Gallant Commission: SAP software package was not right vehicle for the SAAQclic project
Posted September 25, 2025 1:25 pm.
Last Updated September 25, 2025 1:27 pm.
From the outset, the choice of SAP software to carry out the SAAQclic project was doomed to cost overruns because it was clearly not suited to the needs of the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) and would require major adjustments.
Michel Dumas, former CEO of LGS, the IBM subsidiary that developed the project for the SAAQ, explained to the Gallant Commission on Thursday that the generic version of SAP’s software was intended for much simpler tasks.
“I don’t want to exaggerate, but the name of the module is not a license or registration management module. It was a management module. It’s called Plan and Maintenance in English. It seems to me that it’s for warehouse parts management. Of course, when you look at the processes, it makes sense. I can fit that process in, I’ll change the names, but when you get into the specific business rules, oh my goodness, you end up with something else entirely.”
The day before, Dumas had indicated that upon joining the project, he had noticed several anomalies and suggested rethinking the entire strategy. Reflecting on this statement, the commission’s attorney, Marie-Claude Sarrazin, asked him if he had considered abandoning the customization of the SAP module. He replied that it would probably have been preferable to develop a module from scratch.
Private sector solutions unsuitable for the public sector
Dumas, who had been Vice President of Information Technology at what was then the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST), had to halt a computerization project for the organization that was encountering too many difficulties. The problem, he said, was that the requirements of a public organization were nothing like those of the private sector.
“My experience with modernization was exactly the same. (…) From the moment you try to implement an industrial software package within Quebec’s specific laws, you face the same challenge. That’s the reality, whether you like it or not.”
He cited the experience of the CSST, but also of the Ministry of Justice and the Commission administrative des régimes de retraite (CARRA), whose budget had more than doubled between 2005 and 2009 and whose implementation had also been delayed. It’s worth noting that, once again, it was LGS that was behind this computerization project.
Everyone’s Responsibility
Sarrazin also focused on the mediation discussions aimed at resolving disputes worth tens of millions of dollars between the SAAQ and LGS, noting that LGS’s documents attributed all overruns and delays to the SAAQ. “Where is LGS’s share of responsibility?” the prosecutor asked.
Dumas emphasized that IBM (LGS) “accepts its imperfection because it assumes part of the cost” of the overruns. But he added that since the SAAQ had wanted to retain control of the project and made all the decisions, it therefore assumed full responsibility.
“There are parts where LGS wasn’t perfect,” he finally conceded. “Yes, IBM also bears responsibility.”
Explosion of Hours
Looking at the cost trend, it was noted that the contract, which provided for 876,000 hours of work at a cost of $107 million in December 2019, was instead stipulating 1.7 million hours at a cost of $210 million in October 2020, then 2.2 million hours at a cost of $299 million in December 2021, and finally 3.4 million hours for a bill of $405 million in December 2022.
Dumas attributed this explosion in the need for hours worked, and therefore costs, primarily to COVID, which had led to a complete reorganization of work and project postponements, which required maintaining staff.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
