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28 July 2026· 4 min readadoptionsoftwareprocesses

How to measure system adoption (and why "go-live" means nothing)

The system is live, but people work in parallel in Excel. Four simple indicators that tell you whether the investment is producing results.

“We implemented the ERP” is a statement about the vendor, not about your company. The right question is: is work being done in it? Here are four indicators you can track weekly, from the second week after go-live.

1. Transaction rate in the system

How many daily operations (receipts, orders, consumption, deliveries) are recorded in the system as they happen – versus entered later from paper or Excel? Target: over 90% in real time after 8 weeks.

2. Data quality

How many records have empty mandatory fields, unchanged default values, or later corrections? A high share shows people are “getting through” the screen to escape it, not using it.

3. Parallel solutions

How many Excel files, notebooks or WhatsApp groups have appeared to cover what the system “doesn’t do”? Each is a signal that a process wasn’t configured correctly – or wasn’t explained.

4. Time per operation

How long does a receipt, an order, a day-end take – compared to before? In the first weeks it goes up; if after 2 months it hasn’t dropped below the previous level, something is wrong in configuration or training.

What to do with them

Discuss them weekly with key users and adjust the system, not just the people. Many mismatches are solved with a setting, a simplified screen or a removed rule – but only if you see them in time.

Adoption is a project objective, not a side effect. That’s how we treat it.

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