Why Do Software Integrations Fail?

According to IDC, up to 50% of IT projects require material rework. That’s not the same thing as an outright failure—but it should give an indication of just how low the batting average is for most software projects.

Of course, most folks in the supply chain and last mile delivery area already know that successful software integrations are crucial to success. With processes increasingly dominated by new technologies as delivery businesses undergo digital transformations across the board, having the right technology stack is more important than ever. And the right technology stack is dependent on—among other things—successful integration between technologies. 

In spite of this importance, many businesses struggle with effective software integrations—and many integration projects ultimately fail, leaving the buyer with a lot of wasted time and money. Luckily, there are ways to avoid this fate. 

How Important Is Successful Software Integration?

Imagine you’re a major retailer—of furniture, of building supplies, you name it—and you’re in the market for a new last mile delivery solution. You’ve got key stakeholders across a number of teams, from IT to sales and customer support, all of whom have their own requirements. 

Your goal is to improve the efficiency of your delivery routes by reducing the total number of miles traveled by your drivers—but in order to turn this reduction in miles into real cost savings, your newly upgraded last mile processes have to work with the existing processes and technologies that surround it. This means sharing data back and forth seamlessly with a number of different solutions, including:

• ERP systems
• POS software
• Telematics
• Business intelligence (BI) software
• Customer engagement tools
• Warehouse management software

This isn’t an exhaustive list. But how nicely your last mile delivery software plays with these other solutions can make or break your project. If, for instance, you can’t reliably capture orders from your point of sale system, your sales team will be flying blind in terms of how quickly they can promise deliveries to their customers. They may be promising delivery dates that the last mile team can’t possibly deliver—simply because they don’t have any real insight into what’s realistic.

Not only does this set customers up for disappointment, it creates friction between teams—and can even lead to shadow IT deployments to fix perceived gaps. Ultimately, this can lead to rework, silos, and other serious issues down the road. 

Conversely, when you get things right the first time, everyone in the organization has the visibility they need. Delivery planning and execution are an open book, and delivery routes are generated based on the latest data from the warehouse, your ERP, and beyond. This is where you actually get the value you were promised in the demo. 

So what pitfalls do you have to avoid to make this kind of integration a reality? Here are four crucial ones:

Why Do Software Integration Projects Go Wrong?

When software projects go south, there’s often more than one cause. But broadly speaking, there are a handful of items that it’s worth looking out for.  

• Poorly defined requirements: Like we mentioned above, there will be a large number of stakeholders in any given IT project, including numerous teams that may only be touching the new software solution lightly—or may not be touching it at all. Make sure your actual requirements for integration are mapped out thoroughly before you embark on a project like this. You don’t want to realize six months into a complex IT integration that, say, you actually need your driver mobile app to be able to scan entire pallets based on a barcode and send that data back to your other system and it lacks the functionality to do so. 
• Failing to plan for scale: What looks good in a pilot project may, for any number of reasons, not work as well when the rubber hits the road. It might turn out that centralized routing for large numbers of branches is something that your last mile route optimization solution can’t actually handle without slowing down—meaning you’ll have to rethink the way you operationalize the software or start your procurement process from scratch. Likewise, you’ll need to ensure that you have the ability to deploy the software in a repeatable manner across multiple different locations. Here, things like adequate training, high levels of data visibility, and ease of use can be just as important as processing power.  
• Failing to right-size the deployment: What exactly do you want your last mile or other software solution to handle? How widely should it be deployed throughout your organization? How many different data connections will there be? Who will train new users on it, and what will that involve? What will be the division of labor between your own IT staff and the provider’s team? You’ll need answers to those questions to figure out the right number of resources to devote to this project and to scope out how long it will take. Many failed IT projects fail precisely because the company didn’t devote enough time and resources to actually ensuring success. 
• Not getting the right support from your software provider: Of course, time and effort are a two way street. You also need your software provider to do some heavy lifting, and you want to be sure they’re up for it before you undergo a project with them. Some solutions involving lighter implementations (and usually lighter use cases) will offer self-serve implementation options—and those are great when they’re feasible. But for heavier options you need a provider who’s able to give you the support you need to get things up and running. If you wind up in a position where your integration is stuck and no one from the provider will answer your phone calls, you’re going to struggle to achieve ROI on any type of software solution. 

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How to Spot the Right Provider to Ensure a Smooth Implementation Process

Some software implementations really do fail because of a lack of provider support. If the software solution provider isn’t invested in making sure their solution works for your operations, then there’s really no guarantee of success. That’s why choosing the right provider is key to ensuring successful software integration. 

Sure, your own IT teams are going to do a lot of the heavy lifting—but in a perfect world, it’s a team effort. You’re not just buying a few licenses, you’re entering into a partnership. When you evaluate potential software options from the perspective of partnership, rather than simply checking off a list of features and functionality, you can look at your potential options with fresh eyes. Maybe one particular option is less expensive, but might prove more costly in the long run than an option that’s more committed to your ongoing success. 

After all, the features you need now might not necessarily be the features you need in a few years. Your needs will evolve over time, and you’ll need your capabilities to evolve to match. Likewise, as your tech stack evolves, each individual component will need to find a way to keep up. This is where true technology partners show their stripes. 

When you partner with someone who has a track record of successful implementations—and ongoing success with happy customers of all shapes and sizes—you can put yourself in a position to avoid the pitfalls we’ve been outlining above. Not only that, you can set yourself up for future success in a way that helps ensure better and better performance over time.