The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
Enterprise Software: When IT Projects Go Wrong
SAP is in hot water with a failed ERP implementation for Waste Management. Waste Management is suing for more than $100 million in damages and claims that SAP used “rigged and manipulated” demonstrations during their sales presentations to convince Waste Management into entering into an implementation agreement.
The demonstration was itself implemented as a piece of software, but it is now missing, and fingers are pointing in both directions. Both Waste Management and SAP claim that the demonstration would vindicate their points of view, but neither side is able to come up with the demonstration that is at the center of the controversy.
SAP blames Waste Management for not supplying well-defined business requirements and that they also did not assign “sufficient, knowledgeable, decision-empowered users and managers” to work on the project.
What’s interesting about this is that sales information and product demonstrations can become legal evidence in disagreements about software implementation and service contracts. Forrester Research recommends that “Instead of relying on the generic terms and conditions, vendors should include all of the proposals, sales-cycle presentations, demos, and promises in the entire agreement.”
