Submitted by Caleb Newquist, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Earlier in the summer, we told you about Marin County, Calif., which was pretty displeased with Deloitte throwing a bunch of ‘neophytes’ at their ERP implementation project or in the county’s words ‘a trial-and-error training ground.’

As a result of Deloitte’s amateur hour, the SAP system – that Deloitte claims was just fine and dandy where they left it – is now being thrown to the scrap heap by the county because fixing it will cost more than replacing the whole system. And God knows Arnie won’t be helping them out with the bill, so they have to save on costs where they can.

"The system is the subject of a lawsuit Marin County filed against system integrator Deloitte Consulting earlier this year. Deloitte used the project as 'a trial-and-error training ground' for inexperienced employees, and the result was a 'costly computer system far worse than the legacy systems it was intended to replace,' according to the county’s complaint.

"Deloitte has filed motions against Marin County’s 'completely unfounded allegations,' as well as a complaint seeking unpaid fees, a spokesman said via e-mail. The system 'was working properly and could perform all the tasks consistently with the standards set forth in the written contract,' according to a Deloitte court filing.

"Marin County tells a different story. The SAP implementation dates to 2006, but today only 50 percent of the functionality is in place and working properly, according to a county report."

The county hasn’t decided on who they’re going with for the new system but if you’ve got a one-person shop with no experience and present your RFP using overhead transparencies, you’ll still have an edge on Deloitte.

County will rip and replace ailing SAP system [Reuters]