Million dollar glitch: County pulls plug on court software system
Brian Wilson and Michelle Willard, DNJ.com
After investing two years and almost $1 million to update Rutherford County's antiquated court-management computer system, a new Circuit Court clerk pulled the plug. Now the county, clerk's office and software company are all standing around with fingers pointed, wanting to find out what went wrong and whether a lawsuit might be around the corner.
Software Procurement Problems at the Delaware State Procurement Office
GSS, the Delaware State Procurement Office, contracted SciQuest Inc. for an “out of the box” website where various state agencies could advertise open contracts, private vendors could submit bids, and the public could keep tabs on the proceedings. However, after two years only part of the site is working and GSS and SciQuest are embroiled in a legal battle over the long-delayed project.
A typical SciQuest client submits 4 or 5 enhancement requests, SciQuest said, but to date GSS had submitted 97 such requests and the project scope was out of control. The company claims to have provided the software that GSS needs, while even throwing in an additional $61k worth of software licenses for free. Delaware taxpayers could be on the hook for a nearly $2.3 million state procurement website that may never function as originally envisioned.
Sacramento city schools sue over failed ERP implementation
Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee
Sacramento City Unified sued when a $5.2 million cloud ERP implementation failed. The district alleges fraud and misrepresentation and wants damages, restitution, revocation of contracts, attorney fees, and interest.
Sierra-Cedar was hired to implement Workday cloud ERP to manage payroll, finances, and HR. The suit alleges that Sierra-Cedar consultants lacked K-12 expertise and struggled to configure Workday, causing delays and cost overruns. Sierra-Cedar could not get better than 70% accuracy when testing payroll, and the district decided not to go live.
Sacramento City Unified terminated the contracts after implementation was still not complete a year later than planned. They complained contracts were written to ensure payment regardless of the project's outcome, yet they were right back where they started with nothing to show for the expenditure.
City of Indianapolis sues Interact for dispatch system software implementation failure
Bennett Haeberle, WishTV (page no longer available)
The city of Indianapolis is suing Interact Public Safety Systems for over $8 million for emergency management software that was not implemented as promised. Interact was unable to deliver a working system almost three years after the original go-live date. As a result of Interact’s failure to properly meet its obligations, the city was forced to find an alternative vendor to replace their Legacy Computer Assisted Dispatch system. To date the city has paid Interact about $6.6 million for the software.
Jefferson County scraps financial system after spending $20 million
Barnett Wright, al.com
Jefferson County decided to scrap its new software after spending $2.6 million on licenses and $16 million on implementation over the past ten years. County Manager Tony Petelos said that employees struggled with the software from day one and that it was not intuitive or user friendly. The County's director of building and maintenance services said the software didn't work well for building and maintenance services, and could not break down expenses and costs in a way that worked for him.
After deciding to scrap the current system, the County is looking forward to software with better reporting that shows where the County's money goes, spending trends, and is easier to use.
Burned by $30 SAP million deal, Marin supervisors seek new software contract
Mindful of "lessons learned" during the county's $30 million computer collapse, Marin officials will negotiate a new software systems contract with Tyler Technologies, the largest company in the nation focused solely on public sector software and services.
In a brief but carefully orchestrated presentation by a phalanx of top officials, the county administration recommended that top brass "enter into a contract and statement of work negotiations" with Tyler, a company that entered the local government software market in 1998 and has offices in 18 states across the nation, although not in California.
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission sues contractor for $45 million
Joseph N. DiStefano, Philadelphia Inquirer
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission sued a Colorado contractor for more than $45 million, alleging the company orchestrated an overbilling scheme to implement a computer software system that doesn't work properly. The lawsuit accuses the contractor of assigning "repetitive and useless assignments to increase billing amounts, of billing for positions not authorized under the contract. It also states services were billed but not delivered, failing to live up to several implementation steps of the agreement while still charging for them, and overcharging for software implementation.
Internal turnpike documents showed the agency had spent nearly $50 million more than necessary to buy computer software. After the contractor declared bankruptcy, the commission received only $2 million.
Pennsylvania sues IBM for $110M over IT upgrade problems
Patrick Thibodeau, ComputerWorld
Pennsylvania sued IBM for its failure to complete an upgrade to the state unemployment compensation system. When the state terminated the project, it was 45 months behind schedule and $60 million over budget.
The state had the odds stacked against them from the start, said the Standish Group. Consulting a database of 50,000 projects, they said that less than 2% of projects valued at $100 million were successful. Turnover of contractors working on the project was a significant cause of the problem, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. 638 contractors had worked on the project, with 75% having less than two years of involvement.