Why ERP implementations fail at the point of work.

Adoption is often diagnosed too late and too personally.

When employees avoid a system, leadership may conclude that the team resists technology. That explanation is convenient because it places responsibility on the user. But adoption behaviour often reveals a mismatch between the software and the operating context.

If the system requires employees to stop physical work, move to another device, re-enter information already written elsewhere or complete fields that provide them no immediate value, non-adoption is predictable.

Design around the point where information is created.

Every operational record begins with an event: a customer enquiry, measurement, dispatch, inspection, material issue, approval or payment. The system should capture information as close to that event as practical.

That may mean a mobile form, tablet interface, scan, photograph, barcode, structured paper-to-digital handoff or a lightweight shared register. The correct interface is the one that fits the work while preserving data quality—not necessarily the most technically sophisticated option.

Run a point-of-work test before full implementation.

1. Observe the employee performing the current task.
2. Identify when information becomes available.
3. Measure additional steps introduced by the system.
4. Test the workflow under time pressure and common exceptions.
5. Confirm what immediate value the user receives.
6. Validate downstream reporting and control needs.

The OECD’s work on SME digitalisation recognises that digital tools can strengthen resilience while adoption barriers and capability gaps remain. Buying access to software is not the same as integrating it into work.

Technology must fit both the user and the operating model.

User convenience alone is insufficient. A good system must also preserve ownership, permissions, validation, exception handling and management visibility. The design challenge is to make the correct process easier to perform and harder to lose.

Before changing the ERP again, leadership should ask whether the underlying workflow, role ownership and information requirements are agreed. If they are not, the organisation is still trying to solve an architecture problem through configuration.