SAP Implementation in the Caribbean: Process, Timeline, and Risks Explained

SAP Implementation in the Caribbean

If you’re a Caribbean business considering an SAP implementation, the questions that matter most rarely show up in a sales deck. How long will this actually take? What could go wrong? What does go-live really look like once the consultants leave? This guide walks through the real process, a realistic timeline, and the risks specific to implementing SAP in the Caribbean, based on how these projects actually run in the region.

SAP implementation in the Caribbean typically takes five months for a mid-market business adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time via GROW with SAP, following SAP’s Activate methodology across five phases: Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy Readiness, and Go-Live and Hypercare.

Why SAP Implementation Timelines in the Caribbean Look Different Now

For years, SAP implementations had a reputation, and it was mostly earned, for taking twelve months or longer, even for mid-sized businesses. That reputation shaped how a lot of Caribbean companies think about SAP versus alternatives like Microsoft Dynamics, which has generally been perceived as the faster path to go-live.

That gap has narrowed. SAP’s cloud ERP offering, marketed under the SAP GROW initiative, is built specifically to compress the traditional timeline. SAP states plainly that its cloud ERP is designed with “preconfigured, industry-specific workflows and best practices” that help companies “go live in weeks instead of months.” The mechanism behind that claim, SAP GROW Fast, is a partner-led implementation model built on a predefined scope rather than an open-ended blueprinting exercise. Industry sources describe it as a “prescriptive, partner-led implementation model for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition that delivers a predefined Minimum Viable Scope (MVS) to enable predictable first-wave go-live measured in weeks rather than months.”

For a Caribbean business, that shift matters. It means the SAP-versus-Dynamics timeline argument, which used to favour Dynamics almost by default, is no longer as clear-cut.

The SAP Activate Implementation Process: What Each Phase Actually Involves

The SAP Activate methodology is SAP’s structured implementation framework – it organises every SAP implementation in the Caribbean and globally into five defined phases, each with a clear deliverable before the next phase begins. Whether a Caribbean business is beginning an SAP implementation with GROW with SAP Public Cloud or a more traditional S/4HANA rollout, the underlying phases follow this same structure. Here’s what each phase actually involves:

Prepare. Scope, governance, security principles, data strategy, and the integration and reporting approach get confirmed before any configuration begins. This is also when the implementation partner and client agree on what’s in scope and, just as important, what isn’t.

Explore. Fit-to-standard workshops run across finance, procurement, supply chain, and any other functional areas in scope. The goal is to map the business’s actual processes against SAP’s standard, pre-configured processes and flag where genuine customisation is unavoidable versus where the business can adopt the standard approach.

Realize. Standard processes get configured, integrations are built, and the team runs mock data loads and role-based testing. This is where the bulk of the technical build happens.

Deploy readiness. Testing wraps up, train-the-trainer sessions prepare the client’s internal team, and final data migration prep happens ahead of go-live.

Go-live and hypercare. Production activates, and the implementation partner provides intensive post-go-live support to stabilise the system before transitioning the client to standard run support.

SAP Implementation Timeline in the Caribbean: Five Months, Not Twelve

Rather than quoting a generic industry timeline, it’s worth looking at how this plays out on an actual Caribbean-relevant project. Aevitas IT delivered a GROW with SAP Public Cloud deployment covering finance, procurement, supply chain, integrations, and reporting over a structured five-month timeline, with business-as-usual operations resuming by month six.

The breakdown looked like this:

  •   Weeks 1 – 2, Prepare: Scope, governance, security, and integration approach confirmed.
  •   Weeks 3 – 6, Explore: Fit-to-standard workshops across finance, procurement, and supply chain, plus migration and security design.
  •   Weeks 7 – 16, Realize: Standard process configuration, integration builds, mock loads, and role-based testing.
  •   Weeks 12 – 20, Deploy Readiness: Testing completion, train-the-trainer sessions, and final migration preparation.
  •   Week 21, Go-Live and Hypercare: Production activation, stabilisation support, and transition to run support.

Note: There is a significant overlap between Realize and Deploy, as we start training as soon as mock one.

That five-month result lines up with what GROW with SAP is designed to deliver for net-new mid-market customers: a defined scope, a compressed timeline, and a predictable path to production, rather than the open-ended twelve-month engagements that gave SAP its reputation for slow, expensive rollouts.

It’s worth being direct about what drives timeline variability: company size, number of legal entities or countries in scope, data quality going into migration, and how much genuine customisation (versus standard configuration) the business requires. A single-entity company adopting standard finance and supply chain processes will move faster than a multi-island conglomerate with legacy customisations to unwind.

GROW with SAP vs RISE with SAP: Which Path Is Right for a Caribbean Business?

GROW with SAP is SAP’s cloud ERP programme for net-new customers adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time, designed for mid-market organisations that want a fast, standardized implementation path. RISE with SAP is a transformation bundle for existing SAP customers migrating from on-premise ECC or older S/4HANA environments to a managed SAP cloud environment.

These two terms get used loosely, so it’s worth being precise.

RISE with SAP is generally the path for existing SAP customers migrating from ECC or an older S/4HANA deployment to a modern cloud environment. It’s less relevant for a Caribbean business considering SAP for the first time, but an important context if your organisation already runs SAP and is weighing a cloud migration.

GROW with SAP targets net-new customers, companies that don’t currently run SAP and are adopting S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time. This is the more common path for Caribbean businesses evaluating SAP for the first time, since the region has a smaller installed base of existing SAP customers compared to the US or Europe.

Within the GROW with SAP path, GROW with SAP Fast-Track is the accelerated implementation offering: a validated, pre-defined scope combined with a simplified Activate methodology, delivered by qualified partners, designed specifically to compress the traditional timeline. It’s the offering most directly relevant to a Caribbean mid-market business trying to move fast without taking on unnecessary implementation risk.

Caribbean SAP Implementation Risks: What to Manage Before Go-Live

Timeline compression only works if the underlying risks are actively managed. A few show up more often in Caribbean-region projects specifically.

Data quality going into migration. Legacy systems in the region often carry years of inconsistent master data. Migrating only clean master data and open transactions, rather than dragging legacy complexity into the new environment, is one of the clearest predictors of a smooth go-live versus a painful one.

Scope creeps away from standard processes. The temptation to customize SAP to match old, familiar workflows is real, and it’s the single biggest driver of blown timelines and budgets. A disciplined fit-to-standard approach, adopting SAP’s best-practice processes rather than replicating legacy ones, is what keeps a five-month timeline achievable.

Multi-currency and multi-entity complexity. Caribbean businesses operating across multiple islands, currencies, and regulatory regimes add genuine complexity that a single-country implementation doesn’t face. This needs to be scoped honestly upfront rather than discovered mid-project.

Connectivity and infrastructure dependency. SAP cloud ERP depends on reliable internet connectivity, which varies more across Caribbean geographies than in mainland North America or Europe. This is a legitimate architectural consideration, not a reason to avoid cloud ERP, but it needs to be part of the planning conversation.

Partner experience gaps. Not every SAP partner has genuine Caribbean delivery experience. A partner who has only implemented SAP in single-currency, single-jurisdiction US environments may underestimate the complexity of a multi-island rollout.

Can Caribbean government agencies and public-sector organisations implement SAP?

Yes, and there’s direct regional precedent. A government-owned electric and water utility in the Caribbean engaged Aevitas IT to modernise a legacy SAP ECC environment that had accumulated years of customisation, creating system instability and rising support costs, while the organisation faced heightened public accountability requirements around financial reporting, audit readiness, and capital project tracking.

Aevitas executed the program in carefully sequenced phases specifically to protect uninterrupted electric and water service throughout, paired with governance-driven program management aligned to public-sector accountability standards. 

The engagement also built in structured knowledge transfer so the utility’s internal team could sustain the environment independently once Aevitas’s direct involvement wound down.

The result: improved financial transparency and audit readiness, reduced technical debt and operational risk, and clearer visibility into capital investments and infrastructure costs, exactly the outcomes a publicly accountable Caribbean utility needs, delivered without disrupting the essential services residents depend on.

Why Your SAP Implementation Partner's Caribbean Experience Matters More Than the Platform

The technology decision, SAP versus an alternative, is only half the equation. The other half is whether the implementation partner has actually delivered in the Caribbean before: working across multiple currencies, navigating regional regulatory requirements, and managing the connectivity and infrastructure realities of island geographies.

As a Caribbean SAP partner, Aevitas IT holds direct Licence Sell Authorisation in the Caribbean and Latin America region, meaning clients work directly with Aevitas on licensing rather than through an additional reseller layer. The firm is an SAP Silver Partner operating a boutique delivery model: senior SAP consultants, several with backgrounds at larger global system integrators, working in smaller, more accountable teams. That combination is what makes a five-month GROW with SAP timeline realistic rather than aspirational, and it’s a meaningfully different model from the large system integrators that dominate SAP delivery in bigger markets but often lack dedicated Caribbean bench strength.

Aevitas IT delivers SAP implementations across the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, the OECS islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, with nearshore delivery supported from its Puerto Rico office. The firm holds direct SAP PartnerEdge Sell Authorisation for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Planning Your SAP Implementation in the Caribbean: Next Steps

A five-month SAP implementation timeline is achievable for Caribbean businesses with GROW with SAP, but it depends on disciplined scoping, clean data going into migration, a genuine commitment to standard processes over customisation, and a partner who understands both the technology and the regional operating context.

Ready to scope your SAP implementation in the Caribbean? Aevitas IT delivers structured GROW with SAP deployments with direct PartnerEdge Sell Authorisation – contact us to map a realistic timeline for your organisation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the typical process for an SAP implementation in the Caribbean?
It follows SAP's Activate methodology: Prepare (scope and governance), Explore (fit-to-standard workshops), Realize (configuration and testing), Deploy Readiness (final testing and training), and Go-Live and Hypercare (production activation and stabilisation support).
How long does an SAP S/4HANA implementation take for a Caribbean organisation?

SAP implementation in the Caribbean takes approximately five months for a mid-market organisation adopting GROW with SAP Public Cloud with a defined scope, compared to twelve or more months for a traditional on-premise rollout. Actual duration depends on company size, number of legal entities and countries in scope, and the quality of legacy data going into migration.

What is GROW with SAP and is it suitable for Caribbean businesses?

GROW with SAP is SAP's cloud ERP programme for net-new customers adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time, designed for mid-market organisations that want a fast, standardized implementation path. It is well suited to Caribbean businesses, most of which don't currently run SAP, giving them a defined, accelerated path to go-live.

What are the biggest risks in an SAP implementation in the Caribbean?
The main risks are poor data quality going into migration, scope creep away from SAP's standard processes, underestimated multi-currency and multi-entity complexity, connectivity dependency across island geographies, and working with an implementation partner who lacks genuine regional delivery experience.
Can Caribbean government agencies and public-sector organisations implement SAP?

Yes. Public-sector and government-owned organisations in the Caribbean, including utilities, have successfully modernised on SAP, with sequenced delivery phases designed to protect uninterrupted essential services throughout the project.

What does go-live look like for a Caribbean SAP project?

Go-live is followed by a hypercare period, typically several weeks, where the implementation partner provides intensive support to stabilise the system before transitioning the client to standard run support. Business-as-usual operations typically resume within a month of go-live.

How much does an SAP implementation cost for a Caribbean business?

SAP implementation costs in the Caribbean vary significantly based on scope, number of entities, and customisation requirements. A GROW with SAP public cloud implementation for a single mid-market entity is typically far less expensive than a traditional multi-year on-premise project, because the predefined scope and pre-configured processes eliminate open-ended design work. A Digital Discovery Assessment is the most reliable starting point for an accurate cost estimate for your organisation.

Why is it important to choose an SAP partner with Caribbean experience?

A partner without direct regional delivery experience is more likely to underestimate multi-currency complexity, regulatory requirements, and infrastructure realities specific to Caribbean geographies, all of which can extend timelines and increase risk if not planned for upfront.

How to Choose an ERP System for Your Caribbean Business: An Independent Guide

how to choose an ERP system in the Caribbean

Most guides to choosing an ERP system for Caribbean businesses are written by a vendor trying to sell you one platform. This one is different. Aevitas IT works across SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and other platforms, so the goal here is simple: give Caribbean businesses a clear, honest framework for choosing an ERP system, without steering you toward one brand before you’ve actually assessed what you need.

If you run a business in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, the Bahamas, Curaçao, or anywhere else in the region, you already know the ERP conversation looks different here than it does in Miami or Toronto. Vendor support is thinner on the ground. Multi-currency and multi-island operations are the norm, not the exception. And the cost of getting the decision wrong is higher, because there often isn’t a second local implementation partner to call when the first one falls short.

An ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a software platform that connects finance, operations, inventory, procurement, and HR into a single system. For Caribbean businesses, the ERP selection decision is more complex than in larger markets: fewer local implementation partners, multi-currency and multi-island operations, and a higher cost of re-implementation if the initial choice is wrong. 

The core factors to evaluate are platform fit for your industry and entity structure, regional delivery expertise of the implementation partner, total cost of ownership including post-go-live support, and independence of the advisor guiding the selection.

Do you actually need an ERP, or will accounting software carry you further?

This is the first honest question to ask, and it’s the one most vendors skip because the answer isn’t always “buy our product.”

Accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero handles the books well. It struggles once a business needs to connect inventory, procurement, sales, and finance into one system that everyone trusts. A few signs an accounting package has reached its ceiling:

  •   Finance, sales, and inventory teams are reconciling data by hand at month end.
  •   You’re running the business across two or more islands or currencies, and consolidating numbers takes days instead of hours.
  •   Inventory counts in the system rarely match what’s on the shelf or in the warehouse.
  •   Growth (new locations, new product lines, new regulatory reporting) is outpacing what spreadsheets and point solutions can track.

If none of that sounds familiar yet, an ERP might be premature. If two or more of these are already daily friction, the conversation is worth having.

If you’ve never been through an ERP selection before, our guide to choosing ERP for the first time walks through the pre-selection steps in more detail.

ERP Systems Caribbean Businesses Actually Compare

Once a business decides it needs a proper ERP, the shortlist usually narrows to a handful of platforms. Each has a different sweet spot.

SAP ERP for Caribbean businesses  specifically S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, delivered via SAP’s GROW initiative, is built for mid-market and enterprise businesses needing deep financial controls, multi-entity consolidation, and industry-specific functionality, particularly in utilities, telecommunications, and financial services. SAP states that its cloud ERP is designed to help growing companies “launch with what you need today and add capabilities like agentic AI, application extensions, and advanced integration tools as your business evolves.” That flexibility matters for Caribbean businesses that may start with finance and supply chain and expand into HR or advanced procurement later, without re-platforming.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a strong option for businesses that are already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem (Office 365, Teams, Power BI) and want tight integration with those tools. It tends to be faster to stand up for simpler process needs, though it can require more third-party add-ons for complex financial consolidation across multiple currencies and entities.

Oracle NetSuite is a genuinely cloud-native option that many smaller and mid-sized Caribbean businesses evaluate, particularly retail and distribution companies. It’s often priced competitively at the lower end of the mid-market, though customisation for industry-specific processes can get expensive as the business scales.

Odoo is open-source and modular, which makes it attractive for smaller Caribbean businesses on tighter budgets. The tradeoff is that the ecosystem of qualified regional implementation partners is thinner, so support quality varies more than it does with SAP, Microsoft, or Oracle.

IFS shows up mostly in asset-heavy industries: utilities, energy, and industries with significant field service or maintenance operations. It’s less common as a general-purpose ERP for a mid-market services or trading business.

None of these is universally “best.” The right one depends on company size, industry, existing technology investments, and how many countries or currencies the business operates across.

How to Evaluate an ERP System for Your Caribbean Business: A Six-Stage Framework

Whatever platform ends up on the shortlist, the evaluation process should follow the same structure. This is the same six-stage approach Aevitas IT uses when advising clients independently of which vendor they eventually choose:

  1. Current state assessment. Before any vendor enters the conversation, map what systems, processes, and pain points actually exist today. Most ERP failures trace back to skipping this step and jumping straight to a demo.
  2. Evaluation and selection. Run a structured comparison across the shortlisted platforms against your actual requirements, not a generic checklist. This includes financial capability, industry fit, multi-entity and multi-currency support, and the strength of regional implementation partners.
  3. Procurement and negotiation. Licence and services pricing is negotiable, and vendors price differently depending on region, deal size, and timing. This is where having an advisor who isn’t selling the software pays for itself.
  4. Tool and partner selection. Identify the right implementation partner for the platform and industry. This matters more in the Caribbean than in larger markets, because the pool of partners with real regional delivery experience is smaller.
  5. Implementation management. Data migration, testing, training, and go-live all need active project oversight, whether that’s led internally or by the implementation partner. For ERP implementation in the Caribbean, this stage also means accounting for multi-island logistics, statutory reporting differences, and the smaller pool of qualified project managers available locally.
  6. Post go-live optimisation. The system doesn’t stop needing attention once it’s live. Stabilisation, user adoption, and ongoing optimisation determine whether the ERP investment actually pays off.

Common ERP selection mistakes Caribbean businesses make

A few patterns come up repeatedly in ERP selection projects across the region:

Choosing based on brand recognition instead of fit. A platform that works well for a US retailer with a single currency and single tax jurisdiction may be the wrong fit for a Caribbean conglomerate running four island entities, three currencies, and different regulatory reporting in each.

Underestimating the local partner question. It’s not enough to ask whether a platform is good. Ask whether there’s a qualified partner who understands Caribbean tax, customs, and regulatory requirements and has the SAP rollout experience to handle multi-entity, multi-currency deployments across jurisdictions, and who won’t disappear after go-live.

Skipping the current state assessment. Businesses that jump straight into vendor demos tend to buy features they don’t need and miss requirements that only surface once implementation is already underway.

Treating cloud ERP as one-size-fits-all pricing. Licensing models vary substantially by vendor and by region. A quote that looks attractive on a per-user basis can look very different once implementation services, data migration, and post-go-live support are added in.

Is cloud ERP a good fit for Caribbean island businesses?

Generally, yes, and increasingly it’s the default rather than the exception. Cloud ERP removes the burden of maintaining on-premise infrastructure, which matters in markets where hardware, power reliability, and specialised IT staff are harder to source locally. SAP’s own positioning for its cloud ERP line describes a model built around “preconfigured, industry-specific workflows and best practices” that let companies “go live in weeks instead of months.” The tradeoff is internet dependency and the need for a partner who can support cloud environments remotely, which is one more reason the partner selection question matters as much as the platform question.

Digital transformation is also a regional development priority, not just a private-sector trend. The Inter-American Development Bank has worked with the private sector across Latin America and the Caribbean on digital technology adoption, connectivity, and digital talent development, reflecting how central this shift has become to competitiveness in the region.

The Caribbean ERP market spans English, Spanish, Dutch, and French-speaking territories across CARICOM and non-CARICOM jurisdictions. Each island or territory carries distinct tax regimes, statutory reporting requirements, customs procedures, and currency rules all of which must be supported by the ERP platform or handled through localisation by the implementation partner. This geographic and regulatory fragmentation is the primary reason platform selection in the Caribbean requires different criteria than a single-country US or European deployment.

Why an independent ERP advisor matters more in the Caribbean

Most ERP vendors and most implementation partners are also reselling the software. That’s not necessarily a conflict of interest, but it does mean the recommendation you get is rarely fully independent.

Aevitas IT approaches ERP selection differently combining independent ERP advisory with direct implementation experience across SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and Odoo environments, Aevitas can walk a Caribbean business through an honest evaluation, including scenarios where SAP isn’t the right answer for a particular company’s size or complexity. That independence is rare in a region where the pool of qualified advisors is already small.

Aevitas also holds direct Licence Sell Authorisation for SAP in the Caribbean and Latin America region and delivers SAP implementation services from the same team, meaning clients aren’t routed through a third-party reseller layer for either licensing or delivery. Combined with a boutique delivery model, senior SAP consultants (many with backgrounds at larger firms) working in smaller, more accountable teams, Aevitas positions itself as an alternative to the large system integrators without sacrificing technical depth. Finding a genuinely independent ERP advisor in the Caribbean who has delivered across multiple platforms is rare which is exactly why the advice carries more weight when you find one.

Proof from the region: a Caribbean utility's SAP transformation

One useful proof point for how this plays out in practice: a government-owned electric and water utility in the Caribbean engaged Aevitas IT to modernise and stabilise its legacy SAP ECC environment. The utility was carrying accumulated customisations that increased system instability and support costs, while facing public accountability requirements around financial reporting, audit readiness, and capital project tracking.

Aevitas developed a structured roadmap to modernise the SAP landscape, reduce unnecessary customisation, and align the system with SAP standard functionality. Finance and asset management processes were streamlined to improve capital tracking and regulatory reporting, and integrations across operational and financial systems were rationalised to improve data integrity. The engagement was executed in carefully sequenced phases to protect uninterrupted electric and water service throughout, with governance and knowledge transfer built in so the utility’s internal team could sustain the environment independently going forward.

The result was improved financial transparency and audit readiness, reduced technical debt, and stronger visibility into capital investments, exactly the kind of outcome a public-sector Caribbean organisation needs from an ERP platform, delivered by a partner who understood both the technology and the regulatory context.

Getting the ERP decision right the first time

Choosing an ERP system is a five-to-ten-year commitment, not a software purchase. Get the fit wrong, and a business ends up paying for a costly re-implementation down the line, on top of the original investment. Get it right, and the ERP becomes a genuine foundation for growth rather than a system the business works around.

If your business is weighing SAP against Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, or another platform, an independent evaluation, one that starts with your actual requirements rather than a vendor’s product roadmap, is the highest-leverage step you can take before signing anything.

Ready to evaluate your ERP options with a partner who isn’t just trying to sell you software? Talk to Aevitas IT about an independent ERP assessment for your Caribbean business.

Frequently Asked Questions: Choosing an ERP System in the Caribbean

Do Caribbean businesses really need an ERP, or is accounting software enough?
It depends on complexity, not company size alone. If finance, inventory, and sales data are being reconciled manually across systems, or the business operates across multiple islands or currencies, accounting software has usually reached its limit. If operations are still simple and single-entity, accounting software may be sufficient for now. If two or more of these conditions are already daily friction points, an ERP system evaluation is warranted.
What are the best ERP systems for Caribbean businesses?

The main ERP platforms Caribbean businesses evaluate are SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite, Odoo, and IFS each suited to different company sizes, industries, and technology environments. There is no single best platform. SAP suits mid-market and enterprise businesses needing deep financial controls and industry-specific functionality. Microsoft Dynamics 365 fits businesses already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Oracle NetSuite works well for cloud-native retail and distribution companies. Odoo suits smaller businesses on tighter budgets. The right choice depends on your size, industry, and existing technology stack.

How much does an ERP implementation cost for a Caribbean business?

Costs vary significantly by platform, company size, and scope, so any number without context can be misleading. Rather than quoting a figure that may not apply to your situation, the more useful step is a structured requirements assessment that produces a real, scoped estimate for your business.

What should I look for in an ERP consultant in the Caribbean?

Look for direct regional delivery experience, not just platform certification. Ask whether the partner has implemented and supported systems for other Caribbean businesses, whether they understand local tax and regulatory requirements, and whether their commercial relationship with the vendor could bias their recommendation.

What are the most common ERP selection mistakes Caribbean companies make?

The most common ones are choosing a platform based on brand recognition rather than fit, underestimating how much local implementation and support partner quality matters, skipping a proper current-state assessment before evaluating vendors, and assuming cloud ERP pricing is straightforward when it varies significantly once implementation and support costs are included.

Is cloud ERP a good fit for Caribbean island businesses?

Generally yes. Cloud ERP removes the burden of maintaining on-premise infrastructure, which is valuable in markets where specialised IT staff and hardware support are harder to source locally. The main requirement is reliable internet connectivity and a partner capable of supporting the environment remotely.

What is an independent ERP advisor, and why should a Caribbean business use one?
An independent ERP advisor evaluates your needs across multiple platforms rather than starting from a single vendor's product. This matters in the Caribbean because the pool of qualified, unbiased advisors is smaller than in larger markets, and a poor platform fit is costlier to correct once implementation is underway.