Amazing. HP EDS has settled a major project implementation failure at BSkyB in the UK this month.
In 2000, EDS won a GBP48 million contract to provide BSkyB with a
new CRM system. The project ran into trouble and in 2002 BSkyB brought
a claim
alleging that during the tender stage EDS had misrepresented its ability
to
deliver the project.
In 2004 BSkyB terminated the contract, eventually
completing the
project itself using in-house staff. BSkyB filed suit, claiming that it was fraudulently
induced to award
EDS the contract because EDS misled BSkyB
about the
project's budget and time frame. EDS was acquired by HP in 2008.
In January 2010 the U.K. High Court found that EDS had lied to
the British pay-TV
group in order to secure a contract as part of the company's investment
in a new
CRM system. The settlement sum includes interim payments of GBP270
million that EDS has
already made to BSkyB in February 2010.
This will hopefully wake up IT service providers all over the globe, especially the larger ones, that they can not get away anymore with failing to produce tangible results in implementation projects and only expect to pay penalties limited to the size of the project sum.
Outsourcing will take a new dimension. Cloud computing might be more and more a valid alternative for expensive and long implementation projects.
You must sign in to rate content.