Value Realization Framework:
A Practical Model for ERP Leadership

Published: 22.February.2026

⏱️ 8-9minute read

In my previous article, I explored five essential insights about digital transformation that many organizations only recognize when it's almost too late. The most crucial insight: going live is just the starting point, not the ultimate goal.

Leaders who embrace this perspective shift their emphasis from mere delivery to the actual realization of value. However, grasping the issue and putting solutions into action are two very different challenges.

One of the most common questions I hear from executives is: "Where do we truly stand in achieving value, and what leadership behaviors do we need to cultivate to make progress?" This is a fantastic question that warrants a thoughtful, structured response.

That’s why I created the Value Realization Framework. This practical leadership model maps the journey from stabilizing systems to developing adaptive enterprise capabilities. It highlights where organizations may get stuck, the reasons value can slip away, and which leadership behaviors are essential for moving forward.

This framework isn’t just a theory—it's based on two decades of real-world experience observing how leadership discipline impacts the success of ERP implementations post-go-live. It has proven effective across various industries and organizational structures.

The framework outlines five distinct maturity phases, with each phase focused on delivering a solid return on investment and tackling a critical leadership question essential for advancement.

The Five Phases of ERP Value Realization

Phase 1: System Stabilization — "Does It Work?"

ROI Focus: Implementation

• Basic Process Functionality

• Legacy Retirement

• System Availability

This is where every ERP journey begins. The system is live, transactions are processing, and legacy systems are being decommissioned. The organization is faced with one fundamental question: Does it work?

At this stage, value is defined narrowly. Success means the system is stable enough to support daily operations without catastrophic failures. Teams are concentrated on fixing issues, managing incidents, and ensuring everything continues to run smoothly

From a leadership perspective, this phase requires clear accountability for operational stability. The CIO and program leadership play a crucial role in managing triage and ensuring business continuity.

However, there is a trap: many organizations confuse stability with success and prematurely declare victory. They may reduce their investment, disband the core team, and shift their focus elsewhere.

This is where value can stagnate.

The leadership behavior required is to resist the temptation to declare victory. While stability is necessary, it is not sufficient on its own. Leaders must continue to support and invest in the project beyond go-live and begin planning for the next phase: functional adoption.

Phase 2: Functional Adoption — "Are People Using It?"

ROI Focus: Utilization

• Single Process Focus

• Department-Level Efficiency

• User Training and Adoption

The system is functional, but is it being utilized effectively? More importantly, is it being used correctly?

This stage reveals a common issue: deployment does not equal adoption. Users often revert to workarounds, causing spreadsheets to multiply and shadow systems to resurface. While activity levels may be high, actual value remains elusive.

Leaders frequently confuse activity with progress. Teams may be busy conducting training sessions, providing user support, and rolling out new features. Metrics might show increased login rates and higher transaction volumes. However, a deeper analysis often reveals that the business has not made substantial improvements.

The reason for this discrepancy is that adoption at the departmental level does not necessarily translate to value for the entire organization. Functional silos may optimize processes locally, but the organization as a whole operates as disconnected parts rather than as an integrated system.

To address this, leadership must focus on measuring outcomes rather than merely tracking activity. Are cycle times improving? Is inventory turning over more quickly? Are forecast accuracy and order fulfillment rates increasing? Leaders need to shift the conversation from “Are people using it?” to “What business outcomes are we achieving?”

This phase also calls for an honest reflection. If adoption is lacking, the root problem often lies not with the system itself but with change management, process design, or insufficient leadership engagement.

Phase 3: Process Standardization — "Is It Actually Running the Business?"

ROI Focus: Simplification

• Remove Waste

• Streamline Processes

• Cross-Functional Alignment

Organizations begin to unlock real value when they shift their focus from functional adoption to enterprise-wide process standardization

However, process standardization can be uncomfortable because it necessitates difficult conversations. Leadership must confront legacy behaviors, eliminate exceptions, and retire "important" tasks that add no real value to the enterprise.

During this phase, transformation debt becomes evident, manifesting as process debt, data debt, integration complexity, and workarounds that mistakenly appear as business flexibility. Every exception permitted during implementation now aggregates interest in the form of complications.

Simplification is not merely about indiscriminately cutting costs; it involves removing friction, reducing variability, and creating capacity for higher-value work. When processes are standardized and governed, speed increases, quality improves, and scalability becomes possible.

From a leadership perspective, this phase requires courage. Leaders must challenge established norms, enforce discipline, and reject customization requests that undermine standardization.

The required leadership behavior is to champion simplification over complexity. This involves asking challenging questions: Why does this process exist? Why do we allow this exception? What value does this customization create? Leaders who avoid these discussions often confuse complexity with capability.

Here, the COO and functional leaders must take the initiative. Process ownership cannot remain fragmented or ambiguous; accountability for end-to-end outcomes must be clearly defined.

Phase 4: Enterprise Integration — "Are We Innovating?"

ROI Focus: Institutionalization

• Cross-Functional Alignment

• Process Enhancements

• Sustained Executive Sponsorship

At this stage, the organization has stabilized its systems, encouraged broader adoption, and standardized core processes. The focus now shifts to an important question: Are we innovating?

However, pursuing innovation without proper governance can be risky. Many organizations rush into implementing new modules, exploring adjacent tools, utilizing advanced analytics, and embracing automation without first ensuring that value creation is institutionalized.

This rush can lead to increased integrations, exceptions, and a reliance on heroic efforts, all of which contribute to greater technical and transformation debt. Leaders must acknowledge this critical reality: you cannot out-innovate weak or ungoverned business processes.

Enterprise integration is not merely about adding more capabilities; it is about embedding discipline, governance, and accountability into the organization's operations. The goal is to transform ERP from a delivered asset into a strategic platform.

This phase demands ongoing executive sponsorship that goes beyond the program team. The CEO, CFO, and COO must align on definitions of value, governance structures, and investment priorities.

Leadership Behavior Required: Leaders need to resist the temptation to chase after shiny new objects. Before expanding capabilities, they should ask the following questions: Have we institutionalized value creation? Are our processes governed? Is our data trusted? Are decision rights clearly defined? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then innovation will likely complicate matters further.

During this phase, the CIO shifts their role from being solely a delivery owner to a value architect. Their responsibility is not just to deliver platforms but to orchestrate value across people, processes, data, and technology.

Phase 5: Adaptive Platforms — "Are We Growing Financially?"

ROI Focus: Expansion

• Adaptive Enterprise Capability

• Compounding Value Creation

• Organizational Resilience

This represents the pinnacle of ERP maturity. Organizations at this stage have developed the ability to transform continuously—more rapidly, with reduced risk, and yielding greater returns each time.

At this point, ERP is regarded not merely as a system, but as essential enterprise infrastructure that fosters agility, resilience, and competitive advantage. The organization does not just react to changes; it anticipates and actively shapes them.

During this phase, the value compounds. Investments in simplification, standardization, and governance create a foundation for innovation. New capabilities are added on top of a solid base, rather than piling on technical debt or unfinished transformations.

From a financial standpoint, this is when ROI begins to accelerate. Working capital improves, cost-to-serve decreases, decision-making speeds up, forecast accuracy increases, and risk exposure diminishes.

However, achieving this phase requires sustained leadership discipline. Most organizations fail to reach this level because they lack the patience, alignment, or courage to do the necessary hard work in Phases 3 and 4.

The required leadership behavior is clear: leaders must treat ERP and digital transformation as an ongoing discipline, not a one-time initiative. This entails building organizational capacity for change, embedding governance structures, and maintaining executive alignment over years, rather than months.

The CEO should view ERP as a strategic lever for creating enterprise value. The CFO must oversee it as an asset affecting the balance sheet and cash flow. The COO must ensure that operational excellence is maintained, while the CIO must coordinate value realization across the enterprise.

How to Use the Framework

The Jackson Value Realization Framework is not a checklist. It is a diagnostic tool and a leadership conversation starter.

Here is how to use it:

1. Assess where you are honestly. Most organizations overestimate their maturity. If you are still fighting fires or relying on heroics, you are likely in Phase 1 or 2, not Phase 4.

2. Identify where value is stalling. Is adoption weak? Are processes ungoverned? Is innovation creating debt? Each phase has predictable failure modes.

3. Clarify the leadership behaviors required. Value realization is not a project team responsibility. It is a leadership discipline. Each phase demands different leadership behaviors.

4. Resist the urge to skip phases. Organizations that rush from Phase 1 to Phase 4 inevitably regress. Simplification and standardization are not optional. They are the foundation for sustainable value.

5. Use the critical questions. Each phase has a question that must be answered: Does it work? Are people using it? Is it running the business? Are we innovating? Are we growing financially? These questions force clarity and accountability.

Each phase requires different leadership behavior.

If you approach each phase uniformly, progress halts. This is why task forces often fail. This is also the reason “project thinking” does not succeed. Value realization is not merely an IT function; it involves evolving the operating model.

The Return on Investment Curve

One of the most important insights from the framework is the ROI curve, which illustrates that value realization does not occur in a straight line but instead follows a maturity curve.

At the time of go-live, ROI is at its lowest. While the investment is significant, the value delivered is minimal, primarily consisting of basic functionalities and the retirement of legacy systems. As the organization progresses through stages of functional adoption and process standardization, the value begins to increase. By the time an organization reaches the levels of enterprise integration and adaptive platforms, the value compounds exponentially.

However, many organizations tend to plateau at Phase 2 or Phase 3. They often confuse activity with progress, shy away from simplification, or fail to embed value creation into their processes. As a result, the ROI curve flattens, leading to a loss of potential value.

Leaders who grasp this curve manage ERP as a long-term value engine rather than viewing it as a short-term project deliverable.

Final Thoughts: From Hard Truths to Disciplined Action

In my recent article, I explored the five essential truths of digital transformation, transforming these insights into a practical leadership model that can guide us all. It's important to recognize that digital transformation isn’t just a technology issue; it’s a dynamic leadership practice. It takes courage to simplify, discipline to establish governance, and patience to cultivate long-term capability.

Organizations that excel in this area don’t just transform once; they develop a robust ability to adapt repeatedly—more swiftly, with reduced risk, and enhanced rewards each time.

Instead of merely asking whether your ERP system is functioning, consider: Where do you stand on the journey to realizing value, and what leadership actions will propel you forward? This vital dialogue is one every executive team should embrace.

Looking forward to our next discussion!