Hertz is attempting to sue Accenture for a $32m digital transformation program that it says was never delivered. The rental car giant wants its money back, plus what it has subsequently spent trying to fix everything since kicking Accenture off the project (The Register).

Key points:

Accenture was hired in August 2016 to deliver a responsive website and mobile applications, plus associated infrastructure (back end integration etc.) that could work across all of Hertz's brands (including Dollar, Thrifty, Sales) and markets. It was supposed to go live in December 2017, was initially pushed back to January 2018, then to April. Hertz removed Accenture from the project in May 2018.

Hertz's filing alleges:

• "Accenture never delivered a usable website and mobile applications"
• That Accenture's front end code was "so badly written it could not be remediated" and Accenture's replacement junked it entirely
• That mid-project "Accenture removed some of the most significant team members" and replaced them with people of lesser experience
• Despite promising Hertz would not be responsible for costs due to delay, it "later sought to charge Hertz for these costs"
• Although project documentation committed Accenture to deliver an architecture usable by all Hertz brands in all markets, "inexplicably … Accenture tailored the Project codebase to support only a single brand in a single market – the Hertz brand in North America"
• "Put simply, Accenture decided, of its own accord and without telling Hertz, that it would disregard the fundamental requirements and specifications of the Project. Accenture developed an architecture and code that deliberately was not extensible."
• That Accenture did not deliver a properly responsive design and wanted "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to fix it
• Hertz is suing on two counts: Breach of Contract, and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. It seeks a jury trial.
• Accenture says the claims are "without merit".