ERP vs. HCM Implementations: Which is the Better Bet?
I don’t know why I didn’t realize this sooner, but I may have discovered the real key to transformation success in the coming years: human capital management (HCM) software implementations. I have spent a good deal of my career analyzing why ERP implementations fail. But if my digital transformation and ERP predictions for 2020 are […]
Lessons from the 2020 ERP and HCM Report
The digital transformation landscape is changing at a breakneck speed. Technology is shifting to the cloud, new functional capabilities are being added at a record pace, and companies implementing these technologies are themselves going through unprecedented changes as well. Against this backdrop, we recently published our 2020 ERP and HCM Report. This annual report captures […]
What is ERP Software? Explaining to My Kids What We Do
Although we advise clients on it every day, ERP software isn’t a commonly known term outside of the IT and consulting industry. Understanding the basics of what ERP software is and how it works is something that we often take for granted as independent ERP consultants. With this in mind, I set out to teach […]
SAP S/4HANA vs. Oracle ERP Cloud: Clash of the Titans
When considering new enterprise technologies, many of our clients consider SAP S/4HANA vs. Oracle ERP Cloud in their ERP software evaluation process. In fact, our upper mid-market and larger enterprise clients choose between these two systems on an extremely frequent basis. In the most recent rankings of the top ERP systems, it’s not surprising that […]
Common ERP Organizational Change Management Challenges
When I’m speaking with executives at our clients, one of the most common things I hear is: “our people are ready for change, so ERP organizational change management isn’t going to be an issue for us.” This is one of the most challenging perceptions to overcome. Employees may be tired of the old legacy systems […]
Lessons from LeasePlan’s SAP ERP Failure
Just weeks after releasing our ranking of the top ERP failures of all-time, European-based fleet management company LeasePlan announced its massive SAP ERP failure. In this same announcement, the company also announced that it was taking a 100M Euro write-off and pulling the plug on its SAP project. What went wrong? Like many past failures […]
Oracle ERP Cloud vs. Oracle NetSuite: An Independent Third-Party Comparison
In the years we have been providing our annual technology-agnostic ranking of the top ERP systems, we have never seen one quite like the list for 2020. Not only were there some surprises on the list – particularly with Service Now, Workday, and SAP S/4HANA – but some vendor products fared better than others. This […]
The Top 10 ERP Systems for 2020
Disclaimer: Third Stage Consulting is an independent ERP consulting firm. Third Stage has no financial ties to ERP vendors, either directly or through parent companies or affiliates. Accordingly, the below analysis is completely technology-agnostic and 100% free of vendor bias or compensation. As we enter the home stretch of the year, many of our clients […]
The Biggest ERP Failures of All Time
The enterprise technology landscape is riddled with ¬ERP failures from the last twenty years. Some are more extreme than others, but all have stories behind them. More importantly, they all contain important lessons that can help us in our digital transformations going forward. Overview of ERP failures I used to dislike writing about ERP failures. […]
How to Create a Change Management Plan for Your S/4HANA, D365, or Oracle ERP Implementation
ERP systems have changed a ton in the last 20 years, but the keys to successful ERP implementations has changed very little. Yet too many people still don’t understand these keys to ERP success. While products such as SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle ERP Cloud, and other top ERP systems are changing at breakneck […]
Bridging the Gap Between ERP Implementation vs. Business Transformation
Organizations generally struggle to unlock the value of their ERP implementations or digital transformations to their full potential. For many, it can be hard to deliver much more than mere incremental improvements as part of their transformations. This problem isn’t necessarily due to lack of software capabilities. Though many are lacking the maturity of past […]
Why ERP Vendors are Partying Like it’s 1999
The big ERP vendors and their systems integrators seem to be having a field day lately. Forced upgrades, shifting customers from one-time payments to recurring revenue models going into perpetuity, and a larger share of IT spend are just a few of the things lining the vendors’ pockets. In other words, they are partying like […]