During a recent interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Sam Gupta, Founder & CEO of ElevatIQ, reflected on his journey in the ERP and digital transformation space. What began as an exploration of various industries eventually brought Sam back to his true calling—leveraging his deep expertise in ERP and enterprise architecture to help businesses navigate complex transformations. Over the years, Sam’s approach has evolved from chasing trends to honing in on his core strengths, allowing him to successfully guide numerous ERP projects and share valuable insights on overcoming common implementation challenges.
Sam Gupta has been a ERP thought leader in the digital transformation space for nearly two decades, with the primary focus on financial systems and ERP. Sam is rated as #1 thought leader in the ERP category and #15 in the digital transformation category on Thinkers 360. He is also among the top 100 thought leaders across all categories. He has been part of large transformation initiatives for fortune-500 corporations but now spends his time consulting with SMEs as a Principal Consultant at ElevatIQ. Sam regularly speaks at industry conferences and contributes his experiences through many popular blogs and publications. He also hosts a podcast called WBSRocks focused on business growth through digital transformation and ERP where he interviews top influencers and executives focused on digital transformation.
With nearly two decades of experience in the digital transformation and ERP space, what initially inspired you to focus on ERP and enterprise architecture, and how has your approach evolved over the years?
ERP and enterprise architecture wasn’t my first choice for building a business. I was lured by the shiniest technologies and upcoming trends in the startup ecosystem. So after practicing in the ERP and digital transformation space for over a decade, I decided to diverge and focus on other industries, such as real estate, medical device, and payment, which seemed compelling and easier to build at that time.
But that was a root awakening, realizing that building a startup requires focusing on core expertise and relationships. Pivoting to a completely new industry would mean starting from scratch, wasting the knowledge and relationship equity built over time.
Also, market was changing in the ERP and digital transformation space where the implementation and adoption failure rate still exceed over 50% where SMBs end up wasting their hard-earned money over failed implementation as they underestimate the efforts required to be successful with such implementation projects.
We have tried several business models over the years, finally honing our focus on independent and vendor-agnostic consulting on business transformation and processes, which has always been our core expertise.
You have successfully recovered more than 50 ERP projects with a net savings of over $100 million. Can you share some key strategies or insights that have contributed to these successful recoveries?
One reason why companies get in trouble with these implementations is because of the underappreciation of effort and expertise involved. Also, because of the overcommitment of all parties. Finally, any successful implementation requires making changes to data and process models, which is generally ignored — as technology is perceived to be more of a “magic wand.”
We go back to the drawing board by simplifying process and data models while building consensus on changed workflows. Once the technology-agnostic view of process and data model is documented along with an agreed enterprise architecture, we find candidates that led to overengineering, which generally lead to even more overengineering and technical backlogs.
It’s almost like one lie needs a thousand more. So, a root cause analysis is required to identify candidates of overengineering and a simplification plan, leading to not only simpler technology architecture but also scalable process and data models, ultimately removing unnecessary SG&A and improving profits margins for the companies.
As the host of the WBSRocks podcast, which ranks highly in the ERP and business transformation categories, how do you select topics and guests that will resonate with your audience and provide value to business leaders?
Our topics are largely driven by anything that touches our space, ranging from eCommerce, ERP, supply chain, digital transformation, and industry4.0. Most of our guests have gone through several cycles and can discuss transformation stories in depth.
Most of our guests are also seasoned business leaders managing businesses over $30M in revenue once they have outgrown the startup and lifestyle stage of the business. These businesses are often run by seasoned investors or private equity companies aiming to grow these businesses to the next financial inflection point. We try to stay away from any topics that would not provide substantial insights or educational experience that our listeners crave.
What, in your opinion, are the common challenges businesses face during ERP implementation projects, and how can they overcome them?
The challenges start from the get-go with overcommitment, and underappreciation of expertise required to be successful with these projects. The challenge is also a gap between business and technology teams. You have MBAs who may not have the real technical depth while technical teams lack the business and domain rationale, crucial for the success of these projects. Finally, the biggest challenge is the power struggle as most of these projects require cross-functional alignment while our organizational and compensation structures have traditionally been built with a siloed mindset.
This misalignment requires substantial rewiring of the organizational processes and mindset, requiring significant capital, psychological and effort commitment. Also, most organizations are myopic with their focus with their quarterly goals, which is the exact opposite of the mindset required to be successful with these projects.
Overcoming these challenges require planning for the right amount of capital aligned with the long-term cross-functional goals. It also requires building the right teams and compensation structures that will not only help in starting with these initiatives but also commit for a very long term, especially when things might not go as planned, especially with macroeconomic uncertainty, requiring rethinking of long-term projects.
As a thought leader recognized across various categories, including being the #1 thought leader in the ERP category on Thinkers 360, what advice would you give to companies looking to embark on a digital transformation journey, particularly in selecting and implementing ERP solutions?
I would recommend not following the noise present over the internet in selecting and implementing these systems. These initiatives require hiring seasoned experts with several selection and implementation projects under their belt. While technology has come a long way, their implementation and adoption are as challenging, if not more.
Think of this process as a complete rebuilding of a sports team from playing a solo sport such as Tennis to Baseball. It takes several years to change those organizational habits. Rushing to implement such changes quickly will only fire back and hurt in ways you would not expect.
