Along with “my hard drive ate my homework”, the digital age has spawned a countless number of ways in which personal responsibility — or any responsibility at all — can be dumped on someone or something else. One of the more common excuses to emerge from the garbage pit of blame is the perennial “my software vendor ate my profitability and killed my market cap.” This scapegoating is one of the more pitiful exercises in corporate malfeasance, and that’s saying a lot these days.
So you can imagine my perspective on a report by Bloomberg that jewelry retailer Shane Co. is telling a bankruptcy court that a failed SAP implementation had a hand in the company’s need for bankruptcy protection — despite the softness in the jewelry market, the economic downturn, and, don’t forget, the fact that someone other than SAP actually had responsibility for ensuring the success of the project.
The number one responsible party was, of course, the management of Shane. This isn’t 1992, when management could pretend that they didn’t have the skills or knowledge to manage an ERP implementation, or at least hire someone with those skills. Sorry, the buck stops at the executive floor of Shane, not SAP. The other responsible party was systems integrator Ciber, whose name is strangely missing from the Bloomberg report. Shame on Bloomberg too, but I don’t expect reporters who don’t understand enterprise software to understand why the systems integrator is the one who screws up the implementation.
So, let’s set the record straight: large enterprise systems, that have been installed in thousands of companies, don’t cause customers to lose money due to implementation failure (This is true for SAP, Oracle, and everyone else). It takes the customer’s managers, usually aided and abetted by a company like Ciber, to get it really wrong. So when you read the Bloomberg article that repeats a claim by Shane that SAP’s software caused inventory problems, sales problems, and profitability problems, take out the words “SAP software” and replace it with “senior Shane management and their systems integrator.” These are the real saps in this story. I hope the bankruptcy judge isn’t fooled by this ploy — because if Shane’s managers are stupid enough to blame SAP for their problems, they’re too stupid to be given a second chance in bankruptcy court either.
I agree with you on this as well. Although our company (Panorama Consulting) is not involved with the implementation at Shane Co., it is unfortunately not uncommon to see a company and their system integrator botch an implementation like this. We recently posted a blog on our hypothesis and lessons learned of what we think might have been the root cause of this and other ERP failures:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/erp-roi/shane-company-lessons-learned-from-an-erp-failure-29338
We should talk about my company’s near failure of a 7 year project, fights with SAP, near litigation against SAP and how Cap saved the day.
I’d be happy to hear you story — let er rip.
Josh
McKinsol has been unquestionable successful in SAP Retail implementations. That’s why multi-billion dollar conglomerates as well as small to medium companies continuously hired McKinsol for green shoe implementation and production support thereafter. It is true that a ERP system can make or break the company of small to medium size. Larger companies lose few years of growth if ERP is not implemented right. That’s why companies should look at the core skills of integrator and not just overall IT brand. Partnered with SAP for co-innovation in SAP Retail & Fashion, McKinsol has proved her commitment again toward this niche area and proved to the market that you can trust the name and people.
Do you have any data to back up what you’re saying about McKinsol? Most service providers “claim” success is the norm, but the data suggest the opposite. I’d like to believe there are service providers who are the exceptions, but I would prefer if you reply with some data to support the company’s “unquestionable” success. Thanks.