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BSkyB Wins £709m Lawsuit Against HP-EDS
E5Rebel writes "In a massive legal case in the UK, HP-EDS has been found guilty of 'fraudulent misrepresentation' by their sales team when winning a major CRM project. Settlement could cost £200M out of an initial claim for £700M. HP's only relief was that parts of the claim were dismissed, but the core claim was upheld. HP is likely to appeal. Outsourcing will never be the same again. HP workers have been on strike against pay cuts last week; no doubt management will try and screw them further to pay for this debacle."
The summary: "Outsourcing will never be the same again."
TFA: "Nigel Roxburgh, research director at the National Outsourcing Association, previously told Computerworld UK that if the case is upheld in favour of BSkyB, "it could lead to a real scratching of heads, particularly among lawyers."
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
From TFA:
Amanda Bucklow at mediation firm In Place Of Strife said that even “a long and extraordinary mediation process would have taken only a few days and cost a lot less” than the legal fees spent by both parties.
And now breaking news! Random person trying to sell you some services thinks you should buy their services!
Somewhat off topic, but perhaps related to the topic:
Has anyone ever worked in a company where they had a SAP implementation where overall the users and management (and I don't mean snr management who are above it) are actually happy with the outcome?
AC disclosure: I work for BSKYB, but not in CRM ... thank f**k.
Yes, the CRM system has problems, and from a tech perspective I'd agree that it's not worth £48M (OMFG!). However, I think it's amazing that things got this far. If we're in a capitalist society then I also want this to be a meritocracy and I want someone in Sky to publicly take the blame for this 3rd party POS. Regardless of the internal or external software teams, it should never be allowed to degenerate to this level of incompetence.
Has anybody ever heard of (or better yet been involved with) an EDS project that went well.
Anyone?
EDS is characterized by: lots of promises, no delivery, never saw the experts present during negotiations again, lots of low GPA recent college grads doing 'work' they are not qualified for.
I don't know how EDS stays in business. Kickbacks to purchasing officers with no stake in the projects is my guess.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
FTA it sounds like the salesmen lied and the contract didn't include the lies. The court found EDS liable for what the salesmen said (and prolifically emailed) rather than the signed contract. If that holds it's not outsourcing that will become difficult but selling many complex and high priced products. Each sales meeting could be a contract negotiation with legal implications as well as a demo or whatever. You sales guys might need to drag the lawyer to all your customer meetings going forward. Sales support would become a major pain as well.
Presumably they incurred costs as a result of EDS not providing what they were supposed to.
Sky and EDS - it couldn't happen to two nicer companies. With luck no-one will win except the lawyers.
What planet are you from?!? Everyone knows you don't get to be the lowest bidder on a project by giving the customer everything they want! All salesmen lie; the really good salesmen actually know when they are lying. If you didn't fully specify the list of deliverables, the acceptance criteria, and the liquidated damages for failing to meet the criteria was in the contract, then shame on you for signing that contract in the first place! Sure, if you're doing it in house or buying from somebody that gets paid by the hour, then you can incompletely specify and make changes later. But good luck doing that once somebody has agreed on a fixed price for the whole contract!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
If your employer's finances are so bad that not working 1-2 months of unpaid overtime will bankrupt them, I advise that you start looking for another job.
When a fuckwit sales team promises the impossible they have given you license to not work.
The outcome is inevitable. As you state it's an 'impossible solution'.
Just stop working, look busy and focus on getting another job.
Remember who gains/loses if someone somehow implements the 'impossible solution'.
The sales maggot gains, his lies are now truth. His commission is now from a successful project. He will be telling new lies for the foreseeable future.
The developer loses, he worked his ass off to implement an 'impossible solution' and now has to support the monstrosity for the foreseeable future.
The client loses, sooner or later the impossible solution will fall over.
The out-sourcer wins, their scumbag methods work again. The client will be back for a fix.
When a sales maggot does this the project must be allowed to fail as quickly and publicly as possibly.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Let me guess, you're exempt and don't get over-time. And the sales people are mostly commissioned-based, and their commission is not based on the completion (nor the success) of the project (but just on having a signed contract with the client).
If that's the case, and if you don't rise up, expect this kind of pattern of behavior to continue. I've seen sales people take down companies because they were chasing poorly structured commissions (instead of worrying about the viability and profitability of each deal they were making).
The judgement couldn't happen to a nicer firm. HP screwed a lot of EDSers when they took over, and cut benefits and salaries to BELOW the level the "real" HP people were making. And they raided the pension fund for billions (HP has no pension plan)/ And they were going to keep the EDS brand...and they did for less than a year. Bad Karma comes back at you in many ways. That said there are a lot of good people at HP-EDS who may be hurt by all this crap even if they had nothing to do with it.