait for contracts to be signed; your partner should be prepared to invest the time) to work out what is needed.
At Preos, we take our clients through a structured workshop to ensure they are ready for the deployment project and know what to expect. We set out five key workshop objectives, and if you are going to work through your state of readiness with your implementation partner, I suggest you insist on something similar:
- Define the essential components of client-side readiness and the impact each has on the project.
- Ensure the client can deliver on as many of the components as is practically achievable, prioritising governance, filling of roles and baseline system understanding.
- Agree on a plan to close any gaps – particularly for data and integration client-side roles.
- Work through the conceptual security model, applying this to core process areas, identifying what will need to change from an operational model perspective for the client.
- Clarity on what life looks like at the initial go-live and a view of the future roadmap, enabling appropriate change management and eliminating confusion – begin with the end in mind.
In addition to closing the gap on my list of readiness essentials, a well-thought-out workshop will set expectations for each step of the implementation process. It won’t remove the challenges and speedbumps that are a part of any complex project, but you will feel significantly better equipped to deal with them.
Modern cloud-based ERP platforms are worlds better than the vertically integrated monoliths of the 90s and early 2000s, but I do feel we have been lulled into a trap of thinking they just require some configuration to work.
A finance and HCM deployment is still a complex task because it will enable change in the business, and on that basis alone, it should not be underestimated. Making sure you are ready at the start is the foundation for future success.
Marc Selzer
Business Development Director, Preos
Marc is the Business Development Director at Preos and has nearly thirty years of experience in B2B software. His career has included tenures at industry giants such as General Electric and IBM, Salesforce and Workday, assisting organisations across various industries to overcome operational challenges. Marc defines his mission as uniting people, creativity, and technology to drive better business outcomes for clients.
About Preos
At Preos, we help our clients get more out of Workday. We ensure your organisation is using the platform to its full potential and getting the best possible return on your investment.
We address any inherited issues, increase user adoption, offer Workday support, and introduce processes to ensure Workday meets – and continues to meet – the needs of your organisation in the long term. Contact the team today to discuss how your organisation can get more from Workday.
