NDT ERP Implementation Timeline: The 30/60/90-Day Go-Live Plan
The exact day-by-day implementation methodology Atlantis NDT has refined across 100+ inspection company rollouts. Discovery in 30 days, integration and training in days 31-60, UAT and go-live in days 61-90. Includes the 7-risk register every implementation should have pinned to the wall.
NDT ERP implementation failures almost always share one root cause: a vague plan with no hard weekly milestones. The 30/60/90 framework forces explicit go/no-go gates at Day 30 (scope locked, sandbox live), Day 60 (integrations green, team trained), and Day 90 (UAT passed, production cutover complete). Each 30-day block has a single dominant workstream: Discovery + Design in days 1-30, Build + Integrate + Train in days 31-60, UAT + Go-Live + Hypercare in days 61-90.
This methodology assumes a typical 10-40 technician inspection company with 1-3 methods (UT/MT/PT being the most common combo), standard financial integration (QuickBooks, Xero, Dynamics 365 BC, or a straightforward SAP/Oracle connection), and a commitment from the executive sponsor to lock scope. Larger or more complex deployments (50+ techs, SAP S/4HANA with custom modules, aerospace NAS 410 plus API 510/570/653 plus ASME Section V reporting, multi-entity) typically extend to 4-6 months but follow the same phased structure.
The goal of Phase 1 is not to build anything. It is to lock scope. We run a 2-day kickoff workshop with your executive sponsor, project manager, and 3-5 SMEs (a Level III, a senior field tech, and 1-2 office admins). By end of week 1 we have a current-state process map, a stakeholder list with RACI, and a risk log. Week 2 is a job lifecycle deep-dive: we walk a real inspection job from RFQ to invoice and identify every data element captured, every hand-off, and every report output. Weeks 3-4 are future-state design, integration architecture, security role modeling, and data migration planning. Phase 1 exit criteria: signed scope document, sandbox tenant provisioned, Phase 1 report templates locked, risk log reviewed with executive sponsor.
Phase 2 is the engineering-heavy block. Weeks 5-6: financial and EAM integrations built and unit-tested in sandbox. Weeks 7-8: train-the-trainer sessions for 2-3 internal champions per function (field, office, Level III review). Weeks 9 (into Phase 3 boundary): champions roll training out to the full team in 3-4 hour role-based sessions. Phase 2 exit criteria: all integrations green in sandbox with production-like data volumes; every user logged in at least once; report templates UAT-ready.
Phase 3 is pass/fail. Weeks 10-11: run 20 real inspection jobs end-to-end through the sandbox, log defects, daily triage. Do not skimp. Weeks 12-13: production provisioning, final data migration rehearsal, go/no-go checklist. Cutover is a weekend event (Friday evening to Monday morning), followed by a 2-week parallel run. Week 13 (Days 86-90) is hypercare: Atlantis Implementation Lead onsite or available in a daily standup. Phase 3 exit criteria: 95% adoption rate on the new ERP by end of Day 90, legacy system retired, report cycle time measurably reduced.
We will build a customized 30/60/90 plan for your team in a 60-minute working session.
What this page covers
Why 30/60/90?
Phase 1: Days 1-30 — Discovery, Design, Scope Lock
Phase 2: Days 31-60 — Build, Integrate, Train
Phase 3: Days 61-90 — UAT, Cutover, Hypercare
Most companies do not fail at their craft. They lose time, margin and goodwill in the gaps between the tools they use to run the place — a quoting spreadsheet that does not talk to the job sheet, a job sheet that does not reach accounts, and a compliance folder nobody can search when a client asks. Atlantis closes those gaps by putting the whole operation on one platform, so information is entered once and everything downstream stays in step.
What you can run on it
Sales and CRM — leads, quotes, follow-ups and the pipeline that tells you what next month looks like.
Projects and job costing — plan the work, track the hours and materials against it, and see the margin while the job is still live rather than at final account.
Field and service teams — dispatch, schedules, mobile capture that works with no signal, and sign-off from site.
Inventory and purchasing — stock, suppliers, reorder points and goods receipt, joined to the jobs that consume them.
People — records, qualifications and licences with renewal reminders, timesheets, leave and payroll.
Quality and documents — procedures and forms under revision control, with the audit trail an inspection or accreditation body actually asks for.
Accounts — invoicing, expenses, multi-currency and the reporting your accountant stops chasing you for.
Affordable, accessible, fully customizable — and we mean each word
Affordable because the whole suite is included rather than sold to you a module at a time, and because implementation is done by people who have run operations rather than by a chain of subcontractors. Accessible because it runs in a browser and on a phone, works for a small team on day one, and does not need a specialist on staff to keep it alive. Fully customizable because your process is the thing that makes you competitive — the software should bend to it, not the other way round.
Industries we configure for
Service businesses and contractors, manufacturing and fabrication, trading and distribution, laboratories and testing houses, engineering consultancies, construction and facilities, and asset owners across energy, marine, aerospace and infrastructure. Inspection and testing is where we started, and it remains the sector we go deepest in — but the platform underneath is general-purpose, and most of what it does has nothing to do with inspection at all.
What happens when you get in touch
A short conversation, not a sales sequence. We ask how the business runs today and where it hurts, show you the platform doing that work, and send a written quote shaped to your region, your team size and the scope you actually need. No obligation, nothing to install first, and no pressure to decide on the call. Reach out and tell us what you are trying to fix.
No, and it is usually a poor idea. Most implementations start with the part of the business where the pain is sharpest — often quoting and job costing, or scheduling and field capture — and run it alongside what you use today until people trust it. Once that is steady, the next area follows. Moving everything in one weekend is how projects acquire the reputation they have; moving one process at a time is how they succeed.
What happens to the spreadsheets we already rely on?
They are the specification, not the enemy. A spreadsheet that has survived years of daily use encodes real decisions about how your business works, and the first job of implementation is to read it properly. Some become configured processes in the platform, some stay as spreadsheets because that is genuinely the right tool, and a few turn out to exist only because two systems could not talk to each other, and simply stop being needed.
Our process is unusual. Will we have to change how we work?
The unusual part is often the thing that makes you competitive, so bending it to fit software is the wrong trade. The platform is configured around your process rather than the other way round. Where we do push back is on process that exists to work around a previous system's limitations — that is worth removing rather than reproducing.
How long before it is actually running?
Sooner than a traditional enterprise rollout, because the scope is deliberately narrow at first. A single well-chosen process can be live and useful while the rest is still being planned. What extends timelines is almost never the software — it is data cleanliness and decision-making on the customer side, which is why we agree early who owns which decision.
What happens to our data if we stop using it?
It leaves with you in a usable form. Ask this of every vendor you evaluate, and treat a vague answer as an answer. Being able to exit is what keeps a supplier relationship honest, and a platform confident in its value has no reason to make leaving difficult.
Do we need someone technical on staff to keep it running?
No. It runs in a browser and on a phone, and day-to-day administration — adding users, adjusting a workflow, changing a form — is designed to be done by the people who run the business rather than by a specialist. Deeper changes are a conversation with us, not a recruitment exercise.
Will this help us pass a client or accreditation audit?
It is built for it. The things audits actually ask for — that the person who did the work was qualified at the time, that the equipment was in calibration, that the procedure revision in force was the one followed, and that the records can be produced on request — are held as records with dates rather than as folders someone has to search. The difference at audit is between retrieving evidence and reconstructing it.
What happens when a qualification or calibration is about to expire?
You are told before it lapses rather than after. Expiry is tracked against the person or the instrument, and the warning arrives while there is still time to act, which is the difference between rescheduling work and cancelling it.