The hardest part of an ERP recovery is getting executives to admit it's failing

The hardest part of an ERP recovery isn't the recovery. It's getting the executives to admit the programme is failing.

The pattern is similar each time. Status: green. Major milestones: missed. Go-live date: untouched, because moving it means admitting the plan was wrong. The team knows. The steering committee doesn't.

The first job is never technical. It is moving a management team from "there is no problem", through "shoot the messenger", to "what do you need?" Three things get you there.

1. Evidence, not opinion

Where the programme should be at this stage. Where it actually is. What the gap means in months and money. Gather hard, independent evidence. Opinions get overruled. Evidence has to be answered.

2. Sponsor first, privately

Never in the steering committee. Give the sponsor the facts before anyone else and let them front the recovery. A sponsor who hears it first can lead. One who hears it in public can only defend.

3. A range now, a date later

Executives will demand a date. Give them a range for time and cost, and four to six weeks to assess before you baseline. Recovery is discovery: you find more every week. Commit in week two and you have built the second failure.

Then make the ask

Recovery is doing badly done work properly, from behind, with no slack left. That takes what the programme never had: the right people, independent support, and governance that decides in days, not months.

Get that support in place and you have put your programme in a great position to succeed.