It started well. A new system to replace the spreadsheets and the old software everyone complained about. A vendor who understood the business. A go-live date a few months away.
Now that date has passed, the invoices keep coming, the relationship with the vendor has become tense, and your team is still working the old way. At some point every owner in this position asks the same question: do we push on, or cut our losses and start again?
The answer is usually clearer than it feels. These five questions will tell you which way to go.
1. What was promised, and what has actually been delivered?
Go back to the contract, the statement of work and the change requests, and compare them with what exists today. Not what the vendor says is nearly ready, but what your people can actually use. Many stalled projects turn out to be closer to finished than they feel, while others are much further away than the vendor admits. You need to know which you have.
2. Does the contract still protect you?
Look at how payments are triggered. If you pay by the month rather than by what is delivered, the vendor has little reason to finish. Check whether there is a final deadline, a cap on costs, and what happens if milestones are missed. A project with weak terms can often be rescued, but the terms usually need to change first.
3. Does your team trust the system?
The people who will use it every day know whether it fits the work. If they have tested it on real jobs and found it broadly right, the problems are probably fixable. If they have given up on it, or were never really involved, that is a bigger warning sign than any technical issue.
4. Is the problem the system, the vendor, or the way the project is being run?
These have different answers. A sound system with a poorly run project can usually be recovered with better planning and clearer ownership. A capable vendor stretched too thin may need firmer governance. A system that fundamentally doesn't fit your business is the one case where starting again may be cheaper.
5. What would finishing really cost, compared with starting again?
Be honest about both. Starting again means a new selection, a new contract, new data migration and months more on the old way of working. Finishing means paying for the remaining work and probably renegotiating. The money already spent is gone either way; the question is which path gets you to a working system sooner and more cheaply from here.
What usually happens
Many stalled projects are worth saving. What they need is an independent view of where things really stand, one realistic plan with clear milestones, a contract that ties payments to delivery, and testing done by your own people on real work before you accept anything.
Where we can help
Implementation Rescue starts with exactly that independent review: what was promised, what was paid for and what has been delivered. We then run the project with the vendor week by week, renegotiate the terms where they no longer protect you, and design the tests your team uses to accept the system. If you need ongoing senior ownership once it is live, an On-Demand CTO can take that on.
