You’ll do this once.
I’ve done it hundreds of times.
I’m Dan Johnson. I spent more than twenty years on the other side of the ERP table — leading the teams that sell and deliver these systems. Cedar Ridge exists so that experience now works for you, and only you.
Most ERP projects don’t fail because of the software. They fail because of decisions, leadership and governance — the things no one on the client’s side is usually there to protect.
That single realisation, formed over twenty years and hundreds of implementations, is the reason Cedar Ridge exists.
For most of my career I worked inside the ERP industry. I led professional services and implementation teams, and I finished that chapter as Senior Director of Professional Services within a FTSE 100 software company. I have sat in the sales meetings, scoped the statements of work, run the delivery, and been called in when things went wrong.
Over those years I saw hundreds of implementations. Some were genuinely excellent. But I also watched good, well-run businesses lose time, money and confidence on projects that had promised the world. Rarely because the software was bad. Almost always because no one on the client’s side had done this before — and everyone on the other side had.
That imbalance never sat right with me. It’s why I founded Cedar Ridge.
A CEO or MD might lead one ERP implementation in their entire career. Maybe two. The vendor and the implementation partner do it every single week. That is an enormous asymmetry of experience, and it plays out in every scoping decision, every change request, every “yes, we can do that” that quietly becomes a line item later.
Cedar Ridge closes that gap. I bring everything I learned building and leading delivery teams — but now it all sits on your side of the table. I’m not there to sell you anything. I’m there to make sure the investment you’re about to make actually pays off.
What independence actually means
Plenty of advisers say they’re independent. For Cedar Ridge it isn’t a positioning line — it’s the whole point.
I only ever work for you
I don’t sell ERP software. I don’t resell it. I don’t implement it. There is no licence to push, no day-rate to protect, no partner referral in the background. My only interest is your result.
Judgement over jargon
You are hiring twenty years of pattern recognition, not a methodology deck. I tell you plainly what I would do if it were my money and my business — because that is the only advice worth paying for.
Calm in the difficult moments
ERP programmes have hard weeks. I’ve been in the room for the worst of them. Steady hands, honest conversations and a clear next step matter more than optimism when things get tense.
The experience behind the advice
Two decades of leading ERP delivery — from the sales room to go-live and everything in between.
Leading ERP and professional services delivery teams
Former Senior Director of Professional Services at a listed software company
Of ERP implementations seen up close — the excellent and the painful
The turnover range of the UK businesses Cedar Ridge is built to serve
Before you sign, have someone on your side of the table.
An ERP Risk Review is a calm, confidential conversation about where you are and where the risks lie. No pitch. No obligation.
Book an ERP Risk Review