Enterprise resource planning systems are notoriously challenging, but for Superior Industries International, a maker of automobile wheels, ERP problems were partially to blame for the company missing a filing deadline with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As Computerworld's Chris Kanaracus reports, the difficulties had to do mostly with using the system for the first time to close out the quarter.

Other companies' financial statements have fared worse on account of massive ERP system deployments. An ERP implementation that ran over budget ended up having a negative impact on Levi Strauss' earnings in 2008, Kanaracus recounts.

The complexity of ERP and the customization that enterprises often require have a tendency to generate unexpected delays. "That's oftentimes the downfall of these big projects. [The core software provides] 70 to 80 percent of what they need, and then they get into expensive customizations. They get into that, and never finish," said Paul Hamerman, an analyst with Forrester Research.  

For more:
- see Chris Kanaracus' article at Computerworld

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