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Enterprise software, read for what it costs and who signs for it.

Founding readers

Your reading room

Keep stories for your next steering committee, pick the questions to ask, and print the lot as one pack. It all stays in this browser.

What a kept list looks like

The newest story on three committee topics, with the question each one raises for your own programme. Keep for committee works for you too; the list below fills up in this browser.

  1. DoorDash's AI agents wrote code cleanups for $4.79 each. DoorDash estimates hours by hand.

    AI at work · Mon 21 Sept, 09:06 · via InfoQ

    Ask: Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.

  2. Palantir's £330m NHS contract can be cancelled in February.

    Software business · Sun 20 Sept, 09:06 · via The Register

    Ask: Ask which exit clauses your largest software and services contracts carry, and when each can be used.

  3. Anthropic's Claude helped researchers reach OpenAI staff accounts in three days.

    Security · Sat 19 Sept, 19:06 · via The Register

    Ask: Ask when systems of this kind in your landscape were last patched, and who confirms it.

ERP LEADERS

Founding reader

Founding reader.

Issue 01 reader

The card has no number and no name on it.

Kept for committee

    Nothing kept yet. Every story page has a Keep for committee line under its sources. Open the archive

    The question bank

    7 topics, 21 questions. They are about your own programme, never findings about a company in the news. Each topic lists the stories that raise it.

    Cost and overruns

    1. Ask for the approved budget and the current forecast on the same scope, side by side.
    2. Ask which costs sit outside the programme budget today: internal staff, data migration, parallel running.
    3. Ask who may approve the next increase, and at what amount the programme goes back to the board.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 4 stories, latest: Canva paused its AI 2.0 rollout. Running it cost more than planned.

    Course changes and go-lives

    1. Ask which design decisions in your programme would be expensive to reverse, and when each was last reviewed.
    2. Ask which expected benefits change if the implementation approach changes.
    3. Ask who owns a decision to change course, and where it would be recorded.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 3 stories, latest: The FAA built 11,389 separate schedules for its air traffic overhaul. None connect.

    Prices and licences

    1. Ask when each major software contract renews and what notice period applies.
    2. Ask which price protections are written into the contract and which rest on a sales conversation.
    3. Ask what a price rise on that line would do to the run budget, and who would notice it first.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 1 story, latest: Server prices up 125%. Lead times reaching 18 months.

    Staffing

    1. Ask your integrator to name the people on your programme and to confirm which of them are staying.
    2. Ask what the contract says about replacing key people, and who approves a replacement.
    3. Ask where knowledge of your configuration is written down, outside the heads of the people who built it.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 3 stories, latest: KPMG cut jobs in its SAP and AI teams. Partners averaged £880,000.

    AI rollouts

    1. Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.
    2. Ask what each tool is allowed to change, and who reviews what it changed.
    3. Ask how the result is measured, and who decides to switch a tool off.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 14 stories, latest: DoorDash's AI agents wrote code cleanups for $4.79 each. DoorDash estimates hours by hand.

    Security and outages

    1. Ask when systems of this kind in your landscape were last patched, and who confirms it.
    2. Ask which finance and ERP accounts can be reached from outside, and how each sign-in is protected.
    3. Ask how long a restore took the last time it was tested.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 11 stories, latest: Anthropic's Claude helped researchers reach OpenAI staff accounts in three days.

    Contracts and disputes

    1. Ask which exit clauses your largest software and services contracts carry, and when each can be used.
    2. Ask what leaving would cost, in money and in months.
    3. Ask who reads the contract when a dispute starts, and whether they have read it before.

    2 more questions in the founding reader view.

    Raised by 3 stories, latest: Palantir's £330m NHS contract can be cancelled in February.

    Open the rest of the room

    Founding readers see every question in the bank and can print the committee pack. Enter a work email to open issue 01 and the full room in this browser.

    The ERP LEADERS brief

    Get issue 01: the Zeiss case, for a steering committee

    One ERP programme per issue, for the people who run and sign for it. Issue 01 is the Zeiss case.

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