The phrase that ruins every eCommerce project: "Just connect it to our ERP."
This article discusses the common pitfalls in eCommerce projects when integrating new storefronts with legacy ERP systems. The author argues that treating complex system integrations as simple tasks leads to project failure and suggests that these integrations require distinct planning and ownership.
Why it matters
It highlights a critical operational risk in digital transformation projects that often leads to significant budget overruns and technical debt.
Four words show up in almost every eCommerce project we take on here at Neuralab: “ Just connect it to our ERP. “ They usually drop near the end of a kickoff call, tossed out as casually as asking for the Wi-Fi password.
The word doing all the heavy lifting (and all the damage) there is just . It’s the word that turns a monolithic beast of a legacy system that nobody in the room fully understands into a neat little line item some project manager expects to close in a two-week sprint.
I want to make an argument that sounds painfully obvious once you say it out loud, yet gets completely ignored on most projects: building a new store and connecting it to the systems already running the business are not the same sport . Heck, they’re barely the same project!
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