Officials: replace SAP ERP is cheaper, than to correct its errors

Marin County made the legal claim to the system integrator, Deloitte Consulting company, at the beginning of the current year. According to the submitted application, Deloitte Consulting used the project as "educational base" for inexperienced employees, and as a result "expensive computer system works worse, than old programs which needed to be replaced".

The Deloitte Consulting company submitted the petition concerning Marin County "insubstantial accusations" and also complaints concerning unpaid money. A system "works properly and can solve all problems stated in the written agreement", said in the statement of system integrator.

Nevertheless, Marin County has the version of the events. According to them, implementation of the ERP system of SAP was complete in 2006, however correctly only 50% of necessary functionality work now.

According to David Hill (David Hill), the director of the department of information services and Marin County technologies to complete SAP implementation, it is necessary to design again a system that will be rather expensive. Most of heads of the district "agree that there is a cogent reason for transition from the system of SAP or for its improvement".

By Matin County calculations, different ways of solving the problem in 10 years will have different cost.

So, preserving of "status quo" will cost $34.7 million, correction of a system and also "support of permanent improvements" by hiring of new employees will cost $49.8 million, and cost only fixings of a problem and use of a system will be $34.1 million. At the same time implementation of a new system will cost only $26.2 million for the same 10 years.

According to Mr. Hill, now the information system suitable for replacement of a system of SAP is not defined yet.

According to representatives of SAP, the company "is firmly sure of the value and efficiency of the software used in Marin County. A system works as it is required, and any questions on its implementation do not belong to SAP. Solutions of the company are set and perfectly function in tens of thousands of organizations of a public sector from which tens are in California".

According to Rhea Vanga (Ray Wang), analytics of Altimeter Group what system in Marin County would not be selected from quality of replacement, for the client it is important to understand the future business processes. It is necessary to compare that they want to make with what is stated by software makers. In turn, the new system provider should explain accurately existing functionality of a system and what needs to be finished. Besides, the system integrator should tell the client what will be specifically implemented at the scheduled time.