New York officials simply did not understand just how complex the project would end up being, Bloomberg said in a . "Once they started, part of it was they just kept adding things that it made sense to do," he said.

But he stressed that the city still needs the system "desperately," and it is saving money for agencies that are using it. The project is on track for completion by June, he added.

While the from Hewlett-Packard was technically for a CRM (customer relationship management) implementation, not ERP, the award still stands to make a serious impact on the outsourcing business.

A court found that HP's EDS division had lied about how long it would take to finish the project, which was started in 2000 and originally budgeted at £48 million. BSkyB fired EDS in 2002 and completed the job itself, but costs ultimately quintupled.