ERP rescue · Odoo & MYOB Acumatica
ERP rescue: when the implementation didn't go to plan
Somewhere right now an Australian business is eighteen months and a lot of money into an ERP project that still can't produce a trustworthy stock number. If that is you, two things are true. You are not unusual: troubled implementations are common enough that we run a service for them. And your situation is probably recoverable, more often than it feels at 11pm before a steering meeting.
The situations we get called into
The same patterns arrive again and again. A go-live date that has slipped three times and is slipping again. A system that is technically live while the business quietly runs on the old spreadsheets, because nobody trusts the numbers. A relationship with the original partner that has broken down, or a partner that has disappeared entirely. Custom code with no documentation and no author. A project that finished phase one and then stalled, with the expensive modules still switched off. Different stories, same underlying problem: the system and the business were never actually matched to each other.
Step one is a diagnosis, not a proposal
We will not quote a rescue we haven't examined, and you should not trust anyone who does. The engagement starts with a fixed-fee Rescue Assessment, from $1,200, run with the same fixed-fee discipline as our published Discovery tier. We audit the configuration, the custom code, the data quality and the gap between what was built and how your business actually operates, for Odoo or MYOB Acumatica. You get a written diagnosis and three costed paths, and the assessment is yours to act on with us or with anyone else.
The three paths out
Path 1
Stabilise
Stop the bleeding first: the data fixes, permission repairs and process corrections that make the current system dependable enough to run the business while decisions get made. Often measured in weeks.
Path 2
Rebuild in place
The most common outcome. The platform was rarely the mistake; the configuration was. Keep the licence investment, fix the setup and the worst of the custom code, retrain the team properly this time. Broken connections between systems get the same treatment through our integration practice, and sites stranded on old versions come right through our upgrade service.
Path 3
Replatform
The last resort, recommended only when the platform genuinely cannot fit the business. Because we implement both Odoo and MYOB Acumatica, that recommendation comes without a sales agenda, and our comparison page and migration process show exactly how the move would run.
Why rescues fail twice
The second failure usually comes from rescuing with the same habits that caused the first: vague scope, no staging environment, the client's team excluded, and energy wasted litigating the previous partner. Our rules are boring on purpose. Scope in writing before work starts. Changes proven on staging before they touch production. Your team inside the project, because they are who runs the system afterwards. And no time spent blaming whoever came before us, because it bills hours and fixes nothing.
What it costs
The assessment is fixed-fee from $1,200. Rescue work after that is scoped from the assessment findings in phases, with the same fixed-scope discipline as our implementation packages: you approve a defined piece of work with a number on it, then the next one. Open-ended time and materials is how the project got here; it is not how it gets out.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can a failed ERP implementation be saved?
Usually, yes. In most troubled projects the platform is capable and the configuration, data or delivery approach is what failed. A structured assessment separates the salvageable from the genuinely mismatched before more money moves.
Do we have to start again from scratch?
Mostly no. Rebuilding in place on the existing platform is the most common recovery path, and it preserves your licence investment and whatever parts of the build were done well. Replatforming is the exception, recommended only when the fit was wrong from the start.
Will you work with what the previous partner built?
Yes. We audit and document what exists, keep what is sound and fix what isn't. You will not hear us trash the previous partner; you are paying for a working system, not a post-mortem.
How quickly can things be stabilised?
Triage on a live-but-limping system typically shows results in weeks: dependable numbers first, then the backlog in priority order. Full recovery timelines come out of the assessment, in writing.
Project off the rails?
Talk to us before the next steering meeting, not after it. We rescue Odoo and MYOB Acumatica implementations for Australian businesses from Brisbane, starting with a fixed-fee assessment that tells you the truth about where the project stands.
Bring the war stories. Brisbane-based team, AEST business hours.