But Krigsman sees "bright lights on the horizon," such as the gradual emergence of cloud-based ERP, which can take the complexity out of upgrades for customers, as well as packaged services offerings, where the job gets a fixed price tag instead of being billed by the hour. In addition, such services are often based on well-established processes that have worked for many other customers, Krigsman said.

"Where the gotcha comes in is when you're working with a fixed-price agreement and you ask them to do something different," Krigsman added. Then the job might revert to a standard, by-the-hour billing arrangement that can ratchet up costs. "That's why the customer has to exercise a greater level of discipline," he said.

All vendors want their customers to be successful, but they can do more to improve project outcomes, according to Krigsman. One way would be to tie part of a salesperson's compensation to project success. This way, a salesperson won't be able to simply disappear after the ink dries, and moreover, they might be less inclined to upsell a customer on marginally beneficial extras that could make the project unwieldy.

Someday, the bright lights Krigsman sees in the distance could be shining broadly over the IT industry. In the meantime, we have the status quo, where found that nearly 70 percent of the time, project success is "improbable."

Here's a look at some of the top ERP project boondoggles, flameouts and failures of the year -- and these are just the ones that entered public view.