The Australian Financial Review recently reported on energy utility AGL’s billing system overhaul, known as Project Phoenix, which has been struggling for some time to meet the ambitious savings targets it set at its inception in 2006.  At the time the company forecast savings of up to $70 million a year from 2008 onwards.  However the deadline for achieving benefits from the $200 million billing systems overhaul has been pushed back, after problems it experienced following the migration of customers to a new SAP system caused costs to blow out (and they’re surprized?).  Spending on the project, which was originally budgeted for $80 - $90 million had swelled to $215 million by the February reporting  season and has now increased to just over $230 million.

This is another lesson for those who select billing systems – while estimating savings targets is a wet-finger exercise; achieving them is something else.