A retail startup with 50 Sales users ($39,000/year) aimed to go live in three months. We defined a tight scope, cleaned 5GB of CRM data ($10,000 saved), used standard dashboards ($15,000 saved), and trained 50 users ($5,000 saved). A 10-user pilot caught workflow bugs ($10,000 saved). Year-one costs stayed at $60,000 versus $100,000 projected. Monitoring cut 5 unused licenses ($3,900/year).
Total savings: $43,900.
Picture me in a noisy factory office, pitching Dynamics 365 Finance to a manufacturer. They skipped data cleaning, migrating 20GB of duplicates ($30,000 cleanup), over-customized workflows ($50,000), and cut training ($15,000 in tickets). No pilot meant bugs at go-live ($20,000 rework). Weak governance added $25,000 in delays.
Total overrun: $140,000. I should’ve insisted on a pilot—my mistake.