Lead Practice

When the program
cannot afford
another setback.

Most programs in crisis did not get there overnight. The warning signs were present. What was missing was someone with the seniority, the platform knowledge, and the willingness to name what was actually happening. That is what The Cadence Partners provides.

Independent senior assessment and a credible path back to delivery.

Most firms in this situation will tell you they are flexible and collaborative. That is not what a program in crisis needs. What it needs is someone who will identify what is actually broken, across governance, design, data, and testing, before recommending a direction.

When a program has lost momentum, credibility, or both, the organizations that recover fastest are the ones that bring in an independent senior practitioner early, before the situation becomes irreversible.

The Cadence Partners enters at the senior level, conducts an honest assessment of what is actually happening, and builds a path forward that leadership can stand behind. We do not manage the optics of a failing program. We fix it. That work is led by someone who started her career inside HR, not consulting, and who has been on the receiving end of the kind of implementation that loses the confidence of the people doing the work. That perspective matters when a program is in crisis.

This service is for organizations where the normal escalation paths have already been exhausted. Where the implementation partner is managing the relationship rather than the work. Where internal leadership knows something is wrong but does not yet have the language or the data to act on it. We are not here to make incremental progress. We are here to identify what went wrong, align leadership around a plan they can stand behind, and move the program toward a go-live that people are actually confident in. That is what recovery looks like.

Six situations that bring organizations to this conversation.

If any of these describes where you are right now, you are in the right place.

01
Go-live failure or missed go-live date
The program did not launch on schedule. Leadership is asking for a new timeline and the team cannot give one with confidence. The original plan is no longer credible.
02
Implementation partner relationship has broken down
The relationship with the implementation partner has deteriorated to the point where productive conversations are no longer happening. Escalations are not being resolved. Trust is gone.
03
Internal team has lost confidence
The people responsible for the program no longer believe it will succeed. They are managing up and managing expectations rather than solving problems. Morale has become a delivery risk.
04
Vendor deliverables are not meeting expectations
What the vendor promised and what they are delivering are two different things. The gap has been acknowledged but not resolved. The organization is absorbing the cost without a clear remedy.
05
Executive sponsor has lost confidence
The executive sponsor is asking hard questions the program team cannot answer. Board-level or C-suite visibility has increased. The pressure to demonstrate progress is real and immediate.
06
Budget overrun with no clear path to completion
The program has consumed significantly more than planned and the finish line has not moved closer. Additional investment is being requested without a credible recovery plan to justify it.

A structured model for every engagement.
Clarity, stability, and a predictable path to go-live.

Every recovery engagement follows the same structured model regardless of platform, program size, or how far things have gone sideways. The phases are fixed. The timelines are realistic. The outcomes at each stage are defined before work begins.

I
Diagnose First 10 Days
Stakeholder interviews across HR, Payroll, IT, and leadership. Review of project plans, configurations, testing, and integrations. Identification of gaps between reported status and actual status. The assessment is documented and presented to leadership directly, without filtering through the existing program team or implementation partner.
Outcome
A clear, objective view of project health, including a risk heatmap and recovery priorities.
II
Stabilize Days 15–30
Prioritize and address critical risks first. Focus on high-impact areas, payroll, benefits, data integrity, before moving to lower-priority items. Establish execution cadence and decision structure so the right people are making decisions at the right moments, not after the window has closed.
Outcome
A controlled, stabilized project environment with clear direction and organizational alignment.
III
Deliver Days 30–90
Rebaseline the timeline based on actual capacity and current status, not what leadership wants to hear or what the vendor is proposing to protect their contract. Drive testing maturity and data readiness. Prepare the organization for a confident go-live, and stay through stabilization until the work holds.
Outcome
A realistic and executable path to implementation success, with the organization able to sustain what was built.

Does this sound like your program? We respond to every inquiry within one business day.

Start a Conversation

If you are asking any of these, it is time to talk.

These are the questions senior leaders ask when a program is in trouble. They are also the questions The Cadence Partners is built to answer.

Can someone give me an honest read on where this program actually stands?
We have been told it will be fine for six months. I am not sure I believe it anymore.
The vendor keeps telling us the issues are normal. They do not feel normal.
My team is exhausted and I need someone senior in the room who is not part of the problem.
The board is asking questions I cannot answer with confidence. What do I tell them?
We need a plan that is actually achievable. Not another slide deck with optimistic assumptions.

What makes this engagement different from the last one.

Three things that distinguish a Cadence Partners recovery engagement from what most organizations have already tried.

Senior involvement that is real
The practitioner who conducts the assessment is the practitioner who stays through recovery. There is no handoff to a junior team after the engagement is sold. You have direct access to 25 years of HCM and payroll delivery experience, across every major platform, from the first assessment through stabilization.
No stake in the existing narrative
We have no relationship with your vendor to protect, no prior recommendations to defend, and no incentive to tell you the situation is better than it is. The assessment reflects what we find, not what makes the current engagement easier to continue.
Platform depth that earns credibility fast
Recovery engagements live or die on credibility established in the first two weeks. Depth across Infor GHR, Lawson S3, Workday, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Ceridian, and ServiceNow means the technical and functional reality of your program is understood from day one. No learning curve. No warm-up period. Credibility earned in the first two weeks.

Leslie is a true professional. With exceptional communication skills, deep business understanding, and thorough knowledge of the Lawson ERP system, Leslie was truly one of our superstars. I would hire her again in a second.

Rob Dahlager, MBA, PMP, SPOC
Business and Software Consulting

She is detail and process oriented, organized, reliable, and has excellent documentation skills. I would definitely recommend Leslie to any organization.

Kamal Shankar
HR Information System Technology and Workforce Data Analytics Leader

Most firms are flexible and collaborative.
That is not enough to recover a failing program.

What distinguishes a recovery that succeeds is a structured, objective approach that identifies what is actually wrong and addresses it at the root, not one that adapts around the problem while reporting that progress is being made.

Typical Consulting Approach
Starts with solutions before fully diagnosing the problem
Focuses on tasks and visible activity
Adapts without a consistent framework
Reports progress without redefining what success looks like
The Cadence Partners Approach
Begins with a structured diagnostic before recommending a direction
Identifies root causes, not surface symptoms
Applies a proven recovery framework with defined outcomes at each stage
Aligns execution to measurable outcomes that leadership can verify

Recovery is our lead practice. We also work across HCM conversions and upgrades, ServiceNow integration, payroll transformation, and technology advisory, often following a recovery engagement once the program is back on track.

Explore all practice areas →

Ready to talk through your situation?

Every inquiry answered within one business day. No pitch, just a direct conversation.

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