Yet another "defense" boondoggle bites the dust, at the cost of $1.03 billion taxpayer dollars.

[Andy9o8 3]

http://www.cio.com/article/721628/Air_Force_scraps_massive_ERP_project_after_racking_up_1_billion_in_costs?source=rss_applications&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cio%2Ffeed%2Fdrilldowntopic%2F3000+%28CIO.com+-+Applications%29

Air Force scraps massive ERP project after racking up $1 billion in costs

IDG News Service (Boston Bureau) — The U.S. Air Force has decided to scrap a major ERP (enterprise resource planning) software project after spending US$1 billion, concluding that finishing it would cost far too much more money for too little gain.

Dubbed the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the project has racked up $1.03 billion in costs since 2005, "and has not yielded any significant military capability," an Air Force spokesman said

[rushmc 23]

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http://www.cio.com/article/721628/Air_Force_scraps_massive_ERP_project_after_racking_up_1_billion_in_costs?source=rss_applications&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cio%2Ffeed%2Fdrilldowntopic%2F3000+%28CIO.com+-+Applications%29

Air Force scraps massive ERP project after racking up $1 billion in costs

IDG News Service (Boston Bureau) — The U.S. Air Force has decided to scrap a major ERP (enterprise resource planning) software project after spending US$1 billion, concluding that finishing it would cost far too much more money for too little gain.

Dubbed the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the project has racked up $1.03 billion in costs since 2005, "and has not yielded any significant military capability," an Air Force spokesman said

Back office software instaltitions are very expensive

Really has less to do with defense and more to do with administrative tasks however

We put in an ERP system a few years back

Not fun

Two of the major players are PeopleSoft and SAP

Intigration and data converstion are the two biggest hurtles

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rehmwa 2]

the boondoggle would be to do the math, recognize there is no return on investment, and then ask for MORE money because THIS TIME, it'll work

you know, just raise the debt ceiling

I'm glad they are shitcanning a lot of projects - more please

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[kelpdiver 2]

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the boondoggle would be to do the math, recognize there is no return on investment, and then ask for MORE money because THIS TIME, it'll work

Large capital investments like this can pay off, since the alternative status quo is usually a hodgepodge of smaller solutions that don't scale or intercommunicate. But poorly defined projects fail. Large poorly defined projects fail spectacularly.

[rehmwa 2]

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the boondoggle would be to do the math, recognize there is no return on investment, and then ask for MORE money because THIS TIME, it'll work

Large capital investments like this can pay off, since the alternative status quo is usually a hodgepodge of smaller solutions that don't scale or intercommunicate. But poorly defined projects fail. Large poorly defined projects fail spectacularly.

I agree - and, in the spirit of good planning - during reassessment, you have to do the regular cost/benefit analysis. The toughest thing to do is to cancel a project when it flips to unproductive. ESPECIALLY in government when letting it continue will help keep your budget dollars coming.

short answer - yes, they "can" pay off. but it's not guaranteed. good for them if they cancelled upon realizing it wouldn't pay off.


in government, we seem to see a lot of throwing good money after bad - this is refreshing to see something canceled. IMO

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[kelpdiver 2]

except that they're still stuck with their status quo.

Just earlier in the week it was talked about on the Daily Show that it takes 273 days to review VA applications for benefits for veterans. A key factor is that the VA and the DoD have entirely incompatible systems serving the same purpose. They resort to manual data transfer. This costs billions too, but it shows up in the run the business expense, not new capital spending. A lot of companies, never mind the government, suffer from this sort of accounting failure.

I think the key gains to be made in government spending, aside from cancelling aircraft carriers and other supertoys we no longer need, is it cutting the run the business expenses where millions of people keep doing really inefficient workflows.

[rehmwa 2]

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except that they're still stuck with their status quo.

I'm having a hard time taking any message from you here other than you want the government to continue spending on failed efforts......

It's pretty easy to say "those dummies, such terrible short term thinking here - keep spending" they have smart people too.

Unless you're just in discussion mode - then it's good mode.

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cutting the run the business expenses where millions of people keep doing really inefficient workflows.

gotta agree with this - but it's a great general comment that may or may not apply to the specific AF system of this discussion thread.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[wmw999 2,602]

The gummint has a problem, too, with not wanting to impose too many changes on too many interconnected agencies. This means that any large-scale solutions are heavily customized so that each department continues to do business the way it always has, but the large-scale integration becomes extremely difficult.

Of course, telling everyone in creation that they have to change how they do business would also be extremely difficult. The challenge in a well-planned project lies in identifying which departments are the greatest outliers in terms of process/integration cost, piss them off, and the the cost of implementation and likelihood of success goes up.

Of course, if the greatest-outlier departments are also the most powerful, you're screwed.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[ryoder 1,590]

Oracle and CSC.
Nuff said.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[quade 4]

Surely Quicken has some software we could use.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[ManagingPrime 0]

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Surely Quicken has some software we could use.

Sure...for the oh so affordable cost of 2 billion dollars.