Failure is rarely announced with a bang. The system remains active, but usage drops month by month until reporting inevitably returns to Excel. After 12 months, the company is paying a subscription for an expensive archive.
Causes can be identified early: in most cases, red flags appear within the first six weeks of the rollout.
In short
- Process not defined before configuration.
- Dirty data migrated without prior cleaning.
- Over-configuration: too many fields and stages.
- No internal project owner with a clear mandate.
- Parallel reporting maintained 'temporarily'.
Red flags in the first six weeks
Check these metrics monthly:
- Weekly number of new opportunities created is declining.
- Quotes are being generated outside the system.
- Managers continue to request status updates via email.
- Mandatory fields are filled with 'n/a' or dummy values.
How to fix a derailed project
Simplify everything: reduce the number of mandatory fields, shorten the pipeline, remove misunderstood automations, and redo role-based training. Simultaneously, decommission all parallel reporting tools permanently.
Frequently asked questions
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