Continuous ERP Improvement

Going live with your ERP isn’t the finish line — it’s closer to the starting gun. That’s the framing Frank and Carson Coles use for this podcast-style conversation about everything that happens after implementation. They open with a simple but uncomfortable stat: only about 10% of companies using a modern ERP ever actually reach what they call the “maturity” phase, and roughly a quarter of go-lives fail — usually not because the software was wrong, but because the follow-through (what they call hypercare, then continuous improvement) never happened. Frank and Carson walk through what that post-go-live curve typically looks like — stabilization, maturity, expansion — and get specific about the kinds of projects that tend to show up in that second phase: better scheduling and on-time delivery, real reporting and bottleneck visibility, automating repetitive multi-step tasks, and increasingly, going paperless. They also spend real time on the human side: how to build user adoption without burning goodwill, why celebrating small failures openly can be more useful than perfect training, and when it’s worth reassessing priorities rather than pushing through. Along the way they introduce Genius’s own post-implementation offering — a dedicated strategic advisor with a banked-hours package — plus a preview of where Genius is headed with AI and agentic tools inside the ERP. If your team went live and then… stopped, this conversation is aimed squarely at you.

What You’ll Learn In This Webinar

Chapter 1 — The Continuous Improvement Cycle

Frank and Carson describe a study on what typically happens after go-live: an initial “hypercare” or stabilization period where hand-holding is essential, followed by a maturity curve where teams get comfortable — though “comfortable” can also mean people quietly falling back to old, easier habits rather than fully using the new system as scoped.

Chapter 2 — Expansion and Maturity

As people get more comfortable, they often start pushing beyond the original scope, asking “could this also do X?” — which kicks off an expansion phase, either reassessing how work is done or simply doing more with what’s already in place. Frank cites a statistic that stuck with him: only about 10% of companies using a modern ERP actually reach that maturity phase.

Chapter 3 — The Importance of Continuous Evolution

Frank stresses that teams are never really “done” — employee needs and business realities keep shifting. He cites research showing roughly 25% of go-lives fail, largely from a lack of post-go-live optimization, alongside cited figures of about 70% improved data quality and 133% average ROI after implementation — with those who actually reach maturity getting far more value, something Frank says is backed up by Genius’s own published case studies.

Chapter 4 — Standardization and Measurement

Carson explains that implementation’s first real value is standardizing data collection — you can’t identify big wins until you have a consistent way to measure what’s happening. Frank adds that this also breaks down silos and creates forced accountability between departments, since actions in the system are now visible to everyone rather than hidden in someone’s personal spreadsheet.

Chapter 5 — Common Post Implementation Opportunities

Carson runs through the recurring themes: improving scheduling and on-time delivery, adding reports and metrics (referencing the DBR/bottleneck methodology they favor), and automating repetitive multi-step tasks so people only need to manage the exceptions rather than every routine step.

Chapter 6 — Digitalization and Automation Trends

Carson notes paper’s practical downsides as a “quality control nightmare” compared to digital tracking. Frank points to Genius’s growing set of out-of-the-box integrations (drawing-based estimating, nesting, document management) built on its APIs, plus the newly released Cortex chatbot — which he says gives a genuinely useful, detailed answer roughly one time in three and points users to Genius Academy, something he sees as a real step toward user self-sufficiency.

“Sentiment is infectious.” — Carson

Chapter 7 — Managing User Adoption

Frank frames this as making sure people know what the next step is and feel ready for it. Simple scorecards — like how many orders someone enters per week, or how often a timesheet needs correcting — can flag comfort level during hypercare without needing anything elaborate.

Chapter 8 — Learning from Failures

Frank shares that formal soft-skills training for identifying “champion” personalities didn’t really stick as a paid service, though consultants still use those instincts informally. He also describes a customer who ran a weekly “biggest fail of the week” share-out — which surfaced a costing method allowing negative inventory that nobody had noticed, fixed early because people felt safe admitting mistakes rather than hiding them.

Chapter 9 — The Role of Strategic Advisors

Carson and Frank note it’s fine to step back and reprioritize instead of forcing an approach that isn’t landing — and that ignoring employee-driven ideas often backfires, pushing people to quietly build their own shadow tools in Excel that undermine the ERP’s single-source-of-truth goal. On customization versus standardization, Frank explains Genius keeps its core system standardized for data integrity, while still offering triggers, Power Automate, webhooks, and APIs for automation — some customers have built their own web interfaces for production tracking or quick order entry. This leads into Genius’s strategic-advisor offering: keeping the same dedicated consultant after go-live, with a banked-hours package, quarterly reviews, and a shared project-tracking system for action items — available at a limited-time discount for anyone who mentions this webinar before year-end.

Chapter 10 — Future Proofing Your ERP System

Carson defines future-proofing as avoiding getting locked into heavy customization that becomes hard to unwind later. Frank tells a trade-show story about a customer who didn’t realize their decade-old, unupgraded version of Genius was effectively a different piece of software — contrasting that with Genius’s current “keep it up” plan that auto-updates customers to the newest version at no extra fee.

Chapter 11 — Balancing Customization and Standardization

Carson compares over-customizing to bolting too many accessories onto a bike — the more you add, the more likely something eventually breaks. Standard tools stay supported and evolve automatically, and Frank notes Genius’s roughly ten active integration partners (including CAD2BOM with Inventor/SolidWorks, HubSpot, and tax/payment connectors) are making third-party integration increasingly plug-and-play. Frank also previews Genius’s growing work on agentic AI, teasing an upcoming keynote session hosted by Christian Pouliot specifically on what AI/agentic tools can (and can’t yet) do inside the ERP.

Chapter 12 — Conclusion and Next Steps

Frank points attendees to a QR code for booking a free business review with the customer success team — separate from the paid strategic-advisor program — open to anyone wanting to talk through their roadmap, whether they’re mid-implementation or well past go-live.

Chapter 13 — Upcoming Open Mic Session Announcement

Frank announces a live open-mic follow-up session the following week for existing customers, where he and Carson will ask attendees directly about their post-implementation priorities and take questions in real time.

Chapter 14 — Engagement and Customer Feedback

In closing Q&A: the strategic-advisor package includes roughly 16 hours per quarter (about 10 of which are dedicated support), scoped flexibly with your consultant; free business reviews are available to both new and existing customers through customer success; and Frank shares a shortened list of common automations from a past webinar — exchange rate updates, routing-time averages, BOM updates, standard cost/price list updates, and attachment automation (auto-linking work instructions, scanned test reports/MTRs, drawings, or G-code to the right job) — alongside a growing roster of roughly ten active integration partners.