The Classic Case of a Brand With No In-House ERP Expert
There’s a pattern we keep seeing when high-growth brands implement an ERP. On paper, the project should be transformational. The system goes in, processes are supposed to be streamlined, reporting becomes reliable, and suddenly the business is ready for the next stage of growth. In reality? Too often the whole thing creaks within the first quarter. Month-end takes longer, reconciliation throws up surprises, and confidence in the system evaporates.
This isn’t a mystery. It’s the classic case of a brand attempting to run a complex ERP implementation without anyone in-house who knows what good looks like.
Training Isn’t the Same as Confidence
Most teams arrive at go-live with some level of training. They’ve sat through the vendor sessions, clicked through the test environments, maybe even built out some documentation. But training is not the same as knowing. Knowing comes from having lived through the mistakes, finding the workarounds, fixing the breaks. Without that, every click feels like a gamble.
The result is paralysis. Internal teams don’t experiment, they don’t push the system, and they certainly don’t try and fail. Because failure feels terminal. Instead, they wait for third parties to tell them what to do, which slows everything down and builds dependency into the business from day one.
The Testing Mirage
Vendors will tell you they’ve tested. Middleware providers will test their bit. The ERP implementer will test their bit. The warehouse partner will test their bit. Individually, everything passes. Collectively, it’s a mess.
What’s missing is end-to-end testing - the only kind that actually reflects the real world. Orders moving from ecommerce platform into ERP, being picked in the warehouse, and reconciled back into finance. That chain is where issues hide. A missing field. A misaligned mapping. A forgotten checkbox. Each vendor signs off their slice, but no one checks the gaps in between. And those gaps are exactly where operations break.
Without an in-house ERP operator driving UAT with a full view of the process, brands don’t spot the gaps until it’s too late. By then, the quarter-end roll-up is on fire and no one trusts the numbers.
Vendors Wearing Grandma’s Clothes
Part of the problem is that every vendor presents their side of the project as neat and straightforward. They’ll promise timelines that sound achievable, green lights on their dashboards, and a vision of simplicity. And to be fair, for their slice of the work, it probably is simple. The trouble is, brands without in-house expertise don’t know enough to challenge them.
It’s Little Red Riding Hood: the project looks like grandma, until it opens its mouth and you see the teeth. By then, you’ve signed off a milestone that doesn’t actually work in practice.
The Confidence Gap
Experienced ERP operators behave differently. They’re willing to experiment. They’ll push a process, break something, and fix it again. Because they know that behind the system quirks, they can usually find the solution. That confidence is contagious. It gives internal teams the freedom to try, fail, and learn, instead of waiting passively for an external consultant to swoop in.
Without that, teams stay locked into fear. Every potential improvement gets pushed back. Every issue becomes a ticket. And the ERP that was meant to give the brand control becomes a bottleneck.
The Missing Role
The projects that succeed all have one thing in common: a central string-puller. Someone who knows enough to connect finance, operations, warehouse, and tech. Someone who can see across vendors and spot the contradictions. Without that role, projects drift. Each partner points to their completed deliverables, but no one can say with confidence that the whole thing works together.
When that role sits internally, it’s even more powerful. Because the string-puller isn’t just coordinating vendors - they’re making sure internal priorities get heard, blockers get escalated, and shortcuts don’t undermine the business months later.
Breaking the Cycle
The fix isn’t complicated, but it does require intent. Brands need to stop treating ERP implementation as something that can be entirely outsourced. Bring in an in-house operator early, even if it means hiring ahead of the curve. If that’s not possible, lean on external partners who can transfer knowledge rather than hoard it. Prioritise end-to-end testing over vendor sign-offs. Build internal confidence deliberately, so the brand doesn’t stay dependent forever.
Because this really is the classic case. Every year, ambitious brands underestimate the need for internal ERP expertise. They assume training will be enough, vendors will cover the gaps, and confidence will grow on its own. It doesn’t. Not until someone inside the business has the authority, the experience, and the willingness to push the system further.
An ERP project without an in-house expert will always look like grandma. The trick is to spot the wolf before it shows its teeth.