ERP programmes that stopped, overran or went to court.
The figure, the date and the source for each one. An entry needs a public figure or a court filing. Where the approved budget was published, we give it beside the final one. 11 entries since 8 September 2026, added as they are reported. ERP is the software a company runs its business on; replacing it is one of the biggest projects a company ever signs for.
Original analysis · Historical case, 2018
Revlon’s $64m sales estimate is not the ERP project bill
| Figure | Programme, as reported |
|---|---|
| 83% | Microsoft, Oracle and three peers cut buybacks 83% to $13.6bn. AI spending is eating their cash, a Reuters analysis found.The analysis covered the first nine months of 2026 at Microsoft, Oracle, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, The Next Web reported on 31 October. |
| 70% | Erasmus University's move from SAP to Oracle is 70% over budget, at €20.2m. A one-year delay cost €4.5m of that.Erasmus Magazine, the university's independent news site, reported on 29 October that replacing SAP with Oracle administrative software was €8.3m over budget by its calculation. |
Microsoft said Foundry will get the tool GitHub uses to run AI agents. SAP may cut off agents skipping its approved routes.The tool is called the Microsoft Copilot harness. | |
| 68% | SAP says its AI assistant can cut book closing time by up to 68%. Its release skips how controllers check it.SAP presented the Financial Consolidation Assistant at its TechEd developer conference in Berlin this week, one of 40 assistants and 300 agents it announced with partners, the SAP News Center reported. |
Oracle's co-CEO says 'up to' figures in data-centre press releases mean nothing. Separately, diginomica reported a power delay at Oracle's Wisconsin site.Clay Magouyrk, co-CEO of Oracle, told Oracle AI World that readers of data-centre announcements skip over the words "up to". | |
Workday cut 500 technology employees and lowered its earnings outlook.In a securities filing on Tuesday 29 September, Workday said it would cut about 2.5% of its workforce, roughly 500 employees, mainly from its product and technology team. | |
| £20m | Birmingham estimated £20m for its Oracle system. It is set to cost £144m.The Register reported on 24 September 2026 that Birmingham City Council, Europe's largest local authority, will go at least one more year without auditors vouching for its accounts. |
A court ordered SAP to restore a refiner's software after 14 months.Mint and The Economic Times reported on 21 September that the Delhi High Court directed SAP India to restore full and uninterrupted software services to Nayara Energy, the Indian oil refiner in which Rosneft holds 49.13%. | |
| 2 points | Grocery Outlet's SAP launch cut gross margin by almost 2 points.Law360 reported that Judge Jon S. Tigar of the Northern District of California dismissed the proposed investor class action on 16 September. |
| £1.22bn | Asda's tech divorce from Walmart, including a new SAP system, cost £1.22bn.Project Future separated the UK's third largest supermarket from Walmart's systems after the 2021 sale. |
| €200m | Zeiss stopped a €200m SAP build after six years.Bloomberg reported on 7 September that the Oberkochen optics group, a key supplier to the chip industry, has overhauled its move to SAP's cloud after costs passed €200 million. |
Method
- What gets an entry
- A programme that a named outlet or a court filing reports as stopped, overrun or in dispute, with a public figure. Each entry is decided case by case.
- What the figure is
- The number as the source gave it. The figures here are of different kinds (a programme cost, a separation cost, a margin effect) and are not comparable. A programme cost covers the whole programme, not one vendor's software.
- Take the table
- Download the file (CSV) · Every figure in the archive
Know of one we have missed, with a public source? Send it.
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