Digital Readiness in Transportation & Logistics
Table of Contents Why Digital Readiness Matters More Than Ever in Transportation & LogisticsPreparing Your Organization Before Technology Becomes the...
ERP Implementation Readiness Consulting
Your ERP Is Selected. Now Do the Work That Determines Whether the Implementation Succeeds.
Most implementations don't fail because of the software. They fail because the organization wasn't ready. Victoria Fide does the preparation work that changes that outcome — not a readiness audit, the preparation itself.
What this engagement covers
The Define, Build, and Enable steps of the Prepare stage — from contract signature through formal project kickoff. Victoria Fide does the preparation work itself, not just an assessment of whether it's been done.
70%
of ERP initiatives fail to fully meet their original business case goals.
Gartner, 2024
Signing the Contract Isn't the Starting Line. Preparation Is.
Most organizations reach contract signature energized and ready to move. The implementation vendor is lined up. The team is assembled. The pressure to show momentum is real.
So they start. And the first several weeks of implementation are spent on work that should have been finished before the project began: establishing what success actually means, clarifying who is responsible for what, identifying the organizational risks that will shape how the project unfolds, and building the plan that keeps everyone aligned when the hard decisions arrive.
That's not implementation. That's expensive, high-pressure preparation — done at the worst possible time.
The organizations that consistently deliver successful ERP implementations treat preparation as strategy. Success is defined before execution begins. The project team is built and assessed before the implementation partner is on the clock. Change strategy is developed before resistance has a chance to take hold. And every member of the project team enters execution with a documented plan: a shared understanding of what they're building toward and how they'll get there.
That preparation is what Victoria Fide's ERP Implementation Readiness engagement produces. It's what separates the organizations that implement successfully from the ones that struggle to catch up from week one.
What ERP Implementation Readiness Covers
Victoria Fide's ERP Implementation Readiness engagement covers the Define, Build, and Enable steps of Victoria Fide's Prepare stage: the work that transforms a signed contract into an organization that is genuinely ready to implement it successfully.
This engagement is independent of your software implementation partner. Your implementation partner is focused on configuring and deploying the system. Victoria Fide's focus is on ensuring your organization is ready to execute that deployment successfully: the right team, a documented plan, defined success criteria, and a change strategy already built in. Those are different bodies of work, and organizations that have both consistently outperform those that have only one.
The engagement closes with a formal project kickoff: a meeting of the full project team that launches execution with shared clarity on what is being built, how it will be managed, and what success looks like. Everything that happens before that moment is preparation. Everything that happens after is implementation.
For organizations with the bandwidth, meaningful readiness work can begin during the ERP selection process — project charters, the project management plan, and team assessment don't require a signed contract to get started. Beginning earlier compresses the time between contract signature and kickoff significantly. The right time to have that conversation is before selection concludes.
How the Engagement Works
Three Steps, One Outcome: Ready to Successfully Execute.
Step 01
Define
Every scope trade-off and priority call needs a reference point. Without one, decisions get made on instinct, momentum, or whoever has the most influence in the room. Define creates that reference point — before execution begins.
- Define success in your terms: specific, measurable outcomes the implementation is accountable for delivering
- Build the transformation roadmap and project charters
- Develop the project management plan that governs how execution will run
Step 02
Build
The quality of the internal project team is one of the strongest predictors of implementation success — and one of the most consistently underestimated decisions an organization makes. Most teams are staffed by availability. Build staffs them by fit.
- Assess candidates against the specific requirements of each project role
- Produce individual preparedness plans for team members who need targeted development
- Build the project plan, budget, and organizational change strategy
Step 03
Enable
A project can have the right plan and the right team and still run into obstacles that were visible before execution began — if anyone had looked for them. Enable is where Victoria Fide looks.
- Identify and actively address organizational barriers before implementation begins
- Surface stakeholder concerns through interviews before they become entrenched resistance
- Train project team members in how to execute their specific roles
- Build the OCM communication plan covering all audiences — internal and external
- Complete a final risk reassessment and conduct the formal project kickoff
What Sets This Engagement Apart
Preparation Done Properly — Not Just Assessed
Most organizations that seek outside help with implementation readiness get one of two things: a software vendor's pre-implementation discovery, scoped around what the vendor needs to begin configuration, or an assessment that diagnoses the gaps without doing anything to close them.
Victoria Fide's engagement does neither. It's not a readiness audit. It's the preparation work itself: the roadmap, the plan, the team assessment and assembly, the change strategy, the risk mitigation. Executed by consultants who have been inside complex implementations and know the difference between preparation that holds up under pressure and preparation that looks complete until the project begins.
The success criteria defined in this engagement are the same criteria Victoria Fide is accountable to in the implementation that follows. That accountability isn't incidental: it's why the preparation work is done rigorously, and why the organizations that complete it enter execution genuinely ready.
What You Receive
What ERP Implementation Readiness Produces
At the close of the Readiness engagement, the organization has everything a successful implementation requires before execution begins:
A roadmap and project charters that define what is being built and why
Business success criteria that make accountability possible throughout the project
A project management plan that establishes how decisions get made
A project plan with resource allocations and an honest project budget with realistic ranges
A project team assembled through structured assessment, with individual preparedness plans where needed
An organizational change strategy and an OCM communication plan that covers customers, vendors, and suppliers alongside internal stakeholders
An updated risk register with mitigation plans in place
A formally launched project team — equipped, aligned, and ready to execute
The organizations that enter execution with this foundation perform differently. That's not an assertion: it's the pattern Victoria Fide's team members have observed across hundreds of implementations, and it's why this work exists. The investment in this engagement varies based on the size and complexity of your organization — and is a fraction of what an unprepared implementation costs in time, budget, and organizational strain.
What Clients Say
Victoria Fide helped us select our ERP solution and prepare for our implementation. They reviewed our implementation plan and provided valuable feedback. One of the things we really appreciate about Victoria Fide is their corporate values. I am confident in their integrity and their expertise."
Brent Smith
CEO, The Aagard Group
When you ask them a question, you don't just get a yes or no answer. You get, 'Why are you doing it this way? Have you considered doing this? You should look into this instead.' We're paying for guidance, and that's what you get with Victoria Fide."
Marty Montplaisir
R.D. Offutt Company
The Experience Behind the Work
Victoria Fide's advisory team is led by Tory Bjorklund, who has been involved in technology implementations since 1987 — across manufacturing, distribution, and enterprise-scale organizations — and Adele Graser, who has guided complex ERP and digital transformation initiatives since 2014. The methodology Victoria Fide brings to every engagement is built from that combined experience, not borrowed from a framework.
Common Questions
ERP Implementation Readiness
Answers to what executive leaders ask most before engaging.
When should we start the readiness work?
Earlier than most organizations expect. Project charters, the project management plan, and team assessment don't require a signed ERP contract: they depend on your business objectives, project structure, and team, not on which system you selected. For organizations with the bandwidth, starting readiness work during the selection process meaningfully compresses the time between contract signature and kickoff. The right conversation to have is before selection concludes, not after.
We've already done some of this work internally. Do we still need this engagement?
It depends on how complete that work is and how rigorously it was done. Many organizations have started pieces of the preparation: a project charter drafted, a team assembled, some roles defined. But they haven't subjected that work to the scrutiny that surfaces the gaps. For organizations in this position, Victoria Fide uses a preparedness assessment to establish what's been done and what's been done well enough to build on. What's solid becomes the foundation. What's missing or insufficient gets addressed. The engagement is scoped to where the organization actually is, not where it assumed it was.
We didn't use Victoria Fide for ERP selection. Can we still engage for readiness?
Yes. Victoria Fide will conduct the discovery needed to establish the foundation the engagement requires. The starting point is slightly different; what the engagement produces is the same. If you're still in the ERP selection process, that's also a good time to have this conversation — readiness work can begin before the contract is signed.
How does this connect to implementation support?
The deliverables from the Readiness engagement don't end at kickoff. The project management plan, the project plan, the success criteria, the change strategy: these become the governing documents for the implementation that follows. For organizations that continue with Victoria Fide through implementation, this work is the foundation everything else is built on.
ERP Implementation Readiness: The Work That Determines Whether Your Implementation Succeeds
A conversation with Victoria Fide is where that work begins. No obligation, no sales pitch, just an honest assessment of where your organization is and what it needs to be ready to implement successfully.
Where to go next
Need embedded advisors during execution? ERP Implementation Advisory and Support
Need dedicated project leadership to keep the implementation on plan? ERP Project Management & Governance
Additional Resources
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