How IT Failures Wreck Holidays, Special Occasions for Many Companies
Untested information systems. Unforeseen spikes in demand. A combination of both, and more. Trouble comes in many shapes when companies' computers crash, or information systems fail to meet customers' expectations. A timeline of recent events.
CIO — Hershey’s famous Halloween 1999 ERP stumble is just one of many technology problems that have damaged sales during crunch times.
Hershey couldn’t process candy orders when a new order-taking and distribution system—built on software from SAP, Siebel and Manugistics&mash;went bad. Hershey sales dropped $150 million that quarter.
Here’s a look at other expensive failures:
November 2007: Everyone Wants Olympic Tickets
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games ditches online ticket sales after a crush of eager buyers crashes the ticketing system. During the first hour, the site received more than 8 million page views with visitors filing more than 200,000 ticket requests per minute. The system, however, couldn’t go the distance. It was built to handle 1 million visits per hour and 150,000 ticket requests per minute.
Valentines Day 2007: The Ice Storm and JetBlue
An ice storm on Valentine’s Day this year causes JetBlue to cancel 1,100 flights over six days, costing the airline $30 million and a chunk of its reputation for good customer service. Hundreds of hearts were breaking as people were stranded inside idle planes on the tarmac for hours as JetBlue’s customer service systems bogged down. The company discussed its problems openly, but no one was showing JetBlue any love after that.
2006: No Games, No Fun for Nintendo, Sony
Nintendo runs out of Wiis just in time for holiday shopping. Six hundred thousand game boxes were sold in the first eight days of release, and Wii-related revenue from games and accessories had hit $190 million by the end of November. But news reports noted that supply shortages left many shoppers unsatisfied, twiddling their unoccupied thumbs.
Sony, meanwhile, runs out of PlayStation 3 consoles due to manufacturing and supply chain problems. Four hundred thousand units were expected to hit U.S. shores in time for the holidays; only an estimated 125,000 to 175,000 arrived, forcing Sony to say sayonara to sales.
Thanksgiving 2006: (Un)Smiley Faces for Walmart.com Shoppers
On the day after Thanksgiving, Walmart.com experiences a few hours of glitches that result in blank and slow-loading pages being served to would-be website shoppers, MSNBC reports. This, after Wal-Mart had launched launched a redesigned site the month before, as noted by CNN. The company blames unexpectedly high traffic, and at one point, the site simply told visitors to come back later.
