51–60 of 622 posts
They just can't/won't roll out new things.
Years ago I was involved in a project to scrape certain info out of a SAP system with a web interface. It would have been easier to do it with a API but my conversations with the SAP people at work were going nowhere (is it me or do SAP IT people have no concept of how things are done outside the world of SAP ?). Anyway I started looking through the Javascript the browser automatically downloads and found there was 1…
I think SAP views APIs as a threat. That COBOL-like ABAP language is part of their lock in.
SAP has enabled/mandated an army of people at my company who manage it and ruthlessly control even read access to it. The software is user-hostile, intentionally obscure, and all requests for slightly customized reports have to go through a multilayered approval process - often up to corporate - where it competes for funding against other survivors. Needing something custom invites constant questions of why the stand…
> The software is user-hostile, intentionally obscure This a million times. I don't know if good interfaces can not be built in SAP, or if it's very difficult to do, or if the developers of apps on SAP platform just don't care. It's a real headache to use and completely confusing. It's 2020 and one would hope software companies realize the value of a good, clear, effective user interface.
Up until some 5 years back, UX really was afterthought to them. Why? Answer is in how enterprise software was (and largely still) sold. Buying was done by CIO, based on all parameters (account relationship, FOMO, $$$ discounts, functional reliability etc.) except user acceptance.
SAP simply didn't have incentive and KPI to see UX as focus. Users were "trained" to use SAP after rollouts.
With what is fancy termed as "consumerization of IT", SAP has been forced to change. They've been trying their best with Fiori v1, v2, v3 since then. Change takes time to get hold in SAP world, specially given large on-premise installed base, where customers take years to adopt a release upgrade.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
TBH SAP is almost required for big corporations as they usually are publicly traded companies, require external audits from BIG4(and these guys know how to get data from standard SAP models, not so much from you self-developed system) and have to report their financials in consistent way. For example Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google all can use SAP internally. But it would be false to state that all their business…
Every respectable ERP provides ways to export/access the data in a way that covers all national/international requirements for audits and reporting. This is not SAP-specific.
I only pointed out that the statistics in parent post can be skewed due to the sample of top 500 corporations which can implement SAP for reasons different to running the business.
SAP is the worst software I've ever used in my entire life; they literally have to publish paid books on how to use it, that's how bad it is.
Nicely written article, but I don’t see what the use of an ERP is? Can’t it just be replicated with some excel spreadsheets?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know if we are using the latest versions but the UI has many other sins, not the least having buttons in odd places (submit is often at the top), many many screens to get to a place, slow as you say. I don’t care so much that the UI looks from the 90s. For an internal application, a battleship grey winform is perfectly fine, as long as the workflow is simple, fast and intuitive.
Do you work in a grey office with grey carpets and grey desks? Aesthetics matter. Make software that is beautiful and a joy to use.
In one study after another, workers failed
to give much weight to decor in choosing,
for instance, among variously colored panels
and fixtures.
If you ask specifically about noise, privacy
and table and counter space, though,
[...] matter a lot.
This corresponds with my personal experience: the win95-ish software design was my peak for daily productivity. Besides, you generally get a main window with grey widgets and colored icons at the sides, and a white working area full of colored items. So the end result isn`t all that boring.
https://books.google.be/books?id=TVQUAAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA74&ots=O...
"A basic installation of SAP has 20,000 database tables, 3,000 of which are configuration tables. In those tables, there are ~8,000 configuration decisions you need before even getting started." Wow, really?
SAP wouldn't be that disheartening to use if it weren't so damn slow and if UI/UX wasn't from the 90s.
I love the SAP UI - yea, its the 90's when UI was far superior than today's whitespace filled, shadow-less buttons, complete lack of skeumorphic elements, magenta gradients and huge typography - See Windows 95 UI: https://twitter.com/tuomassalo/status/978717292023500805 It is dense, extremely clear and consice. I agree with the slowness though.
SAP and software designed to offer high levels of customization in general leave the task of building a complete UI to middle managers familiar with business processes. They do not generally have any understanding of UI design and are quite happy to add a 50x50px, non-resizable text box for content that will often span multiple paragraphs.
Warning - very very vague question Would someone kindly differentiate between the ERP vs ITSM (IT Service Management) industry in perspective for me? I would in ITSM and often wonder if I would had been better off staying in ERP like SAP? Secondly, how does ERP fare in terms of complexity between game development vs ERP Software development? I understand the target base is totally different (Gamers vs Enterprise clie…
1. Constant Updates/Upgrades Most games are a one time effort with some patches and maybe a add on and if it’s really successful a sequel. Business Software runs for years in a company and needs to be supported. So the customer needs to sign a service contract besides the initial payment and licenses. Games are usually a one time buy. Exceptions are MMOs. Game companies noticed this mishap and are trending to service games now, which would create a steady inflow of money from loyal customers.
2. Complexity It depends on what the game company focuses on. If you only build games, you need to master a game engine or build your own. It doesn’t need to be customizable if it stays in your company. With ERP software you need a lot of configuration switches and cover a lot of similar but not same use cases. A standard product is almost never bought my businesses. They want you to build something for THEIR process. So what SAP did is maximize on this need and they built so many customizations, that you need special training to even begin to understand one of their modules. ERP is definitely more complex in the realm of more stuff to learn and to remember to get it right.
In terms of complexity defined as difficult I can’t really tell because of my lack of experience with game development. But I guess mastering a game engine is difficult, but less “complex” than ERP software.
Funny side note: I did a SAP training one and half years ago at their HQ in Walldorf, Germany. And they own pretty much the small town. There were so many foreigners in town to visit SAP. The SAP campus had the same size as the town :)