The Pattern Nobody Talks About
Most O2C transformations don't fail because of bad technology. They fail because of misaligned stakeholder expectations set in week one.
I've managed 25+ go-lives across EU enterprise clients. The projects that struggled shared one thing: the business signed off on a scope document they didn't fully read.
The Three Failure Modes
1. Scope Signed in Finance, Lived in IT
The O2C process owner and the IT team are often different people with different success metrics. Finance wants clean AR. IT wants clean APIs. Nobody owns the integration layer between them.
2. UAT Treated as a Checkbox
User Acceptance Testing is almost always the first thing compressed when a project runs late. This is backwards. UAT is when you discover that the business process doesn't match the configured workflow.
"We never tested the credit note reversal flow. That cost us 6 weeks post go-live." — AR Manager, Fortune 500 client
3. Hypercare Ending Too Early
30-day hypercare sounds generous. It isn't. Invoice cycles are monthly. You don't see the real failure modes until day 31.
The Fix: Front-Load the Pain
- Run a process workshop before contract signing, not after
- Make UAT sign-off a contractual milestone with financial teeth
- Negotiate 90-day hypercare as a default, not an upsell
The projects that went smoothly weren't the ones with better technology. They were the ones where I forced the hard conversations in week one.