Insights

Essays at the intersection of process, software, and people.

Long-form analysis on enterprise software adoption, the 2027 ECC migration cycle, healthcare workflow systems, and the human factors of complex organizational change. New essays roughly monthly.

  • May 2026

    The Adoption Gap: Why Technically Successful S/4HANA Migrations Still Fail

    The 2027 deadline has compressed the largest enterprise software migration cycle in a generation into eighteen months of active execution. The technical literature is thorough. The adoption literature is almost nonexistent. Here's what 30 years of human factors research tells us about which migrations land standing.

    Adoption
  • Late May 2026

    The May 31 Cliff: A Practical Guide to the SAP S/4HANA Compatibility Pack Expiration

    On May 31, 2026, usage rights for a long list of compatibility-mode functions expire. Most ECC customers still on those functions don't have a remediation plan. Here's how to triage what you actually use, what the SAP-native equivalents are, and how to make the case for the work to your CFO when the deadline is already past.

    Adoption
  • June 2026

    Fit-to-Standard, From the Outside: An Industrial Engineer's First Read of SAP Activate

    A working-through of SAP's official implementation methodology from the perspective of someone trained in industrial engineering process design. Where the methodology is rigorous, where it has interesting silences, and what it gets right that other ERP methodologies miss.

    Forthcoming
  • July 2026

    Greenfield, Brownfield, Bluefield: A Decision Framework for the Migration Path That Won't Embarrass You

    The greenfield/brownfield/selective decision is usually framed as a technical question. It is not. It is a change-management question with technical consequences. A practical framework for matching migration path to organizational readiness — including the brutal honesty most consulting firms won't deliver.

    Forthcoming
  • August 2026

    What 22 Fintech Teams at AWS Taught Me About Enterprise Adoption

    Patterns I noticed across three and a half years of enterprise UX research at AWS Fintech R&D — what worked, what consistently didn't, and what the data says about why. Translates directly to the choices your S/4HANA program is making this quarter.

    Forthcoming
  • September 2026

    How an IRS Enrolled Agent Reads SAP FI: Five Things I Wish I'd Known Earlier

    Where U.S. federal tax representation training and S/4HANA Financial Accounting overlap, conflict, and inform each other. A small but useful intersection that nobody else seems to be writing about.

    Forthcoming
  • October 2026

    Clean Core, Dirty Reality: What "Keep the Core Clean" Actually Means for Process Owners

    SAP's clean core narrative is technically coherent and organizationally naive. Here's what the principle costs you in process design, where the legitimate exceptions are, and how to write a clean-core governance policy your business will actually follow.

    Forthcoming
  • November 2026

    Joule, Agents, and the Adoption Question Nobody Is Asking

    SAP now ships 40+ specialized agents and 2,400+ Joule Skills. The product roadmap is well-covered. The adoption question — which agents will actually be used, by whom, with what guardrails — is barely being discussed. A research-grounded read.

    Forthcoming
  • December 2026

    From PhD Research to ERP Delivery: Translating Rigor to Business Outcomes

    A piece for academic researchers considering industry consulting, and for industry consulting partners considering academic researcher hires. The translation is harder than either side usually acknowledges, and it's worth doing well.

    Forthcoming
  • January 2027

    365 Days to ECC End-of-Life: A Mid-Cycle Assessment of Where Migrations Stand

    A year before the December 2027 deadline, the population of S/4HANA migrations sorts itself into three groups: ahead of schedule, on schedule, and committed-but-not-going-to-make-it. A field-level assessment of each, what each is doing right, and what the laggards still have time to do.

    Forthcoming
  • February 2027

    Healthcare Workflow Systems and the Lessons They Hold for ERP Adoption

    Two decades of healthcare human factors research has produced a body of evidence on workflow disruption that the ERP world has barely consulted. The transferable findings — and the ones that don't transfer.

    Forthcoming
  • March 2027

    Why the 2027 Migration Wave Will Repeat the 2009 ECC Mistakes (And How to Be the Exception)

    The patterns that defined ECC adoption fifteen years ago — over-customization, under-investment in change, late hypercare planning — are recurring at scale right now in S/4HANA programs. Documented, with diagnostic questions to ask of your own program.

    Forthcoming
  • April 2027

    The Adoption Gap, One Year Later: What I've Learned from Reader Mail and Twelve Programs

    A retrospective on the first essay in this series. What held up, what I got wrong, and what working consultants have written back to tell me. The empirical update to the human-factors argument.

    Forthcoming

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Roughly one essay a month. No marketing, no funnels, no subject lines designed to manipulate you. Just the writing.

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