Foundation for Student life (Oslo) – Laundry system

Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.


The foundation for student life (Oslo) – Norway
Date :
May 2009 Cost :$14M + some dirty laundry

Synopsis :
As part of a move to SAP the Oslo based Foundation for Student Life elected to tie the laundry facilities in the student village into their accounting systems.  Integrating the laundry machines into the accounting systems meant that students had to pay for their laundry before they did their washing eliminating the problem of students moving out of the village without paying their laundry bills.

The integration has unfortunately been less than “clean”.  Problems logging in, problems making payments and problems reserving a machine have resulted in some smelly students in the Oslo area.

Contributing factors as reported in the press :
Systems integration problems.  Failure to communicate with stakeholders effectively.

Reference links :

  1. Laundry of the new millenium
  2. Laundry troubles