FORDORACLE IT PROJECT FAILURE

(2004)

GROUP E 7
ADVAIT GOMKALE | AKANKSHA SINHA | MANISHA PAHADIYA
SHANKHADIP MAJUMDER | SARTHAK MEHRA | VAIBHAV SURANAA

Project Everest

Intended to facilitate increase of information between Ford and suppliers

Idea was to integrate about 30 portals used by different ford units into a single portal
What eventually happened
1. Time consuming (nicknamed neverest by suppliers)
2. Difficult to operate (Suppliers had to navigate through multiple screens for pretty simple functions)
3. The planned global rollout never made it past North America.
4. The then chief announced that the company would switch back to the old system, but wont make a
formal announcement about it.

What was different about Everest ?

The things expected out of the information system were

Operational efficiency
Expense control in production and manufacturing
Timely and accurate information
Better visibility of inventory
Global reach of the ford products

Factors that led to system failure

Rising Costs: Costs kept escalating as implementation progressed. Starting
with 200 million USD, the final expenditure by Ford is estimated to be 400
million USD by various reports.
Not user-friendly: The final users were the suppliers. These suppliers had to
enter through the old web interface, and then through five screens. The data
was not present even after following these steps. Having the new and old
systems run in parallel, there was no incentive for suppliers to shift to the
new system. Further, as lot of functionality was missing, the suppliers who
shifted to the new system had to go back to the old system.

Factors that led to system failure

Integration challenges: Due to lack of perfect communication and
teamwork, various components of the project like security, app servers and
customer relationship management systems did not integrate seamlessly with
each other.
Choice of oracle as a partner: Oracle has been criticized for integration
problems and with this project involving multiple teams, integration was a
major factor for successful implementation of the project.
Unrealistic Goals: The project aimed at integrating various legacy based
procurement systems, standardize processes & methodology in all production
plants and rationalize Fords supplier network. The analysts saw this as an
unattainable goal.

Recommendations

Proper planning of the project

End-user should have been kept in mind
Greater integration between teams from Ford and Oracle.
Phase wise implementation
Incentivize the end-user to use the new software