Bridgestone and Big Blue in brutal battle

ERJ staff report (TP)

New York / Tokyo − Bridgestone is suing IBM over a $75m (€55.7m) computer system it says performed so poorly it threw Bridgestone’s "entire business operation into chaos”, reported Business Insider.

IBM is vigorously defending itself. It insists it was Bridgestone's mismanagement of the project that caused all of the problems.

In fact, IBM tells Business Insider, the company "lacked leadership" in the tech area, and replaced its chief information officer six times during the two-year project, among other failings.

The new computer system controls Bridgestone’s customer orders and fulfillment. Bridgestone's complaint alleges:

“IBM’s defective system lost or deleted scheduled customer orders, would not process orders, duplicated, or partially processed orders and, for those limited orders that were processed, did not complete critical corresponding business applications.”

It's seeking up to $600m (€445.8m) in damages.

IBM said: “These claims against IBM are exaggerated, factually wrong and without merit. From the outset of this project, Bridgestone failed to meet critical commitments upon which the performance of IBM’s obligations were predicated.

“Ultimately, Bridgestone’s repeated failures had a significant impact on the project’s cost and schedule, and its decision to prematurely roll-out the implementation across its entire business negatively impacted its operations."

Bridgestone said in a statement: “Bridgestone Americas, Inc. (BSA) filed suit against IBM on 29 October 2013 in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee. Due to confidentiality restrictions, BSA was required to file this complaint under seal. A redacted complaint which is available to the public was filed on 12 November 2013. The allegations in the redacted complaint speak for themselves, and BSA has no further comment at this time.”

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Full story from Business Insider