Ask These Questions Before You Hire Another ERP Firm (Especially If Your First Implementation Failed)
Few things sting as much as an ERP project that fails to deliver its promised results. You’ve invested millions in software, consultants, and staff hours, only to find yourself with:
- Month-end closes still dragging on for weeks
- Teams defaulting back to spreadsheets
- Reports that executives don’t trust
- Rising costs without corresponding business value
The truth is sobering: most ERP disasters aren’t technology problems, they’re alignment problems. Processes don’t match the system. Leadership isn’t in sync with operators. Data isn’t trusted. And when that happens, even the best ERP can bleed time, money, and trust.
If your first implementation failed, you already know the pain. The real danger isn’t the past; it’s repeating it because you don’t change how you choose your next partner. And that starts with asking the right questions.
Before you sign a new statement of work, use the questions below to force clarity on outcomes, scope, ownership, data, and change management. Along the way, we’ll demonstrate how DCG’s SPEAR Methodology makes those answers tangible, enabling finance leaders to stay in control.
Why Simply Hiring Another Firm Doesn’t Work
After a failed implementation, many CFOs feel pressure to “fix the system” by replacing vendors. But swapping one technology-focused implementer for another often produces the same result.
Here’s why:
- Change isn’t managed like a business transformation. A lack of structured communication and change management repeatedly appears in post-mortems. When people don’t know why the project exists, adoption stalls and “shadow processes” emerge.
- Scope creeps; governance wobbles. Unchecked additions can balloon timelines and budgets, one of the most common pitfalls identified by ERP practitioners and guides.
- Data migration is underplanned. Poor data quality, brittle interfaces, and weak controls can derail timelines and erode trust in reports after go-live.
- The stakes are high. High-profile ERP failures (Such as Hershey’s, Nike, Revlon, MillerCoors, National Grid) serve as cautionary tales of misalignment and risk that went uncontained. Learn from them, don’t repeat them.
- Outside expertise has a place, if hired for the right reasons. A reputable consulting partner helps you build the business case, mitigate risk, and hold the plan to outcomes. The question is how they’ll do it.
- Technical over business-first approach: Most firms focus on modules and features instead of business outcomes.
- Little executive engagement: Leadership decisions are made in a vacuum, leaving operators confused.
Hiring “another ERP firm” without changing the steps you take is how failure repeats itself.
The CFO’s Playbook: Questions you should ask before hiring (again)
Use these to distinguish between “technology installers” and true transformation partners. We’ve included what good answers sound like and how SPEAR operationalizes them.
How will you ensure that the ERP reflects the way our business actually operates, not the way the software is designed?
Most failed projects started with demos and modules instead of process maps and KPIs.
What good sounds like: A credible firm should prove they’ll anchor your ERP to your finance and operations workflows, not the other way around.
SPEAR: Surveillance and Excellence establish a clear baseline of how work is actually done, then standardizes the “golden path” before any configuration begins.
What business outcomes will you prove in the first 90 days post go-live?
If the firm can’t name measurable outcomes (close time, forecast accuracy, cash visibility), you’re buying hours, not results.
What good sounds like: A short list of CFO-grade KPIs with owners, baselines, and reporting cadence.
SPEAR: Performance defines trusted KPIs and makes them visible from the outset.
How will you align executives and operators before requirements?
Projects fail when the people doing the work don’t see the “why” or the plan. Communication and change are non-negotiable.
What good sounds like: A written communication plan, named process/data owners, and decision rights.
SPEAR: Surveillance → Performance surfaces gaps; Excellence assigns ownership.
What is your plan for sequencing scope, avoiding creep, and delivering wins early?
ERP projects often fail because everything is promised at once. Budgets balloon, deadlines slip, and confidence craters.
SPEAR: Requirements & Roadmap breaks work into manageable phases, sequenced by value vs. effort, so wins are delivered in weeks, not just at the end.
What is your data migration strategy for quality gates, cutover, and rollback?
Dirty data = poor decisions and eroded trust.
What good sounds like: Profiling, cleansing, reconciliation rules, mock loads, and GL tie-outs with tolerances.
SPEAR: Surveillance establishes data trust; Excellence codifies reconciliation.
How will you limit customization and address fit gaps?
Over-customization drives cost and risk. Guidance on whether to fit-to-standard or tailor-made is essential.
What good sounds like: A documented fit-gap process, ROM estimates, and a bias to configuration first.
SPEAR: L3–L5 trace epics → features → stories with business value and ROMs.
Who sits on the project team, and what are their responsibilities?
Clear roles and accountable owners are correlated with success.
What good sounds like: Named sponsor, product owner(s), process leads, data lead, test lead, and change lead; a RACI everyone signs.
SPEAR: SPEED (Strategy, Posture, Education, Enthusiasm, Deployment) scores team readiness.
Walk us through your testing and UAT acceptance criteria.
Without business-owned test cases tied to KPIs and the GL, “done” is subjective.
What good sounds like: Test plans per process, exception handling, and UAT exit linked to reconciled financials.
SPEAR: Excellence documents the “golden path”; L5 produces testable specs.
How will you measure adoption and change fatigue?
Adoption isn’t a launch party; it’s a metric. Communication lapses kill momentum.
What good sounds like: Training plan, usage analytics, feedback loops, and a remediation playbook.
SPEAR: Performance tracks usage and quality; cadence meetings close the loop.
What’s your plan for reports, dashboards, and a ‘single source of truth’?
If reporting still runs through spreadsheets, value evaporates.
What good sounds like: A reporting catalog, semantic layer, and governance that makes the ERP the system of record. Emphasis on integrating modules and central data to avoid re-entry and errors.
SPEAR: Surveillance → Performance builds trusted reporting early (often before deep automation).
How will you manage risk (legal, operational, and cyber) during the project?
High-profile failures show that unmanaged risk can become existential.
What good sounds like: A risk register with owners/mitigations, security review, and rollback plans tied to milestones.
SPEAR: Requirements & Roadmap stage bakes risk into sequencing and readiness checks.
What happens after go-live—stabilization and continuous improvement?
Many failures happen after day one. You need a post-go-live playbook and KPIs. Leading CFOs call out the importance of post-implementation steps and audits.
What good sounds like: Hypercare, defect SLAs, backlog grooming, and a quarterly value review.
SPEAR: Excellence treats processes like products; continuous tuning is part of the model.
How do you decide what to automate and when?
Automating broken processes only embeds inefficiency faster.
What good sounds like: A partner should demonstrate discipline: measure first, then automate.
SPEAR: Surveillance → Performance → Excellence ensures data is trusted and processes are standardized before automation is layered in.
Why you? And where have you fixed ERP rescues like ours?
ERP rescues differ from greenfield rescues, and each rescue is unique. You need battle scars and referenceable wins.
What good sounds like: Named rescue case studies, measurable outcomes, and access to client sponsors.
SPEAR: SPEAR was designed for rescue scenarios - clarity first, then momentum.
Pro tip: During vendor demos, stay in control. Share your scripts, insist on your scenarios, and compare head-to-head. DCG keeps demos honest and aligned through evergreen selection advice.
Red flags when a prospective ERP firm answers your questions
- Lots of product talk; little on process ownership or change.
- Vague on data quality gates and reconciliation.
- No clear model for scope control or backlog triage.
- Hand-waving about post-go-live stabilization and value audits.
- Can’t name a single rescue with measurable outcomes.
Case in Point: From Vendor Frustration to Member-Led Growth
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), representing over 38,000 physicians and students, faced fragmented systems, failed integrations, and poor member visibility. Leveraging SPEAR, DCG:
- Unified subscriptions, certifications, and benefits on the Dynamics 365 Power Platform
- Integrated Dynamics GP, HubSpot, and custom applications for reliable operations
- Delivered intuitive portals for renewals, payments, and registrations
- Embedded IT in weekly releases to build ownership and speed
- Migrated 30+ legacy applications into a scalable Microsoft ecosystem
The result: A unified member management platform, improved conference revenue, and restored operational confidence—turning stalled projects into sustainable growth.
See how DCG transformed a failing platform into a member-focused growth engine
An ERP failure doesn’t have to define your finance organization. By asking the right questions and implementing the right framework, you can stop repeating the cycle of wasted investment and start turning ERP into the performance engine it was meant to be.
Take an ERP Health Check to benchmark your risks and gaps.
