Software is built to do specific jobs. Just like jobs that humans have, some parts of the job are simple, some are complex. On some days, your CSRs answer simple questions, respond to simple requests, and process simple orders. On other days, customers have very complex requirements that require collaboration across multiple functional areas in your business and the CSR’s job turns into an air traffic controller and a project manager. Humans are more flexible than software; competent employees can easily flex between simple and complex.

Software is less flexible than humans; software does lots of simple things like keep track of the orders that are in progress and complex things like maximize a press sheet by ganging jobs from different customers.

I don’t know what to call it other than the “all or nothing mentality” when it comes to our approach to how software will be implemented into a print business. For some weird reason (which a psychologist might be able to explain), the people who are tasked with implementing new software are laser focused on the most complex scenarios they can possibly think about. This focus on exceptions and edge cases drives most software implementations off a cliff.