Lawson Software can pay $1.5 million for the failure ERP project

The CareSource Management Group company in August, 2010 signed the contract with Lawson for ERP system implementation, but after 10 months of implementation the project had numerous problems and did not appear a test stage, reported in the claim, the filed a lawsuit CareSource in July of the Southern federal district of the State of Ohio, the USA.

It is said in the statement of claim that Lawson convinced CareSource that the final solution will be completely integrated packet of products, "seamless for end users", but later the company found out that a system consists of two modules, one of which - a new product, Lawson Talent Management (LTM). CareSource was one of the first companies where it was set.

In process of continuation of the project there was a number of questions in data exchange between the module LTM and financial S3 component. At some point problems were so serious that for CareSource 20 files in technical support service of vendor were created. And in June Lawson reported to CareSource that approximately at 37 clients of "same or similar" a problem with integration. According to the statement of claim, after this Lawson did not provide CareSource operability of the software.

Besides, Lawson appointed to this project of inexperienced employees who worked by the principle of "tests and errors", implementing at work the program of a training with the module LTM, according to the lawsuit. In June, during conference call, Lawson used a situation of acquisition by her Infor company as a leaving pretext from a problem, stating that it "was distracted" by the procedure of merge.

In the claim CareSource requires the amount of $1.5 million as compensation. Enter it: the cost of the software license, the purchased equipment, consulting services and other expenses.

In the counter action submitted by Lawson on September 2 the company denies violations in the contract with CareSource, at the same time reporting that "there were certain difficulties" concerning integration of LTM and S3. Nevertheless, said in the statement, these issues were resolved.

Besides, Lawson while the software was in a status of testing adds, CareSource stopped the project before submission of the claim. Lawson also denies that it called merges to Infor an obstacle for the problem resolution, as well as the fact that it announced CareSource problems with integration of LTM - S3 at 37 clients. The vendor requires opposite $335 thousand, claiming that such is the debt of CareSource on the contract.

Michael Krigsman, the CEO of Asuret company, considers the events "mismatch of expectations" in relationship between software provider and his client. According to him, by this phenomenon also other controversial projects implemented recently are mentioned. "Any vendor will not want to appear in such situation if that is not wished by the client, and therefore the probability of intended false representation seems smaller, than a possibility of misunderstanding between the parties", - he added.

Clients also should be sure of whether they consider themselves rather experienced in mastering of the software product, the analyst Ray Wang, the CEO of Constellation Research company considers. "This case clearly demonstrates - why for suppliers it is so important to create first of all certain arrangements with clients concerning what means to be the first client and why it is important for clients - to have clear idea of the requirements", - he told.

The press secretary of Lawson refused any comments about the legal claim.

Lawson not the only supplier of ERP taken to court because of problems with projects of clients. Oracle and Epicor company faced similar claims already many times.