News & views - 180Systems

Why ERP Projects Fail Before They Start

April 21, 2026 | 0 Comments | Alex Miles

ERP implementation issues are often caused by gaps in project planning before the project begins. No Defined Core Team A common issue is starting your implementation without a clearly defined core team. If there is no internal project manager and roles and responsibilities are not assigned, the team members responsible for delivering a successful project will be confused and frustrated early. Tasks and follow-ups will be missed and the project will be delayed with potential budget over-runs. Define your core team early! Unclear Project Expectations The level of effort required for project success from your internal team is often underestimated […]

180 Systems Can You Have Too Many Requirements

Can You Have Too Many Requirements When Selecting an ERP System?

April 20, 2026 | 0 Comments | Michael Burns

YES! It seems like some consulting companies are getting paid based on the number of requirements in their RFP. And companies doing it without consultants can access templates with thousands of requirements and think it better to include them than risk problems later. If requirements are gathered from a review of business processes, it’s easy to get bogged down in too much detail about basic requirements that any decent system will include these days. Another trap is to include requirements for each business process when a generic requirement (like attaching documents to any transaction or master file) will suffice. Our […]

Why Does Every Integration Feel Like the First One?

April 8, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

I’ve been living in two worlds lately. The first is research. Clean, structured, logical. It tells me exactly what organizations should be doing in integration. The second is operators. People who’ve done 30, 50, 150+ deals. Here’s the interesting part: They agree. Start integration early they say, align leadership, build the playbooks and don’t forget to capture lessons learned. Make sure to treat integration like a capability. So naturally, you’d expect consistent success, but no. Most integrations still underdeliver. Not dramatically, just quietly. Missed synergies, slow execution, talent walking out the door. So, what’s going on? We start too late… […]

Most Deals Don’t Fail. They Decay.

April 7, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

Everyone loves to quote the stat. Depending on the source, somewhere between 50% and 90% of acquisitions fail. It’s a wide range, which usually means we’re measuring different things, but the direction is consistent enough to be uncomfortable. Roughly half of acquisitions destroy value for the acquirer, and only about 30% to 50% fully deliver the synergies that justified the deal in the first place. None of this is new. We’ve known it for decades. What I find more interesting is not the statistic itself, but the fact that it hasn’t changed despite how much smarter we’ve become at everything […]

Pre-close Influence vs Post-close Accountability

April 7, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

There’s a quiet structural flaw in how most M&A deals are done. It doesn’t show up in the model; it doesn’t sit in the risk register; and yet it’s one of the most reliable ways to lose value. The people who shape the deal are not the ones responsible for delivering it. By the time the operators arrive, the assumptions are already locked in, the commitments are already made, and the clock has already started. Take Cadbury. The narrative most people remember is emotional: a beloved brand, a hostile bidder, a defence mounted with conviction. The reality is far more […]

Letting Go

March 25, 2026 | 0 Comments | Michael Burns

Are you ready to let go of decision making and allow AI to make decision for you whether it’s placing a PO or scheduling service for equipment. That’s what’s coming if you listen to the hype. There are a lot of control freaks that would never let go – and I understand that. But what if you’re open to change and just looking for efficiency and cost savings? Let’s consider purchasing and ask whether AI can improve it. As you may know, MRP (Material Requirements Planning) has been the workhorse for suggesting what to buy for 50 years. It suggests […]

Design, by Design. How PLM Modernizes Apparel Development

March 24, 2026 | 0 Comments | Jeremy Turner

Design is the backbone of every apparel company, but the sheer volume and pace of modern fashion make the design process more complex than ever. Working on multiple seasonal drops, replenishment programs and retail-driven assortments means that apparel companies can manage hundreds or thousands of new designs each year. Before a single style reaches production, it passes through design, merchandising, planning, product development, sourcing, and finance. Each team contributes sketches, BOMs, measurements, costing, vendor quotes and sample reviews. The amount of coordination and cross-functional collaboration can be monumental, which is why many have found implementing a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) […]

When Technology Due Diligence Doesn’t Move the Needle (1)

When Tech Due Diligence Doesn’t Move the Needle

March 23, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

Most Technology Due Diligence reports are thorough. Painfully thorough. They catalogue systems, they map infrastructure, they inventory applications with the enthusiasm of someone counting grains of sand on a beach. And yet, after all that work, many of them do not actually change the deal decision. So, I ran a poll in the Forbes Leadership Think Tank community asking a simple question: Where does Tech Due Diligence most often fall short? Results were interesting… None of these surprised me, what surprised me was how evenly they reinforce the same underlying problem. Technology Due Diligence often answers the wrong question because […]

AI in M&A: Useful Intern, Terrible Deal Lead

March 18, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

AI is having a moment in M&A advisory. Depending on who you ask, it is either quietly transforming how M&A advisory firms operate or about to replace half the diligence ecosystem. Both statements are wrong, but one sells better. The truth sits somewhere in the middle. AI is helpful in M&A. It is not decisive. And it certainly is not accountable. Right now, AI shows up best as an extremely fast, extremely literal intern inside the M&A advisory process. It reads everything. It flags patterns. It never gets tired. It also has absolutely no idea why something matters. That distinction […]

Green Does Not Mean Safe in Technology Due Diligence

February 24, 2026 | 0 Comments | Amanda David

A green technology due diligence report does not mean low integration risk. In this short video, Amanda, Senior Consultant at 180 Systems, explains why stable systems do not guarantee stable dependencies – and why integration lives between teams, not platforms. [/vc_row] […]