Sky raises EDS legal costs

BSkyB has increased its budget for its lawsuit against EDS over a large CRM system implementation, as the parties argue in court over increasingly fine details of the case.

The broadcaster expects to spend a further £3 million (US$6 million) from the £18 million previously announced, after it said it had already spent £17 million in the nine months so far.

Sky is fighting EDS for £709 million over what it claims was a failed systems implementation. It spent £9 million on the case in the previous financial year to June, 30 2007.

The rising costs come as Sky and EDS fight in court in increasingly fine detail over what Sky's expectations for the CRM system were, how well EDS delivered, and what financial damages any failure could have caused. Originally scheduled to finish around March or April, the court case is now expected to carry on through the summer, unless a settlement were reached.

Sky has spent considerable time in court questioning whether EDS had the right resources in place to deliver the system. EDS says Sky did not know what it wanted from the system, and has argued that it was difficult to deliver on such grounds.