Your ERP project isn't working. Stop or carry on?

Manuel Pattyn · October 2026

Short answer. Don't decide on the basis of the money that is already gone. Have someone spend a few days in the system as it stands, and decide per domain: keep, repair or rebuild. Continuing is possible, but only with a different way of working: per phase, with a fixed amount and one decision-maker on your side.

How it gets to this point

Rarely because of the software. Almost always because of the start. The plan was written in a meeting room, based on what the department heads thought the process was. On the floor it works differently, and you only find out once the first screens are up. Then it begins: every deviation is a change, every change a quote, every quote an argument. The integrator knows its software, but not your workshop. And your people, who were never asked anything, open Excel again.

The wrong question

"Stop or carry on?" is the wrong question, because it's about money that's already gone. That money isn't coming back, whatever you decide. The right question is: what actually works today, and what does it cost to get the rest right after all? You don't answer that question from a steering committee. Someone has to go and look.

First look, then decide

What we do in such a case is simple. We spend a few days working alongside you, department by department, in the system as it stands now. We note three things: what is used as intended, what is worked around and why, and what simply hasn't been built yet. Out of that comes an honest list, per domain: keep, repair or rebuild. Usually there's more to keep than everyone thinks. Sometimes not.

What has to change to carry on

Three things, and none of them is the software. One: the way of working. No longer per hour and per change, but per phase, with a fixed subscription fee and a decision point at the end. Then the argument about money disappears from every meeting. Two: one fixed contact person on your side, with time and the right to make decisions. Without that person every ERP project gets stuck, ours included. Three: involving the people on the floor in what gets rebuilt. Whoever helped build it no longer works around the system.

And if stopping is better after all

Then we say so. Sometimes the wrong package was chosen, sometimes the foundation has grown too crooked. In that case you get an honest answer from us and a plan for what you keep. We have no interest in carrying on for the sake of carrying on. If it has to stop, you only pay the one-off fee we agreed before the start.

Sound familiar? Then a second opinion is faster than another month of muddling through. We read your plan, walk the floor and tell you whether to stop, adjust or continue. One fixed amount, agreed upfront.

Ask for a second opinion →

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