Some believe the massive verdict will give systems integrators and salespeople pause from here on out when making promises at the contract negotiating table.

If there is a worst way for an ERP project to end, it's with a "rip-and-replace," and that's what officials in Marin County, California, .

Officials decided that it would be less expensive to simply replace its ailing SAP system with something else, instead of trying to fix widespread problems with it.

Marin County in connection with the system earlier this year, saying Deloitte used the project as "a trial-and-error training ground" for inexperienced employees, and the result was a "costly computer system far worse than the legacy systems it was intended to replace."