Was It Really a Success? [The Truth About “Good Enough” ERP Outcomes]

Key Takeaways

• Many ERP projects are declared successful after go-live, even though workarounds remain, adoption is uneven, and the expected business benefits never fully materialize.

• ERP success is often misunderstood as system stability, when it should be defined by improved business performance, stronger processes, and better decision-making.

• Understanding how to tell if an ERP project was a success requires looking beyond technical functionality to user behavior, data trust, and operational outcomes.
  

• When organizations accept “good enough” ERP outcomes, they risk turning a costly implementation into a long-term limitation unless ERP project recovery is addressed early.

The ERP goes live. Orders are shipping. Payroll runs. Finance closes the books. Then, the organization wants to move forward.

A quiet consensus forms: this was a success.

From the outside, that conclusion makes sense. Yet from an insider’s view, the story often looks very different.

The truth is that many ERP projects are labeled “successful” simply because the organization avoided a full-blown crisis. A company can survive go-live and still miss the real opportunity that motivated the transformation in the first place.

That is why it is worth revisiting a deceptively simple question that executives rarely define clearly enough: what does ERP success actually mean?

When “Good Enough” Becomes the Default Outcome​

Most leadership teams start an ERP project with bold ambitions. They want to unify operations, improve visibility, standardize processes, support growth, and modernize decision-making. Then reality arrives and these goals are forgotten.

At go-live, success sometimes becomes: “We didn’t break the business.”

Unfortunately, a “good enough” mindset locks in mediocrity. When that happens, executives should ask two related but very different questions:

• What does ERP success mean for our business model and strategy?
• What outcomes should this ERP project deliver beyond basic functionality?

The first question defines success. The second determines whether the system actually supports the organization’s future.

How to Tell If an ERP Project Was a Success

Executives often ask us how to tell if an ERP project was a success. The answer is both quantitative and qualitative.

A practical starting point is to look for signs that the organization no longer depends on spreadsheets and shadow systems to function:

• Workarounds are shrinking.
  Temporary workarounds are normal after go-live. Permanent ones are a warning sign that the ERP is being tolerated, not adopted.
• Users trust the data.
  If teams constantly validate numbers outside the system, leadership never benefits from real-time insights. Adoption becomes compliance instead of value.
• Processes are stronger than personalities.
  If the ERP works only because a handful of super users hold everything together, that means the organization merely implemented software, not transformation.

Some of the ways we define ERP success include:

• Business performance improvements (not just system stability)
• Adoption and behavioral change (not just training completion)
• Process integrity and standardization (not just configuration decisions)
• Decision quality and speed (not just dashboards)
• Long-term scalability (not just current-state support)

In other words, ERP success is “the business operates better because the system exists.”

For most organizations, that means:

• Improved cross-functional execution
• Reduced reliance on heroic effort
• Stronger data discipline
• A foundation that can support future change—whether that is M&A integration, AI-enabled planning, or a more resilient supply chain management system.

When “Good Enough” Looks Like Success

In one aerospace and defense organization, the ERP system had successfully gone live across multiple manufacturing plants. The business continued operating, transactions flowed, and leadership considered the project complete.

Yet employees relied heavily on Excel spreadsheets and legacy AS/400 tools to perform daily work. Users developed their own ways of bypassing the ERP and executive governance around the system was weak. Most importantly, there was no measurable benefits realization tied to the implementation.

From the surface, the ERP was “working.” In reality, it functioned as a transactional safety net rather than a driver of standardized processes, adoption, or improved decision-making.

Before pursuing an ERP upgrade, the organization recognized that moving forward without addressing these underlying issues would only institutionalize a “good enough” outcome.They engaged Panorama to assess adoption, governance, and change management gaps instead of repeating the same mistakes.

Worst Case Scenario: “Good Enough” Turns Into ERP Failure

Most executives imagine ERP failures as dramatic events. In reality, the most damaging ERP failures look like success.

The system is live. The business continues. And the organization never captures the promised benefits.

That quiet failure is costly. Companies pay for software, integration, change management, and internal labor, while continuing to operate with the same friction, limited visibility, and dependency on workarounds they had before.

When to Do ERP Project Recovery

ERP recovery does not mean the project failed. It just means leadership is shifting from “deploy the system” to “deliver outcomes.”

At some point, executives must decide whether post–go-live turbulence is normal or whether the program needs intervention. ERP project recovery is justified when:

• Workarounds are increasing and becoming embedded
• User adoption declines after initial training
• Business units actively resist standard processes
• Executives distrust reporting and KPIs
• Integrations prevent end-to-end process stability
• The ERP supports transactions but blocks strategic growth

If executives want to know when to do ERP project recovery, the answer is often simple: when the organization starts normalizing problems that were supposed to be temporary.

Learn More About Successful ERP Outcomes

If leadership wants to avoid “good enough” ERP outcomes, it must define success beyond survival. It must establish clear ERP project success criteria, measure progress toward outcomes, and intervene early when mediocrity starts to feel acceptable.

So the real question remains: what does ERP success mean for your organization?

If you can answer that clearly, you already have an advantage over many ERP projects. If you want to learn how to tell if an ERP project was a success or when to do ERP project recovery, contact an ERP consultant from Panorama to learn more.