Independent ERP project rescue
Your ERP project is in trouble. Get someone on your side of the table.
Independent recovery for ERP projects that have stalled, blown their budget, or failed outright. We stabilize operations, run an assessment the vendor cannot run on themselves, rebuild governance, and help you decide whether to remediate or replace. We never implement, so the recommendation is yours, not ours.
Canada and the United States · Client-side only · Assessment in 2 to 3 weeks
Before you fire the vendor
Premature termination or aggressive escalation without clarity only increases the risk.
Most failed projects are governance, process, data, and adoption failures wearing a software costume. Find out which one you have before you spend another dollar, or another quarter, on the wrong fix.
Sound familiar?
You are probably here because one of these is true.
- –Go-live has slipped more than once and nobody will commit to a date
- –Change orders keep arriving and the budget is well past the original number
- –The system is live and people are back on spreadsheets
- –The vendor, the integrator, and your PMO each blame the other two
- –This is the second or third attempt at the same project
How recovery works here
Stabilize. Assess independently. Then decide.
01
Pause and contain
Freeze scope and non-essential build, put manual safeguards around sales, finance, and inventory, and stand up an issue log and escalation path. The goal in week one is to stop the damage compounding, not to assign blame.
02
Assess without a stake in the answer
A structured review of design, process fit, data migration, testing, change management, and contractual compliance, done by someone who is not paid by the vendor or by the next phase. You get a findings matrix, a root-cause analysis, and a risk scorecard. Where the record exists, we read it: on one recovery that meant more than two hundred hours of the previous attempts' meetings.
03
Remediate or replace, with oversight
If the vendor has the capability but failed in execution, we renegotiate with measurable milestones and embed independent oversight. If trust or competence is gone, we secure your assets, plan the transition, and write requirements the next partner has to bid against.
What you walk away with
Control of the project back in your hands.
- ✓A findings matrix and root-cause analysis you can put in front of the board
- ✓A risk scorecard and a remediate-or-replace recommendation, with the reasoning
- ✓A governance model that turns status meetings back into decisions
- ✓Someone independent in every project meeting until the project is stable
We have done this before
Our published case study is a project that had already failed three times. The root cause was not the software, the requirements, or the data. It was leadership misalignment about what the business was trying to become.
Structurally independent
The party that sells the software, implements it, and advises on recovery cannot be objective. We do none of the first two, which is the only reason we can do the third.
Built for the mid-market
Manufacturers and distributors between roughly $10M and $500M in revenue, where a failed project is not a line item but a threat to operations, and where the internal team is already stretched keeping the business running.
Questions we hear on the first call
Should we just cancel the contract and start over?
Not before an assessment. A termination without clarity discards everything that did work, hands the next vendor the same undocumented business, and often triggers the consequential-damage clauses you did not negotiate. Two to three weeks of independent review tells you which path is actually cheaper.
Can you take over the implementation?
No, and that is the point. We do not implement, so our recommendation is not shaped by who gets the next contract. We embed alongside delivery as your representative, challenge design and scope decisions in real time, and hold the vendor to measurable commitments.
The project is live but adoption is terrible. Is that a rescue?
Usually, yes. Post-go-live failure is still failure: people back on spreadsheets, month-end taking two weeks, data nobody trusts. The assessment is the same, and the fix is often process and training rather than another system.
How fast can you start, and what does it cost?
Containment starts within days. The assessment is a fixed fee scoped to the size of the project and delivered in two to three weeks; ongoing oversight is scoped separately. Both are discussed on the first call.
Read before your next steering meeting
Success Stories
How We Recovered a Project That Had Already Failed Three Times
When we joined this project, it had already failed three times. The real issue wasn't the ERP system, the requirements, or the data. It was leadership misalignment about the future of the business.
MDCS Blog
ERP Oversight Is Not Governance Theater. It's Business Survival.
Once the contract is signed, accountability seems to transfer with it. The integrator owns delivery, the vendor owns the product, the PMO owns the timeline, and the business attends status meetings. That is where most transformations start to drift.
MDCS Blog
Don't Rip and Replace Your ERP. Diagnose It First.
When an ERP starts causing delays and errors, the expensive conclusion is that you need a new one. Most of the time the problem is process, data, or governance. A 10-day health check to find out before you spend.
MDCS Blog
Recovering from ERP Vendor Failure
More than half of ERP initiatives miss their goals, and vendor underperformance is a common cause. How to pause, assess independently, rebuild governance, and decide whether to remediate with the current vendor or replace them.
Start here
Tell us what is happening on the project.
A 45-minute working conversation, not a sales call. Bring the current status report and the original scope if you have them. You will leave with a first read on whether this is a governance, process, data, or vendor problem, and what to do this week.
Prefer to book directly? Use the calendar. Or email al_naeb@metadatacs.ca.