ERP Rescue & Recovery
Your ERP Implementation Failed.
It Can Still Be Fixed.
A failed or broken ERP implementation isn’t a technology problem. It’s a partner problem. The system can generally be rescued. The question is whether the next partner leads with an honest assessment, or a proposal to start over. We always start with the assessment.
Assessment First, Always
Any ERP, Any Scenario
We Fix What’s Fixable
Former Controllers on Every Engagement
You’re Not Alone in This
ERP Failures Are More Common
Than Anyone Admits Publicly.
Gartner estimates more than 50% of ERP implementations underdeliver on their original objectives. The companies that end up in our rescue practice aren’t unusual, they’re the norm. And most of them wish they’d called sooner.
“We went live eight months ago. The system works technically. But my team runs every actual report in Excel. Nobody trusts the numbers in the ERP.“
CFO, $75M Manufacturer, Chicago
“Our implementation partner billed us for 14 months and then went quiet. We’re 60% configured, our data is a mess, and we have no idea what we actually paid for.“
Controller, $50M Distributor, Philadelphia
“Our auditors found three segregation of duties violations in our ERP configuration. The partner who set it up says it’ll take six months to fix. I don’t believe them anymore.“
VP Finance, $90M Life Sciences Company, Philadelphia
“We’ve been live for two years. Our close still takes 12 days. It took 10 days before we implemented. I’m not sure we should have done this at all.“
CFO, $65M Food & Beverage Company
Find Your Situation
Five Scenarios We See.
All of Them Recoverable.
ERP failures follow patterns. Find the one that sounds most like where you are, each has a different recovery path, and knowing which one you’re in determines how we engage.
Scenario 01
The Stalled Implementation
The project started, consumed budget and time, and then stopped. You’re partially configured, partially migrated, and completely stuck. The original partner is either unresponsive, over budget, or gone.
→ Project is 6+ months past original go-live date
→ Partner relationship has broken down
→ Significant budget already spent with nothing live
→ Team morale around the project is at zero
Scenario 02
The Broken Go-Live
You went live, but the system didn’t work the way it was supposed to. Data integrity issues, missing functionality, broken workflows, and a finance team that has quietly reverted to doing things the old way.
→ Team maintains parallel spreadsheets outside the ERP
→ Month-end close is no faster than before implementation
→ Frequent workarounds for basic financial processes
→ Nobody in finance trusts the numbers in the system
Scenario 03
The Adoption Failure
The implementation was technically complete but the team never adopted it. Training was inadequate, change management didn’t happen, and institutional resistance hardened into permanent workarounds that everyone pretends are normal.
→ Large portions of the ERP are unused or unknown
→ New staff are trained on the spreadsheets, not the ERP
→ ROI from the implementation is impossible to demonstrate
→ The system is blamed for problems it didn’t cause
Scenario 04
The Compliance Gap
The ERP is running, but auditors have flagged gaps in the configuration. Segregation of duties violations, incomplete audit trails, access controls that don’t match your compliance requirements, or documentation that doesn’t exist.
→ Auditors have issued findings related to ERP configuration
→ SOX, HIPAA, FDA, or CMMC controls are missing or broken
→ Segregation of duties cannot be demonstrated
→ Audit trail documentation is incomplete or non-existent
Scenario 05
The Data Integrity Problem
Something went wrong in the data migration. Balances don’t reconcile, historical records are missing or corrupted, and the finance team can’t produce clean financials from the new system. The original partner has no answer.
→ Trial balance in ERP doesn’t match prior system records
→ Historical data is missing, duplicated, or incorrectly mapped
→ AR and AP aging reports are unreliable
→ Auditors cannot rely on opening balances
The Honest Truth
You Probably Don’t Need
to Start Over. Here’s How We Know.
The first thing most partners tell a rescue client is that the existing work is unsalvageable and a full reimplementation is required. That’s sometimes true. More it’s a sales pitch dressed as a diagnosis.
Here’s what our assessment actually looks at, and what it generally finds.
01
Configuration audit
What was configured correctly, what was configured wrong, and what was never configured at all. Most implementations have a working core with specific gaps, not a fundamentally broken foundation.
02
Data integrity review
Where do your balances stand? What reconciles and what doesn’t? Data issues are almost always fixable, it’s a question of scope and methodology, not platform capability.
03
Adoption gap analysis
Which processes have been abandoned in favor of spreadsheets, and why? Adoption failures are generally training and change management problems, not system problems.
04
Compliance posture review
What compliance controls are in place, what’s missing, and what needs to be documented before the next audit. Compliance gaps are almost always configurable, not architectural.
05
Honest verdict
Based on the above, rescue and reconfigure, targeted remediation, or full reimplementation. We tell you which one you actually have. If it’s a full restart, we’ll say so. If it isn’t, we’ll say that instead.
What the assessment generally finds
More salvageable than you think. Fewer problems than you fear.
In most rescue engagements, the configuration core is sound, the data issues are contained, and the adoption failures are addressable with targeted retraining. A full reimplementation is the right answer in a minority of cases, and we’ll tell you honestly if yours is one of them.
Cases requiring full restart
Salvageable
Assessment delivery time
5 days
Typical recovery timeline
30–90 days
Assessment cost
Free
How We Engage
Assessment First. Recovery Plan Second.
Work Starts Third.
No rescue engagement starts with a statement of work. It starts with an honest look at what you have. Here’s the sequence, and what you get at each step before committing to the next.
01
The 30-Minute Call
A conversation with a former controller who has worked on rescue engagements before. We listen to what happened, ask specific questions, and tell you on the call whether it sounds like a rescue, a reconfiguration, or a full restart.
Deliverable: Honest verbal assessment
02
The Diagnostic Assessment
Access to your environment for 5 business days. Configuration audit, data integrity review, adoption gap analysis, compliance posture check. Written findings with a prioritized issue list and a recommended recovery path.
Deliverable: Written assessment report
03
The Recovery Proposal
Based on the assessment findings, a scoped recovery plan with a fixed timeline, a Fixed-Fee or T&M cost, and a clear definition of what “done” looks like. You approve every item before any work begins.
Deliverable: Scoped recovery plan
04
Recovery Execution
Targeted remediation, reconfiguration, data repair, compliance hardening, and retraining, in the order the assessment prioritized. Weekly checkpoints. Nothing goes off track without you knowing immediately.
Deliverable: A working ERP
You can stop at any step. The 30-minute call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The assessment is free and the findings are yours regardless of what you decide next. We earn your trust through transparency, not through locking you into a relationship before you know what you’re dealing with.
Why TechWise for This
You Need a Partner Who Tells You
the Truth Before They Tell You the Price.
Rescue engagements are trust engagements first. You’ve already been let down once. Here’s what makes TechWise different, and why the assessment always comes before the proposal.
01
Assessment Before Anything Else
We don’t write a statement of work before we understand what you have. Every rescue engagement starts with a free diagnostic, configuration audit, data review, adoption gaps, compliance posture. The proposal comes after. Always.
02
Former Controllers Diagnose the Problem
Most ERP failures are finance failures that got blamed on technology. Our former controllers know the difference. They diagnose the real problem, not the symptom the previous partner was solving, and build the recovery plan around what your CFO actually needs.
03
We Rescue Any ERP
Business Central, NAV, Great Plains, NetSuite, SAP Business One, all of them. The assessment methodology is the same regardless of platform. If the right answer is a migration to a different system, we’ll say that too.
04
We Don’t Default to Starting Over
A reimplementation is the right answer in a minority of cases. When we recommend it, it’s because the assessment genuinely supports it, not because it’s a larger engagement. Most clients have more salvageable work than the previous partner admitted.
05
Compliance Is Always on the List
SOX, HIPAA, FDA, CMMC gaps are addressed as part of every recovery engagement, not as an add-on scope item. Audit-ready documentation is a deliverable, not an afterthought. Your auditors will see the difference from the first review after recovery.
06
Your Budget Model. Zero Surprises.
Fixed-Fee or Time & Materials, you choose based on what the recovery scope calls for. Weekly checkpoints mean nothing goes off track without you knowing. You’ve already experienced one ERP engagement without that transparency. This one is different.
Recovery Results
What Clients Find
After a TechWise Recovery.
Numbers from actual TechWise rescue engagements, not projections.
5
Business days to deliver the diagnostic assessment
Free for qualified companies
30–90
Days to meaningful recovery in most engagements
Depends on scenario complexity
3
Average days to close after successful recovery
vs. pre-recovery baseline
Zero
Clients told to restart when remediation was the right answer
Assessment drives the recommendation
“We’d spent $340,000 on an implementation that went live broken. Our previous partner kept billing us to fix problems they caused. TechWise came in, spent three days assessing, and told us 70% of the work was salvageable. The recovery took 11 weeks. Our close went from 14 days to 5. Our auditors cleared us on the first review post-recovery. I wish we’d called them before we called anyone else.”
CFO, $82M Manufacturer, Chicago Metropolitan Area
Common Questions
ERP Rescue Questions
We Hear Before Every Engagement.
After Recovery
Once Your ERP Is Working,
Here’s What Comes Next.
Keep It Working
ERP Managed Services
Most rescue clients move to a TechWise managed services relationship after recovery, so the system stays optimized, compliant, and supported without a dedicated internal ERP team.
See managed services →
Tell Us What’s Broken.
We’ll Tell You How to Fix It.
Every managed engagement starts with a free assessment of your environment: no scope surprises. Tell us what’s broken, what’s keeping you up at night, or what you’re trying to build. We’ll tell you exactly what it takes and which model fits.