Summary

Businesses across the globe lose millions — even billions — of dollars each year due to failed IT and ERP transformations. Some studies report failure rates as high as 70–80%. What are the critical blind spots that prevent top management from identifying the right strategy to ensure success?

Businesses frequently overlook the critical human and behavioral elements in IT transformations, focusing mainly on technology. This article reveals the costly blind spot in IT and ERP projects, advocating for a specialized Behavioral IT approach to bridge the gap between strategy, technology, and people. Appointing a senior Behavioral IT leader ensures smoother transitions, fewer failures, and lasting business impact by managing both the technical and human aspects of change.

Click on Related Articles to see more articles on IT.

Introduction

What makes these failures so costly is that they typically occur at the final stage—implementation—when companies have already invested heavily in software, hardware, networking infrastructure, consultants, and sometimes even new facilities. At this point, it is too late and too expensive to turn back. During this phase, hundreds of people across the organization, from top to bottom, are involved, affected, and often left frustrated by the outcome.

After months or years of effort, organizations often reach the painful realization that their hard work and investment have gone in vain. The system they finally receive falls short of expectations, often failing to meet even the most basic requirements.

So, what’s going wrong? What’s missing in the way businesses approach IT transformation that leads to such disheartening outcomes?

Are leaders unknowingly overlooking a critical factor — something so fundamental, yet so invisible, that it slips past every project plan and progress review?

That overlooked factor is what I call the multi-million-dollar blind spot in IT transformation.

What exactly is that blind spot of IT Transformation?

Over Emphasis on Infrastructure, Nil on Application Lifecycle

As a result, senior positions in IT departments are often filled by infrastructure or networking experts, while software and applications, which directly impact business processes and people, are left to relatively junior professionals or outsourced entirely to external consultants.

This imbalance explains why a majority of IT and ERP projects fail, with estimates of failure or partial success rates as high as 70–80%.

The truth is: automation is not about technology—it is about people, behavior, and mindset. Technology merely enables change; it is the people who must adopt it, adapt to it, and make it successful.

That's why every organization embarking on IT-driven transformation needs not just an infrastructure expert, but a senior professional skilled in Behavioral IT—a unique blend of IT knowledge, business process understanding, and behavioral psychology, as defined in Behavioral IT^® framework (see Related Articles).

The Missing Link in IT Success: Behavioral IT^®

A Behavioral IT-aware senior professional is not just a technologist but a change strategist who:

• Understands how automation impacts people's roles and sense of control.
• Anticipates behavioral resistance from users and managers.
• Guides top management through the psychological and organizational complexities of digital transformation.

How a Behavioral IT Expert Adds Value at Every Stage of the IT/ERP Lifecycle

1. Requirements Study: Getting the Foundation Right

A common reason for failure is poor requirement study—caused by time pressure, lack of senior involvement, and communication gaps between IT and users.

One of the major causes of poor requirement studies in IT or ERP projects is the lack of active involvement of senior management.

Quite often, junior or mid-level executives are assigned to provide inputs during requirement studies. They are familiar only with their own limited tasks within a larger process. Because of the division of labor, they see just their piece of the puzzle.

They lack visibility into the broader workflow, which is distributed across multiple individuals. They lack the vision about how their tasks connect to the broader business purpose.

Senior executives, on the other hand, clearly understand the goals and objectives of their departments — they know what needs to be achieved. However, they are often unaware of the specific steps their teams are taking to get there, or the detailed execution carried out by their teams.

One Department Head actually exclaimed in shock, "They will put me in jail!" when I explained to him how his team was actually working.

This disconnect creates a serious gap:

• Top managers (especially Heads of Departments) know the 'why' but not the 'how'.
• Operational staff know the 'how' but not the 'why'.

A Behavioral IT professional ensures:

• Involvement of senior user stakeholders who can articulate long-term business goals.
• A deep understanding of user psychology—how people express, hide, or distort their needs.
• A balanced approach where both IT and users co-own the solution instead of working in silos.
• A proper requirement gathering by understanding the "what" of the processes from the junior operational staff and the "why" of the process from the department head, and then ensuring that the process achieves the goal by re-engineering the process.

2. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): Changing Processes, Changing Minds

A Behavioral IT expert:

• Helps users accept the need for process change instead of clinging to outdated methods.
• Guides teams to align with global best practices built into ERP systems rather than customizing software to match old inefficiencies.
• Builds psychological readiness among users through coaching, communication, and gradual mental alignment.

3. System Design, Mapping, and Development: Minimizing Risk and Rework

The expert ensures:

• User participation without over-expectation, avoiding unrealistic demands that derail timelines.
• Strong governance to resist unnecessary customization requests pushed by powerful departments.
• Cross-departmental collaboration, reducing conflicts and political tussles that slow progress.

4. Resist the Time Pressure — Don't Let Speed Kill Your IT Project

In most organizations, time pressure is the silent killer of good IT design.

Severe misconceptions about IT often lead to sky-high expectations from both management and end users. As a result, IT departments are often under severe pressure to deliver solution fast and provide quick resolution for all their problems.

The result?

A hurried requirements study, a half-baked design — and documentation becomes the first casualty.

A seasoned Behavioral IT expert knows how to push back smartly, not defensively. They:

• Negotiate intelligently with users and management to create a win–win situation — addressing urgency without compromising quality.
• Balance priorities with precision, ensuring that critical requirements are met first while minor ones are strategically deferred to later versions.
• Insist on proper documentation, not as bureaucracy but as an investment for the future — the safety net that protects the system, the business, and the people who depend on it.

Because in IT transformations, going faster isn't success — going right is.

5. Testing and Implementation: The Crucial Transition Phase

The Behavioral IT professional:

• Prepares users mentally for trial runs, parallel runs, and teething issues.
• Manages expectations of top management, explaining why initial productivity dips are normal.
• Facilitates inter-departmental empathy, ensuring IT and users work as partners, not adversaries.

6. Post-Implementation: Ensuring Adoption and Continuous Improvement

The Behavioral IT expert ensures:

• Sustained usage through behavioral reinforcement and continuous handholding.
• Feedback loops that convert resistance into collaboration.
• Development of an IT-aware culture, where departments feel ownership and enthusiasm for future automation.

Why Seniority Matters

Without such seniority:

• IT staff succumb to demands for excessive customization.
• Poorly conceived shortcuts are taken under delivery pressure.
• The deeper behavioral issues remain unaddressed.
• Documentation is the biggest casualty, which may not be so dangerous immediately, but proves fatal later.

The Payoff for Top Management

• Reduced project failures and rework costs
• Shorter implementation timeframes
• Lower stress and conflict between IT and business teams
• Stronger collaboration and higher employee morale
• Sustained business gains from automation rather than temporary disruption

In Conclusion

It's time companies stop equating IT leadership with server rooms and cables, and instead appoint a senior Behavioral IT professional—someone who understands technology, business processes, and the psychology of change.

Such a person doesn't just ensure a successful project; they ensure a smooth evolution of the organization itself into the information age—with less stress, more success, and lasting business impact.

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