INTRODUCTION
A Data-Informed Look at System Implementation
While no single phase of system implementation is easy, the success of the overall journey hinges on how well each stage is planned, executed, and integrated into the broader organizational context.
System implementation is a multifaceted business transformation involving process design, stakeholder engagement, data integrity, and sustained user adoption.[AR1] From system selection to hypercare, each phase carries distinct challenges and opportunities. And with the rapid increase in the sophistication of tools available to organizations, successful teams will dedicate time and effort to each phase to ensure maximum business impact, cost savings, and full leverage of new tools, technologies, and systems.
Agentic AI, GenAI, Robotic Process Automation, and other automation technologies will only become more entrenched and more capable. When not thoughtfully addressed, common system implementation pitfalls—such as unclear requirements, poor data quality, inadequate training, or misaligned stakeholder expectations—can lead to delays, inefficiencies, or even implementation failure. These obstacles can limit your organization’s competitiveness, hold back innovation, and widen any gaps between you and industry front-runners.
The Seven Phases of System Implementation
The Seven Phases of System Implementation
What Stakeholders Told Us
We polled technology stakeholders to understand where their organizations struggled the most with technology implementations and came away with a ranking of the relative difficulty of each stage for the organizations we spoke to. This series explores the seven critical phases of system enablement and provides actionable strategies to avoid common missteps.
Throughout this series, we draw on decades of cross-industry experience to surface the most common missteps and remediation tactics across the full lifecycle of a technology implementation. By highlighting both the interdependencies and individual complexities of each stage, this series equips organizations to navigate their transformations with clarity and confidence, ensuring that investments in technology yield meaningful and lasting results.
