May 13th, 2008
EDS' troubled legacy of failed IT projects
Observing the news that HP is acquiring EDS, perhaps it’s time to reflect on EDS’ troubled history with IT projects. I’ve written about a number of failed projects where EDS played a role.
Warning, some of these stories are ugly:
- More EDS issues over botched IT project in UK
- Serious IT governance issues at UK Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
- EDS screws UK Jobcentre Plus, according to House of Commons
- State of Failure in Wisconsin
- Wisconsin’s Apologist for IT Failure
- ZDNet UK’s list of top 10 IT failures
An anonymous reader sent me the following email specifically regarding an EDS government contract:
In [my state], we have had numerous problems with outsourced IT projects, cost over runs, failure to deliver on time, and products that don’t work. The most frustrating aspect is that there seems to be no sanction for failure — those same companies turn around and sell the same poor product to other states and then get new contracts from our own state.
This sentiment echoes some of the stories I’ve written about EDS:
EDS has proven itself to be anything but a model corporate citizen, and without doubt managing such a behemoth is a difficult and challenging task in the best of circumstances. Nonetheless, such hare-brained schemes remind one of the fox guarding the hen house. Ah, the power of large corporate legal departments with sufficient resources to successfully fight the government.
Let’s hope HP does better than EDS in regards to IT failure.
Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a software and consulting company dedicated to reducing software implementation failures. Click here to discuss this post with him on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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