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Hollywood starlets Kate Hudson and Pamela Anderson fell in love with the pricey Ugg sheepskin boots. Oprah showcased them on her 2000 holiday gift show. All signs practically screamed that the next few years would be big for Ugg shoemaker Deckers Outdoor Corp. because, well, everything was coming up Uggs.

Too bad technology was tripping up sales at the fast-growing Goleta, Calif., company. A new Oracle Corp. system -- more than a year in the making -- was, if not dead on arrival, then gasping for air from the moment it went live in August 2001. Sales reps were calling in orders, only to be told the system was down, forcing the firm to process sales manually.

"We had problems shipping, we had problems invoicing, we had problems printing invoices, we had a ton of issues. That's why I was hired," says IT Director Kurt Sowa, who joined Deckers in 2002. "I ended up relieving my predecessor."