A customer of IBM has cited the computing and services company in its bankruptcy declaration in a Delaware court, blaming a failed enterprise resource planning (ERP) application for the company’s inability to complete orders. American LaFrance (ALF), a US maker of firefighting equipment, developed a standalone ERP system when it was spun out from previous owner, Freightliner. Almost immediately upon the changeover to the ERP system from Freightliner, so ALF claims, problems with the new system had a devastating impact on its operations, including an inability to reconcile data, and missing financial information. ALF claims that IBM is responsible for the IT problems that precipitated its bankruptcy, because, essentially, alleged deficiencies in the system prevented it from customising orders for individual customers.

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