I have some experience sitting on steering and oversight committees for IT implementation projects ranging in the millions to tens of millions of $$$, spanning years of work, multiple systems, thousands of users, etc. I empathize with those who have discussed the pitfalls of systems offered by SAP, ORACLE, Peoplesoft, etc. as well as those who have discussed the issue of business processes vs IT implementations, the dangers of consultants etc.

I don't think one can judge what is going on unless one is privy to the implementation strategy, planning, history, and perhaps most important of all, the current internal assessment of the project status. Is there a global vision (with buy-in from the most senior management)? What went into the planning? What are the checks and balances in tems of managing the project? Is the project adequately funded? Are they happy, concerned, or scared s***tless right now? And so on. Personally, I don't care who does the work: even if an outside contractor does the work, the customer has ultimate responsibility to oversee and control the project - nobody else cares enough.

Having said the above, it doesn't look promising IMHO at this point - I'm sure things can turn around - many projects stumble at first - but somebody has to be willing and able to take charge - I think somebody said 200 people are/were working on this project - the bigger an IT project the easier to blow it.