A few numbers

67% of enterprise software features are never used. (Source: Gartner, 2024)

Companies that actively track adoption see up to a 30% higher ROI on digital initiatives compared to those that don't. (Source: Gartner, 2023)

Put together, these two data points say only one thing: you pay for something you don't use, and you don't notice it because you aren't measuring the right things. The vendor cashed in. The project is technically closed. The result, in daily practice, has remained on paper.

What really happens in the first weeks after go-live

The sequence is almost always the same.

A training session is organized, often just one, lasting half a day, where the vendor shows how the system works. The people present listen, some take notes, many nod without really understanding. Then they go back to their desks, to their habits, to their routine. The software is there. But nobody opens it willingly.

In the following days, the first difficulties arrive: something doesn't work as expected, a function cannot be found, a colleague doesn't know how to answer. Resistance consolidates. Within a few weeks, those who can bypass it. Those who can't use it to the bare minimum.

The most common reasons and the one nobody mentions

• Insufficient or poorly designed training:

  A single session is not enough. People learn by doing, not by listening. Effective training is short, frequent, and contextualized to the actual work of those who receive it.

• Lack of an internal point of contact:

  In projects that work, there is almost always someone, not necessarily a technical person, who becomes the contact point for those with questions. A helpful colleague is worth more than a manual.

• Software configured on the vendor's standard processes, not on the company's real ones: This is more common than you think. The system is installed "out of the box", with the vendor's logic, and those who have to use it find themselves having to adapt their way of working to a platform designed for a generic company. The result is frustration, and frustration breeds resistance.

The reason almost nobody mentions: management does not use the software first.**

I have seen companies where the sales director asked his salespeople to enter all activities in the CRM, and then received the reports via email on an Excel spreadsheet. The implicit message was unmistakable: "the system is for you, not for me". And when the leadership does not enter the system, nobody will ever take adoption seriously.

Digital adoption is first and foremost an act of leadership.

The plan for the 90 days following go-live

If you find yourself in a situation where the software is installed but not really used, it is not too late. But a structured intervention is needed, not another training session.

• Identify early adopters.** In every team, there are two or three people who have embraced the new tool more easily. Involve them actively: make them the point of reference for their colleagues, publicly value their approach. Adoption spreads through social imitation, not by obligation.

• Measure actual usage, not logins.** Knowing how many people have logged into the system says nothing. Count how many activities are actually registered, how many processes are completed inside the system, how many decisions are based on the data the system produces. If you are not measuring it, you are steering blind.

• Replace single training with short, frequent sessions.** Twenty minutes every two weeks, focused on a concrete use case, is worth much more than a whole day at the start of the project. People learn when they have a real problem to solve, not before.

• Link software usage to a visible result for the user.** This is the most powerful and most overlooked lever. If using the CRM allows me to see immediately which clients I haven't contacted in too long, I have a concrete reason to open it. If I use it only to "keep management happy", I will always find a way to bypass it.

The question worth asking yourself today

If you are a CEO or a director and you have enterprise software implemented for more than six months, take five minutes and make an honest estimate: what percentage of your team actually uses it, every day, to do their job?

If the answer makes you uncomfortable, the problem is probably not the software. It is how it was introduced, and who took responsibility for it.

This is exactly the kind of situation I work on. If you want to understand where adoption is getting blocked in your company, book a call—no obligation, just a practical conversation.

*Marco De Vecchi is a Fractional Executive specialized in digital transformation for Italian SMEs. He has worked on digital projects with organizations such as Ferrari, ENI, the Italian Navy, and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.*