An ERP rollout can be one of the biggest and riskiest changes a business makes. Research shows that between 55% and 75% of ERP projects don’t achieve their goals. This is mainly due to cost and time overruns.
Recent industry analysis states that nearly half of organisations exceed their original ERP budgets, and many projects require additional technology and staffing. Those overruns are a sign that foundational work related to data, networks, backups, and training is being skipped.
A short outage when switching systems can cost thousands of pounds a minute and badly hurt your reputation. Backups alone aren’t enough, as some surveys show only about 6 out of 10 restores actually work. Likewise, bad or unmapped data causes errors, broken reports and angry users, leading to delays and expensive fixes.
This brings us to the takeaway that ERP rollout is a crucial infrastructural event and shouldn’t be treated as a simple application change.
To ensure a seamless, fail-safe implementation, partner with an experienced ERP consultancy for process mapping, data validation and migration design. You’ll also need a dedicated IT team to manage the technical side. If you’re based in or around Northampton, consider top-rated Northampton IT support by Redpalm early in the process to stress-test your networks, validate backups, and optimise endpoints.
Finally, run comprehensive checks with every vendor involved. With careful preparation and expert oversight, you can transform a high-risk ERP rollout into a well-managed business milestone.
The Go-Live Checklist for ERP Implementation
1. Confirm Data Migration Readiness
Ensure source data is clean, deduplicated and mapped to the new ERP schema. Bad data can cause failed transactions and inaccurate reports. Your IT team should provide database access, assist with extraction, and support a test migration environment. Use measurable data quality targets (e.g., 98% field accuracy, 0% duplicate keys) and reconcile every critical dataset after test loads to confirm integrity.
2. Verify Network Stability and Bandwidth
ERP performance depends on reliable connectivity between users and servers. Check bandwidth for peak periods and run latency tests from key locations. Your local IT provider should monitor network throughput and upgrade lines if bottlenecks are detected. The ERP consultancy should advise on acceptable round-trip latency and concurrent user limits for the specific platform. Record baseline metrics before go-live so performance trends can be monitored objectively.
3. Validate Backup and Restore Procedures
Create and test full backups of databases, application configurations and files. Perform a full restore to a test environment to confirm data integrity and recovery times. Your managed IT partner should schedule and execute the backups, while the ERP consultancy verifies that application-level restores function properly within agreed RTO/RPO limits.
4. Confirm Disaster Recovery and Failover Plans
A working disaster recovery plan is the final safety net before go-live. Document exactly how systems will fail over to a secondary site, how long the switch will take, and who owns each action. Conduct an end-to-end failover test and measure the total time to recovery. Your IT provider should maintain recovery infrastructure, networking, and replication, while the ERP consultancy validates application behaviour and data consistency in the failover environment.
For cloud setups, make sure there’s a backup region ready to take over if the main one fails, and confirm your provider’s recovery times and uptime guarantees. Partner with the best, most reliable hosting providers like BlackBox to ensure minimal downtime.
5. Check Endpoint Readiness and Performance
Ensure user devices meet minimum specs and have required software updates. Poor local performance creates a false impression of a slow ERP. Your IT team should perform a device health audit and apply any remedial fixes before going live.
6. Harden Security and Access Control
Review user roles, least privilege access and multi-factor authentication; confirm that audit logging is enabled at all times. The ERP consultancy should define role mappings and segregation of duties. The IT team should enforce network controls, endpoint security and email protection.
7. Confirm Integrations and API Connections
List every upstream and downstream system that will exchange data with the ERP. Test integrations in a sandbox and validate error handling. The ERP consultancy should own the design and mapping logic, while your local IT support ensures middleware stability, port security, and secrets management. Implement secure authentication, regularly rotate API keys, and log every integration failure for rapid triage.
8. Run Performance and Load Testing
Simulate concurrent user activity and large data volumes to identify bottlenecks. Capture response times and transaction throughput. The ERP consultancy should design realistic test scenarios reflecting live usage, while your IT team provides mirrored test environments and monitors infrastructure telemetry. Establish performance service-level objectives (SLOs) that define what “acceptable speed” truly means to the business.
9. Prepare A System Switch and Rollback Plan
Document the sequence of steps for the system switch and the exact criteria that would trigger a rollback. Assign responsibilities and contact points. The ERP consultancy should lead the system switch script, and the managed IT partner should own any infrastructure steps and rapid recovery actions.
10. Confirm Monitoring, Alerts and Escalation Routes
Monitoring isn’t “set and forget”; it’s the safety net that covers four layers, such as infrastructure, platform, application (business transactions), and user experience. Ensure alerts are meaningful, routed correctly, and regularly tested.
Your local IT partner should own continuous infrastructure monitoring and first-line response, the ERP consultancy should own application-level alerts, mappings and runbooks, and the entire stack.
11. Plan User Training and Support
Schedule role-based training and provide quick reference guides. Plan for extended support coverage during the initial days after you go live. The ERP consultancy should deliver training content and shadow support. The managed IT partner should staff helpdesk resources to handle device and connectivity issues.
12. Review Vendor Contracts, SLAs and Licensing
Confirm obligations for support response time and who is responsible for fixes. Ensure you have clear ownership for defect fixes and urgent patching. The procurement or IT contract lead should review terms with input from both the ERP consultancy and the local IT provider.
13. Keep Test Environments and Live Systems The Same
Ensure that test environments mirror production in size and configuration. Differences between environments can cause surprises while going live.
The managed IT partner should offer test environments, and the ERP consultancy should validate the critical components.
14. Document Configuration, Processes and Runbooks
Keep detailed system configuration notes and runbooks for routine tasks. This documentation speeds troubleshooting and handover. The ERP consultancy should provide applications runbooks, and your IT provider should supply operational runbooks for infrastructure.
15. Define KPI and Post-Launch Checks
Agree on success criteria such as transaction output, report accuracy and acceptable incident levels. Schedule a review window and capture baseline metrics. Both the ERP consultancy and the local IT support should contribute to KPI tracking and reporting.
In Conclusion
An ERP project affects every core function of your business, from finance and order processing to stock control and reporting. Without the right infrastructure or reliable backups in place, a planned upgrade can quickly turn into a major disruption.
Treat your ERP launch as both an application change and an infrastructure event. Work through a comprehensive checklist with your ERP consultancy and your local IT partner before scheduling the system to go live.
Taking this coordinated approach helps prevent unexpected issues and ensures your business continues to run smoothly throughout the transition.
