Credit: Supplied
A long-running court case between Western Australia-based logistics group Sadleirs and Oracle has been dismissed by the Federal Court.
Sadliers filed a lawsuit in 2019 in the Federal Court against Oracle, arguing claims made about the Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) system were false or overblown and in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.
Sadleirs alleged at the time that the software was “not robust and is prone to crashing and timing out even during simple operations” and representations by Oracle that the software was efficient were also false because “the OTM system does not allow for operational efficiency”.
In 2015 the privately owned logistics company began searching for a single software system to handle logistics, warehousing and finances.
Oracle submitted a response to a Sadleirs request for information (RFI) and following negotiations, a contract was signed in August 2017. The group that month also signed a contract with Oracle partner PrimeQ, which Sadleirs said was recommended by the software company.
In 2017, PrimeQ said it would implement “a fully integrated end-to-end Oracle Cloud solution incorporating Oracle Customer Experience (CX), Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Warehouse Management (WMS), Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) and Oracle Cloud Business Intelligence.”
Sadleirs alleges that Oracle misled it when the vendor, in its RFI response, said that all of the transportation company’s stipulated requirements were “supported”, a court filing revealed at the time.
A statement of claim filed by Sadleirs cited 27 instances where it claims Oracle’s software fell short of RFI criteria by not supporting Sadleirs’ needs (such as cost allocation by dimensional weight, which the company says is a “standard method of transport costing”) or required extensive additional customisation or the purchase of additional Oracle products, or by being cumbersome to use.
Another eight additional representations made by Oracle were “false,” Sadleirs alleges, including that the software was efficient, robust and supported multiple Internet browsers (the OTM Mobile system is also “not fit-for-purpose” Sadleirs argued at the time).
In 2020, both Oracle and PrimeQ submitted cross-claims to Sadleirs allegations, and as of 22 May 2023, all proceedings and cross-claims were dismissed by Justice Steven Rares.
Since the court case came to light, PrimeQ was acquired by Accenture in late 2018.
When contacted by ARN, Sadleirs decided to not make a comment on the matter. Both Oracle and Accenture have been contacted for comment.
