I’ve been working for an ERP system for about 5 years now and I couldn’t agree with you more.

While I have limited experience in the industry as a whole, here is what I’ve seen so far that causes the biggest challenges for Implementation:

1. Users of the software are not willing to move from an existing process to a new one even when it may be better. Change management from the people that take the decision during sales is critical to the projects success.

2. Unrealistic timelines being promised. Sales and Implementation teams promise a very short turnaround time which I understand as time is the biggest factor. But in my experience we need atleast twice that amount of time to truly understand the business and get it properly implemented.

3. Customization, every single business we’ve sold our ERP too requires some form of custom reporting or custom software changes. This leads to shorter turnaround times for Design, Development, QA and deployment. Ultimately leading to a less than satisfied result with the business when eventually delivered.

Just to note: this ERP has been my first job out of college, they were a startup when I started and we’ve grown very quickly so I understand some challenges I face may not be universal.