The 🤯 when a System Implementation goes Wrong (and How to Get It Right)
So, you’re thinking about upgrading your finance system? Maybe you’re switching accounting platforms, rolling out an ERP, or finally integrating all those messy data sources so your team stops relying on 17 different spreadsheets.
Good call.
Bad execution?
Expensive disaster!
The Horror Story: When Good Tech Goes Bad
Meet Summit Digital, a fast-growing SaaS company. They were doing £10M in revenue, expanding into new markets, and desperately needed better financial visibility. Their CEO, Paul, signed off on a shiny new ERP system—because the vendor promised seamless integration (they always do, right?).
The reality? Nothing worked.
Their invoicing system broke, so clients weren’t billed on time.
Customer accounts didn’t sync, so their support team got flooded with complaints.
The finance team spent weeks manually fixing data, delaying critical reports.
Six months later, they’d lost £200K in revenue, plus another £50K fixing the mess.
How a Fractional CFO Would Have Saved the Day
Now, let’s imagine Paul had a Fractional CFO in his corner. Here’s how things would’ve gone differently:
🔹 Picking the Right System (Not Just the Flashiest One) – Instead of jumping at sales demos, the CFO would have:
✔ Evaluated the real business needs—what do we actually need this system to do?
✔ Compared options based on ROI, not just nice-to-have features.
✔ Checked if the team actually had the bandwidth for a big rollout.
🔹 Negotiating a Better Deal – Vendors love to oversell and underdeliver. A CFO would’ve:
✔ Locked in guarantees (e.g., the system must go live within 90 days or fees are refunded).
✔ Ensured support was included (because post-launch troubleshooting can cost a fortune).
✔ Structured staggered payments, so the business wasn’t paying upfront for a half-baked rollout.
🔹 Rolling It Out in Phases – Instead of flipping the switch overnight, a CFO would:
✔ Test critical functions first (like invoicing—because cash flow matters).
✔ Train the finance team before launch, not after the damage is done.
✔ Keep the old system running in parallel, just in case.
