Why Is Your Software Implementation Stalled? A Guide to Reaching Full Realization

The software was unanimously chosen. Every implementation checklist was marked complete. Yet, months later, you find yourself asking: Why isn’t the team fully using the system? Are we getting the data insights we were promised? Did this project actually meet its original objectives?

Selecting the right software for your construction firm is a massive milestone, but overcoming adoption hurdles and driving continuous improvement is where the real value is won or lost. If you have implemented a major ERP or business system but haven't seen the return on investment you planned for, you are not alone.

"So much for going fully digital....." [image generated using meta.ai]

An imperfect implementation is a common hurdle, not a permanent failure. The path forward involves moving from "go-live" to "full realization."

This article was written for those with a system in production who haven't realized the full planned benefits originally intended, but can also serve as a guide for those struggling and facing unexpected issues with a stalled implementation prior to go live.

Common Issues

Why aren't we getting the results we expected? To solve the problem, we have to look at the three pillars of any transformation: people, process, and technology. When a system isn't working, it is rarely just a software bug. It is usually a combination of these factors.

To identify which elements to focus on, determine the root cause through a standard troubleshooting approach. For purposes of the example below, we'll look at a common but unclear complaint: "the system doesn't work."

1. Listen to the team and let them show you exactly where they are struggling.

2. Validate the outcome in the software yourself.

3. Isolate whether the friction is a configuration issue (Technology), a workflow issue (Process), or a change management issue (People).

For example, if a dispatcher tells you the interface is too clunky to manage a crew of 20, sit with them. By observing the actual clicks and screens, you see an abnormal system behavior happening. This is a technology problem - the system is not working as expected. You can then provide the software vendor with specific details—expected results versus actual results—to get a fix.

Technology Challenges (System Issues)

Two of the most common system issues we see with implementations not realizing the intended benefits and expected satisfaction relate to data and reporting. While volumes could be written about the processes and best practices to get ahead of these data and reporting problems during implementation, let's assume for purposes of this discussion that the software is already implemented (or mostly implemented), so let's focus in on impact and challenges you may be facing once your system is in production and what to do next to resolve.

Data Problems

Users cannot trust the system of record if they are finding discrepancies in the data throughout the system. Lack of trust in system accuracy will create significant adoption resistance.

Illustration generated by Google Gemini based on source image by Meta.ai

Data migration is a common cause of discrepancies in reporting or calculations after a critical system (such as an ERP) go-live. Data issues are much harder to fix in production than if they were prevented through a quality and well-structured migration, so ideally, you would not go live with a system without verifying and checking data from multiple perspectives. We at Sunstone Transformations highly recommend a strong, carefully validated and tested data migration during your implementation, but that doesn't mean issues are unfixable.

1. Reconcile the system and ensure reports are showing accurate results. If discrepancies exist, check them against other reports as well as system grids or forms to determine if the issue is likely a data issue or a reporting issue, as the different causes will need to be resolved in different ways.

   
   

2. Resolve any found data issues through front-entry adjustments if possible (Important: think through posting implications to subledgers and other modules and perform test corrections in a sandbox to validate results first). Most systems that house critical data have a method of adjusting to handle data corrections, sometimes by turning certain system parameters off to avoid impacting integrations or other modules which are meant to be triggered by new transactions. In certain cases, the bad migrated data cannot be resolved through adjustments and must be fixed through programming. This is often risky work so always use a programmer who knows the system very well before fixing anything through a back-end script, test it carefully, and be sure the test changes are reconciled by a proficient accounting, payroll, or operations user who knows what they are looking at in the system and is confident the fix is accurate.

Obviously the best way to fix data issues is to prevent them, so if working through a data migration for a system that includes critical transactional data such as an ERP or payroll system, get knowledgeable help from someone who not only knows how to do the migration from a technical standpoint, but knows how to guide your team through data validation and reconciliation testing to identify anything in need of correction before you go live with your system.

Reporting

Implementing a new major system is often driven by a need to get actionable insights faster. But for significant and complex systems, the implementation process can be a significant enough hurdle that reporting is minimized, and companies go live on the software with mostly standard reports and plans to improve reporting as a phase 2. Fatigue from implementation can delay ongoing phases, and the lack of reporting improvements can reduce the enthusiasm of your users about the new system. To resolve the situation, recommended steps in ascending order of advancement are below.

1. Validate your reports. Do you know what you have, and are they all useful to your end users? Check reports so you can identify issues before your end-users do, to avoid diminished trust in system reliability. In your proactive checks, confirm needed reports exist, data is accurate, and the report column titles and labels will make sense to your end users. Settings such as report parameters, column headings, and field descriptions are often customizable and can improve the user experience by adjusting them to match the descriptors and common data definitions which are standard throughout the rest of your operations and other systems.

   
   

2. Hide irrelevant reports, because "more" is not always better. No one has time to open 200 reports one by one to see which are the good ones. Your end users would benefit more from having only 10 outstanding and insightful reports or dashboards than a full library of hundreds of canned reports which they have to sift through and evaluate. Eliminate the clutter so the reports and analytics that are front and center for them are reliable, impactful, and trusted insights.

   
   

3. Empower tech-savvy power users, by giving them access to quick-create tools, Power BI dashboards, and on-demand reporting to let them find the insights they need without waiting for someone else to create the report. AI tools now make it easier than ever for business users to quickly create reports.

   
   

   Your system support group or services partner may be able provide you with vetted data models customized to your organization's needs that they can build from, helping prevent wrong selections by limiting the models to your commonly-used fields, so your business users don't grab the wrong date or amount field.

   
   

4. Don't let too much time elapse before resolving your reporting. Being able to access your data and develop good insights for quick and accurate decision-making is a core function of any business system. This is an area worth investing in for significant wins - make sure you have the right leadership in place not just technically but from a business analysis standpoint who will prioritize and quickly identify the right criteria.

Illustration generated by Google Gemini based on source image by Meta.ai

Process Challenges

If after going live you find a few pain points in the business needing further process attention and rework to streamline workflows, don't be alarmed, as it is not unusual to require some follow-on reviews and improvements. However, you should evaluate processes and not just assume the answer is found in customizing the system.

1. Assign a qualified analyst or manager to review the pain points. Document their activities - what are they doing, and why? How often does it happen? What did they expect to happen, and what is actually happening?

   
   

2. Review the outputs and prioritize. Is this an extremely rare scenario that happens once every few years, and is the individual simply protesting because they dislike change and latched onto this example as a way to generate attention to their cause? Or is this a daily or weekly occurrence, impacting multiple users, which is dragging down productivity by hours across the organization? Discovering these types of impacts is important so you can swiftly organize priorities and where to focus attention for maximum benefit to your organization in your optimization efforts.

   
   

3. Determine if policies are outdated or unnecessary. If the requirements which are leading to these inefficiencies are driven by a company policy or standard process which serves a need that is no longer relevant, revisit the policy need. Following is an example to showcase how to go about identifying a potential process update by asking questions to get down to the root issues behind a report inefficiency.

   
   

One of our consultants once worked with a construction company and received a complaint about a well-rated invoice automation system that was recently implemented. Accounts payable team members complained that the amount of time to enter invoices had increased rather than decreased with the new system. Our consultant sat with an AP accountant to see firsthand the challenges, and observed that the clerk was attempting to recreate their prior paper process in the system, including creating a digital stamp to put a visual markup on the invoice image and adding markup text on the invoice image. All of this visual information was already available on the display beneath the invoice in the data record, but the accounting team was so accustomed to the historic requirements for a visual on the invoice that they had recreated their old process of creating a markup stamp which was based on a paper workflow. After working with accounting leadership to outline for the team a new process eliminating any visual markup, and holding a proof-of-concept demonstrating approvers were trained appropriately and successfully able to find the information needed without the visual markup, the new process was adopted and accounting time for invoice entry was reduced dramatically and now met expectations.

Illustration generated by Google Gemini based on source image by Meta.ai

People Challenges (User Adoption)

The plan was for the software to replace paper-based processes, or Excel, but after implementation some organizations find that the team continues to use the old methods instead of the software. Even if required to use the software, perhaps team members are doing activities twice - once the old way, and once the new way, because they don't trust the system. Or perhaps you have growing concern about morale and losing employees because of the level of negativity being circulated about the system.

Company culture, competing agendas, bias, general change resistance, poor communication, and change exhaustion are all factors that impact people and their readiness to adopt a system regardless of the technology and processes implemented. People need as much care and attention when you are dealing with adoption issues as the technology itself.

If you have a User Adoption issue, the process to resolve will likely involve multiple steps. One of the most significant is communication. Does everyone know how to use the system, and why they are to use it? And do they know how to share their frustrations and get help? If there are issues with the Technology and Process, do they know enough about improvement plans to have hope that relief is coming?

Illustration generated by Google Gemini based on source image by Meta.ai

This communication needs to be backed by a solid structure of optimization and support - a good system for acting on feedback, executive support of concerns, clear process decisions, and reasonable speed of improvements. If you are having a morale problem and it is severe enough you are concerned about workforce attrition, ensure you are targeting improvements not just by bottom line impacts, but by areas with critical morale issues as well, and checking in with your most frustrated stakeholders to ensure they are seeing progress. Progress can lessen and alleviate frustrations by giving people hope.

How do I reset?

To complete your implementation to the point of planned benefits realization, resetting is not much different than how you would approach any other project. Remember that you are managing a three-pronged initiative: people, process, and technology. Outline your project specifications and goals, create a strategy and measurements for success (accounting for all 3 areas of people, process, and technology), assemble your team, create a budget, and give it the same level of executive support and leadership that you would any other significant engagement that significantly impacts your organization.

If you do not have the team in house with both the expertise and bandwidth to create this plan and manage it through to stabilize your implementation, then help is available. Extend your team with the right expertise so you can complete the project successfully.

To learn more about Sunstone Transformations and how we augment your team for success with our structured implementation support and continuous improvement plans, visit our website at www.sunstonetransformations.com or contact us at info@sunstonetransformations.com.