Updated June 2026
Remember the Bowflex? Maybe you still have one that's collecting dust in your kid's old bedroom. Or maybe your parents have one collecting dust in your old bedroom. In most cases, these exercise machines become forgotten relics that end up in yard sales or Facebook Marketplace. People are easily sold on the Bowflex, the StairMaster, the Peloton, or whatever exercise machine is trending at the time with high hopes for fast transformation. When the desired changes don't happen, they're left scratching their heads. "But I bought a Bowflex!?"
Unfortunately, we can’t automate everything. Simply purchasing equipment is not enough. Behavioral changes are needed to achieve desired goals.
We've seen executives fall victim to a similar conviction that purchasing an expensive ERP will miraculously solve their company’s problems. In hindsight, they realized the company’s processes and behaviors were the real root cause of the issues. Processes should have been addressed before committing to an expensive purchase. To avoid purchasing a tool without realizing improvement, executives must first confirm a system is necessary to accomplish desired goals.
Don’t put sole emphasis on technology. Consider processes and people along with the new system. Start with these three steps:
Before ever purchasing an ERP, start by identifying trouble spots and areas to improve. Know what you’re looking to get out of it before you buy it to avoid regrets later on.
Once areas to improve are clearly identified and goals are set, then move forward.
Iin our experience, a former oilfield services client blamed their lengthy month-end close on their outdated ERP system. However, we quickly found the culprit to be the numerous manual journal entries their accounting team processed to reconcile operational errors occurring in the field. When the company purchased the new system and did not teach new behaviors, all they gained was a system just as broken as the old one. Once the root cause was identified and operations personnel were trained on new processes, the manual adjustments diminished and financial close was reduced by ten days.
And who knows—maybe along the way you’ll realize you don’t need a new ERP after all. Perhaps there’s hidden potential in the one you already have, or maybe the root cause of issues stems from something else entirely. In any case, make sure an ERP is necessary and will work for your organization’s needs.
Once you’ve identified trouble spots and established associated goals, the strategy can be executed. Old routines will likely have to change to support process and technology improvements, and roles might look different.
An oilfield services company growing more than 25% per year performed several system implementations concurrently to support their explosive growth. Amid system implementations, the company began experiencing higher turnover as a result of placing new burdens on already strained resources. Employees stayed latched on to the old systems, even though technical support was slowly withdrawn as the systems were decommissioned. They trusted the old systems’ data and felt comfortable with the familiar interface. To combat turnover and create a transition from old to new ways of working, executives allocated resources to spend extra time documenting and communicating the new processes. Employees immersed themselves in training, and strong executive sponsorship ensured employees had the support needed to balance both day-to-day tasks and end-user training. Once employees embraced the process changes, their jobs became less painful and turnover slowed. Plus, they had documented processes which could be easily transferred to new employees.
Bottom line? Robust change management, a commitment to culture, and standardized process documentation are essential to unlocking the full potential of a new system and changing behavior.
It’s not enough to just implement a system and hope for the best. Measuring the success of an ERP implementation is essential. Keep realistic goals in mind and continually benchmark progress against those goals.
Distinguish the critical processes that must be improved to deem the implementation a success and monitor the status of those critical processes to ensure improvements are realized.
A former client, the CEO of a midstream company, defined one of his critical success factors as achieving an efficient and effective financial reporting process. The measures of success were days to close the financial books and prior period adjustments. During a fast-paced ERP implementation, his team became overloaded implementing more than just the general ledger and accounts payable modules. Timelines were slipping. Immediately, the CEO shifted his employees’ focus back to the core financial reporting goals they had established at the beginning of the project. Implementing general ledger and payables became the priority, while the other modules were delayed until phase two. What he did right was keeping a realistic perspective on personnel capacity and making adjustments along the way.
Trenegy can’t shrink waist lines, but we can help organizations implement changes with newly designed processes and systems. We help companies shed days off close, eliminate the pain and frustration of validating report data, and revitalize the routines that run their business. We help companies go beyond simply buying a new system. We help them incorporate the system into an improved way of doing business.
When clients target their trouble spots, improve their processes, and evaluate their results, they don’t just buy a system. They own it.
To chat more about this, email info@trenegy.com.
Trenegy is a non-traditional consulting firm based in Houston, Texas.
