I see that the federal government's Phoenix pay system is back in the news - quite a debacle that beast has become and it brings back memories of similar situation from when I used to work at TELUS. There were a number of new systems that TELUS brought in over the years and some just seemed doomed from the outset and the company would just continue to throw money at them - I'd name some of them but I've been gone long enough that the names/acronyms now evade my memory. What I could never figure out is that there were larger companies doing the same thing but TELUS often felt that they needed to develop their own in house solutions instead of seeking out what appeared to be tried and tested systems - it's kind of like the CoC's electronic fair system or whatever that they have been unable to successfully implement.
That all said, there are a number of beyond members who do work for medium/larger sized companies who must have experienced the same thing though the Phoenix pay system is becoming laughable but at the same time not really laughable because it's us joe blow tax payers who will be on the hook to pay to fix that thing. $1 billion was not dismissed by the responsible minister as a possible number to have everything fixed and running smoothly, $700 million plus is now a realistic number meaning that the Phoenix pay system will most likely reap no savings over it's lifetime as compared to the purported $70 million a year it was supposed to save us.