You tried software once and it did not work. That memory is costing you.

Nearly every owner has the same story. We bought something, we paid for it, nobody used it, we went back to Excel.

It is a fair memory and it makes people careful, which is reasonable. But the reason it failed is usually not the reason people remember.

Three real reasons, and none of them is the software

The first is that nobody was given time. The system arrived in a busy month. Staff were told to use it while still doing everything the old way, so for a few weeks they did both, and then they dropped the one that was optional.

The second is that nobody owned it. There was no one person whose job it was to answer questions in week three, when the first real problem appeared. So the first problem became the reason to stop.

The third is the one owners rarely want to hear. The process was not agreed before it was automated. Two people had two different ways of doing the same job, and the software was forced to pick one. It picked, and the other person quietly went back to his own way.

What is worth doing differently

Start smaller than feels serious. One process, the one that hurts most, the one everyone already agrees about. Get that working properly and let people see it work.

Name one person inside the business who owns it. Not the vendor. Somebody who sits there.

And write down how the process actually runs today, including the exceptions, before anybody builds anything. Most of the fights happen here, and they are much cheaper here than after.

A bad experience is not a reason to avoid trying again. It is information about how to try again.

Think back to the software that did not work. Honestly, was it the software, or was it that nobody had time, nobody owned it, or nobody had agreed on the process first?

A good part of our work is with people whose last system failed. Tell us what went wrong that time and we will tell you how we would avoid repeating it.