Why ERP projects fail (and the rollout order that prevents it)

The failed ERP follows a script: a big-bang go-live covering everything at once, master data migrated in a weekend, users trained in a two-hour session, and a floor that responds by keeping the spreadsheets running in parallel — unofficially, forever. The ERP becomes the system of record for nobody.

The rollout order that works is deliberately boring. Inventory and invoicing first — the daily-use path where value is immediate. Purchase and approvals second. Production or job-work third. Reports and dashboards once the data underneath them is clean enough to trust. Each stage stabilises before the next begins.

The non-negotiables: master data cleaned before migration (garbage in, garbage forever), a parallel-run window where old and new systems are compared line by line, and training delivered role-by-role on the company's real data — not a demo company's fake data.

One more thing buyers underweight: the floor supervisor's opinion is the adoption truth. If the people entering the data prefer the old way, no dashboard will save the project. Build with them in the room from scoping week — the software that survives is the one they helped design.