Software package selection and implementation really is hard work. It's hard work to get it right -- on budget and on time, even with all the right pieces in place. At least that's my perspective from working in the world of iMIS and associations for the past 12 years. Sometimes, though, I think that it must work so much better, so much easier when there's lots and lots of money available. Surely, then things can go smoothly, yes?
Of course, they don't. Whatever budget size you're at, the goals, the pressures, the complexities are always all bigger than you'd like them to be.
So here's a story to make us all feel better than we don't have projects that go this badly:
Waste Management says it spent more than $100 million on a computer system that was supposed to help it save money, but instead turned out to be a "complete failure."
Waste Management spokeswoman Lynn Brown said Wednesday that her company is suing SAP, the German-based company that sold it the system, seeking all its expenses plus punitive damages...
The software maker sold Waste Management computer programs that were supposed to be designed to manage tasks unique to U.S. companies that haul waste and handle recycling, with no customization required, the lawsuit said...
"Unknown to Waste Management, this 'United States' version of the Waste and Recycling Software was undeveloped, untested, and defective," the suit says.
(my bolding)
SAP will be glad that Tony Soprano didn't buy the software.
