Stage 4 of 5
Client-Side SI Oversight
The SI works for you. We make sure it stays that way.
Recognition Pattern
You're here if…
- An SI is running your implementation and you feel like you've lost visibility into what's actually happening
- Status reports say "green" but your instincts say otherwise
- Scope is expanding, timelines are shifting, and change orders are accumulating
- Your internal team doesn't have the bandwidth or experience to govern a large-scale SI engagement
Risk Assessment
What's at risk
The SI's interests and the client's interests are not identical. This isn't adversarial — it's structural. The SI's revenue grows when scope expands. Their timeline flexibility increases when yours decreases. Change orders are profit centers, not exceptions.
Most client organizations are understaffed on the governance side of the table. The CIO has a day job. The project sponsor has competing priorities. The PMO — if it exists — is often reporting to the same leadership that approved the SI contract, creating a structural reluctance to raise red flags.
Without independent, embedded governance on the client side, the implementation is governed by the people being paid to deliver it. That's a conflict of interest that shows up in every distressed implementation we've audited.
The Implementation Success Data
- • 75% of ERP implementations fail to meet their objectives
- • Only 8% of SAP S/4HANA migrations complete on schedule
- • Organizations with dedicated internal project leadership see 2.5× higher success rates than those that delegate governance entirely to the SI
The Standish Group's research identifies executive sponsorship and user involvement as the top two factors in project success — and both require the client team to have available capacity.
When your best people are split between running JDE and overseeing the SI, neither happens at the level the program requires. Stage 4 exists because client-side governance isn't optional — it's the statistical differentiator between the 25% that succeed and the 75% that don't.
Sources: Gartner ERP research, Horvath SAP S/4HANA study 2025, Panorama Consulting, Standish Group CHAOS data
Deliverables
What Allari does
Embedded client-side leadership
Allari places experienced IT operations leaders inside the client's governance structure, not the SI's. Reporting to the CIO or project sponsor directly.
Milestone validation
Independent verification that deliverables meet the client's acceptance criteria, not just the SI's definition of done
Scope control
Monitoring change order volume, evaluating necessity, and flagging scope expansion before it becomes a budget overrun
Risk mitigation
Early identification of schedule risk, resource gaps, integration failures, and data migration quality issues. Escalation paths that go to the client, not the SI's steering committee.
SI accountability
Translating SI status reports into operational reality. When the dashboard says "green" and the environment says "yellow," someone needs to name the gap.
Transition planning
Ensuring the SI's exit plan includes actual knowledge transfer to the team that will run the environment post-go-live
Engagement Structure
How it works
Duration
Length of the implementation (typically 12–24 months)
Team size
Allari embeds 1–3 people on the client side depending on implementation scale
Reporting
Weekly governance reporting to CIO/project sponsor with independent assessment
Boundary
Allari does NOT run the implementation, manage the SI's team, or own deliverables. Allari is the client's eyes and ears.
Field Evidence
Proof
This stage is being formalized based on patterns observed across Allari's 27-year engagement history. Multiple client engagements have included elements of client-side governance — the service is now structured as a standalone offering.
The engagement archive documents $2.82 billion in ERP implementation failures. The common thread in every case: insufficient client-side governance during the SI engagement.
Ready to map your journey?
The Capacity Assessment identifies where you are, what's at risk, and what the operating model needs to support what's ahead. 45 minutes. Zero sales friction.