Section 5 of 6
The implementations that are on the public record
Four implementations written from the documented record: two collapses, one abandoned programme, and the case that reached furthest into people’s lives.
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A distributor went bankrupt during an ERP rollout
The FoxMeyer collapse in 1996 became the standard citation for an implementation that took the company with it.
Everything in Failures
4 pieces
- A distributor went bankrupt during an ERP rolloutThe FoxMeyer collapse in 1996 became the standard citation for an implementation that took the company with it.
- An order system went live at the worst possible weekHershey's 1999 go-live coincided with its peak season, and the fulfilment failure was visible on shelves.
- Half a billion spent, then abandonedLidl ended its SAP programme in 2018 after years of work, reportedly because the system could not be reconciled with how the business already counted stock.
- The extreme case, and it convicted peopleThe Post Office Horizon scandal is the furthest a software defect has reached into people's lives, and the record is now extensive.