The truth about large-scale technology projects is that the majority of them actually fail. In fact, studies show that 65% of them fail!
If IT projects were airplanes, no one would ever get on one! So why do so many companies venture down that road and why do so many fail?
Here's the answer to the first part of that question : because, to remain competitive in today's market, you have to leverage the benefits of technology. Performing every function of the company manually, or with Excel, is just too time-consuming and costly to be competitive.
The problem is that as companies grow, employees literally invent processes in order to accomplish tasks. These processes are mainly work-arounds to "get around" inefficiencies in the current ERP system or other people in the company. The fundamental issue occurs when a new ERP system is installed and merely automates inefficient, manual, processes.
So how do we ensure that projects are successful?