Despite some headlines predicting the doomsday of the ERP system, the ERP market continues to expand. It’s grown 8% since 2022 and is expected to be worth $300 billion by 2027.
Organizations are continuing to deploy or migrate to new ERP systems. And there’s no sign of that movement slowing down.
Major changes, such as a new ERP system, however, will typically result in team members who are slow to embrace the change, or at worst, oppose the change altogether. But with organizational change occurring more frequently in recent years, change management becomes even more critical.
At the same time, with the continued challenges of change management and various barriers to adoption, one might wonder if there is a better approach to adopting new technology like an ERP. Is it possible to reframe traditional ERP challenges with a human-first (yet tech-savvy) approach that helps organizations move from simply “overcoming barriers” to accelerating and maximizing ERP adoption?
It’s possible. And here’s how.
Human-First Design
So often, implementing new technology focuses on efficiency and functionality, and while those in and of themselves are not bad, coming at the implementation process from a purely generic change management approach can actually foster barriers, such as fear of change.
While traditional change management looks at the technology and the ROI to the bottom line, convincing teams to go along with it because it’s good for the business, a human-first approach starts instead with a deep understanding of user needs, behaviors, and pain points. In short, what is the holistic human experience as it relates to the technology? What is the broader context of how the technology—in this case, the ERP—impacts the individual, rather than focusing on just the efficiency gains?
Human-first is also not to be confused with human-centric, which tends to focus on the perspective and emotions related to a specific and/or limited user experience or interface. Human-first takes it a step further, incorporating perspectives and emotions into the full technology approach, moving beyond simply design focus and out into a more real-world approach.
While it’s certainly easier for organizations to focus on metrics and business benefits, it also results in that focus causing the business to miss what actually matters: The people who benefit from the technology and use it to deliver those positive outcomes. Technology is only as powerful as the value it brings to the organization. Therefore, looking at an ERP adoption through a human-first lens will reap more reward than efficiency alone.
This then begs the question: What does “human-first” look like with regard to implementing an ERP? If the goal of human-first is to focus primarily on the people using the technology, then a human-first ERP adoption should involve teams early on in the design phases of the various workflows. This ensures that using the ERP feels intuitive and not daunting.
Practice A Day in the Life
Consider “day in the life” simulations. These should be hyper-realistic, role-specific simulations where users perform their actual daily tasks in a sandbox environment. This provides safety in experimentation without fear of breaking something or causing irreversible damage to critical data.
Proactive Storytelling
One of the top drivers behind technology adoption is executive support and buy-in. However, typical teams may not identify with the higher-level initiatives because they cannot easily see the dotted line to their everyday experience.
Proactive storytelling will move beyond that high-level “here’s why we’re doing this” and instead focus on communicating specific, tangible benefits to each role and department.
Data Is an Asset, Not a Burden
One of the most common stumbling blocks—and sources of deep user frustration—in any ERP implementation is data migration. All too often, this critical step is viewed as a painful, delayed, and purely technical hurdle that must be overcome before the “real” work can begin. This perspective is a classic example of a technical-first approach, and it’s one that immediately signals to your employees that the new system is a burden, not a benefit.
A human-first perspective reframes this step entirely. Instead of seeing data migration as a tedious transfer of old files, you must frame it as a fundamental investment in data wellness. This isn’t just about moving numbers; it’s about preparing the lifeblood of your organization to serve your people better.
Teams spend countless hours wrestling with poor, incomplete, or siloed data in legacy systems. They build workarounds, double-check reports, and manually reconcile figures. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s mentally taxing and leads to burnout. By investing time and resources into properly cleaning, structuring, and migrating high-quality data, organizations are giving employees the gift of reliability and confidence.