What We Learned Helping Teams Who Didn’t Want Help

Introduction

ERP failures rarely start with dysfunction. They start with confidence. Optimism. The belief that internal teams can lead the charge. But after dozens of rescue projects, we’ve seen the same story unfold: by the time help is requested, the damage is already compounding. This post unpacks what we learned helping teams who didn’t initially want help—how their assumptions formed, why support was often delayed, and what ultimately shaped the design of The Reset. If you’re a CFO overseeing an ERP implementation, this story might be closer to your own than you think.

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Key Takeaways

• Confidence delays correction. Teams often decline early help, assuming existing resources are sufficient—until the system is live but not usable.
  
• ERP implementation failure is slow at first, then sudden. Warning signs accumulate silently until trust, usability, and alignment collapse.
  
• The Reset was designed to meet teams where failure becomes visible. It’s not about restarting—it’s about recovering and rebuilding with clarity.
  
• CFOs need structured tools for early traction. The 90-Day CFO Implementation Playbook was developed to help finance leaders build momentum before issues escalate.
  
• Success requires timing, clarity, and strategic re-entry. Waiting too long doesn’t just delay results—it erodes trust across departments and leadership.

The Hardest Lesson: Help Isn’t Always Welcome—Until It’s Needed Most

When we first began helping finance and accounting professionals navigate ERP implementations, we focused on prevention. We wanted to reach teams before failure set in. Before morale dropped. Before systems were live—but unusable.

We warned CFOs and controllers of what could go wrong. We flagged misalignment early. We offered to walk alongside the team from the start.

And most of the time, the answer was the same:

“We’ve got this.”
“Our internal team is strong.”
“We’ve already started the implementation.”
“We’ll call if we need help.”

But ERP failure doesn’t show up overnight. It shows up slowly—then all at once.

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We Had to Learn Where to Show Up

We stopped trying to insert ourselves at the beginning. Not because we didn’t see the risk, but because we saw the pattern:

• CFOs were underestimating the resource demands
  
• Controllers were being stretched beyond their operational capacity
  
• Implementation partners were focused on checklists, not alignment
  
• Early red flags were explained away as temporary growing pains
  

And still, systems went live that nobody trusted. Teams were burned out. CFOs felt blindsided. And the business was stuck with a tool that was supposed to transform operations—but couldn’t even support them.

A 2023 report by EY found that 65% of finance leaders involved in ERP projects underestimated internal readiness, leading to missed deadlines, budget overruns, and delayed benefits.

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The Turning Point

We started receiving calls six, nine, twelve months in.

• “We thought we had it under control, but it’s not working.”
  
• “No one’s using the system the same way.”
  
• “We didn’t realize how far off we were until we went live.”
  

By that point, these weren’t just implementation issues. They were trust issues. Culture issues. Strategic issues.

That’s when we stopped trying to help teams “do implementation better” and started helping them recover from what they’d already been through.

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That’s When We Built The Reset

The Reset wasn’t a service we came up with in a strategy meeting. It was a direct response to the emotional and operational gaps we saw across dozens of ERP implementations.

• Teams didn’t need more walkthroughs. They needed working processes.
  
• CFOs didn’t need more status reports. They needed strategic clarity.
  
• Departments didn’t need more training. They needed alignment.
  

We created The Reset to solve for those realities. It gave CFOs a structured way to stop the noise, clarify what mattered, and re-ground the system in how the business actually runs.

It wasn’t about starting over. It was about stabilizing. And then rebuilding with the right foundation.

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A Quiet, Early Win: The 90-Day Playbook

In 2024, as Reset engagements increased, we published a free resource to support CFOs during active implementations—even if they hadn’t yet hit the “help” stage.

That resource became the 90-Day CFO Implementation Playbook—a practical tool to help finance leaders establish traction, momentum, and measurable clarity early in the project.

It’s not required reading for The Reset. But for teams trying to stay ahead of the breakdowns we’ve seen, it’s a meaningful head start.

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Now, We Know Where to Stand

We no longer try to convince teams to let us in. Instead, we meet them where the tension breaks:

• When the system is live, but not usable
  
• When the team is working harder, but still cleaning up the same messes
  
• When “we’ve got it covered” becomes “we can’t keep doing this”
  

That’s when we step in.

The Reset exists because too many capable teams were left unsupported. Not because they didn’t care. But because they didn’t know what they didn’t know—until it hurt.

And when they’re ready, we help them move forward.