In the last couple years I've been more and more interested in this world of "big enterprise software that seems to be a complex mess but has seemingly unstoppable momentum and makes billions". That whole world seems to be hidden to many of us developers who often see a few lines of code we don't like and assume a whole product will die because of it. Meanwhile there are these giants out there dragging along this weight that companies still spend billions to implement. I see some of this in my day to day but it's not often I find an article that frames it the way this one did. Good stuff!
What's SAP?
391–400 of 622 posts
Re: What's SAP?
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it all comes down to the fact that nobody has ever been fired for choosing SAP.
Even though they should be.
What else are they gonna choose? Even SAP implementations fail, it's $10-100m project. Execs are not going to go for slightly better software to increase the risk of blowing through millions and wasting 3-4 year to end up with the same system. That's how SAP sells
Re: What's SAP?
#393What isn't SAP?
Re: What's SAP?
#394I teach enterprise systems at a university, with emphasis on SAP. It's hideous. Hideous. My students complain it is unusable (agree), doesn't make sense (agree), that they can't see the point (agree). When you look at the underlying database 'schema' (inverted commas deliberate) you'll find it's a massive, denormalised mess. Much of what SAP can do can be done at the local level using intuitive software. Reports, for…
Wow I couldn’t agree more! I studied business analytics at Clemson and we used SAP products because they were “best in industry”. Clunky UI, 20th Century Runtimes, and horrible UX... the market is ready for a change.
Re: What's SAP?
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work in some other industry with some other software which is "our SAP"... and i look at it as "another IBM". You have a bunch of smaller companies with different products, and whichever you pick, it will have some faults, missing features bugs, etc., and you'll the the one blamed for picking the "wrong" software. ...or you pick IBM/SAP/..., which is "de facto standard" in your {industry}, and whatever is wrong, is…
Which industry?
...most of them.
Re: What's SAP?
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's similar to Epic's value proposition in the healthcare space. Sure, their software is above average (with "average" being barely functional or vaporware), but their main selling point is their ability to assist leadership in strongarming an organization to adopt standardized workflows.
As someone working in healthcare, I can attest to the value in getting an healthcare org to adopt standardized workflows. I'll take an org that follows process over better software that isn't used in a consistent manner. There is too much operational and human complexity to solve healthcare with software alone.
I feel like your "following process over better software" remark holds true to any company I've seen.
Re: What's SAP?
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's 2020 and one would hope software companies realize the value of a good, clear, effective user interface. Nope. Forget about it! :-) I think another problem with these horrific ERP's is that their tentacles are everywhere in the org. Oracle EBS, my personal "favorite", runs PLM (product lifecycle management), inventory, order management, work orders, customer install base, finance, purchasing, AND PTO entry, F.…
> Things that SHOULD be taken for granted, like being able to create a hyperlink to the bill of materials for any part number-- that's seriously impossible, it's like a freaking moon shot for them (or so they say). One of pain points I was talking about. I'm not sure how a screen/module is developed in SAP, but there are huge inconsistencies in various interactions I come across. I am inclined to believe that the thi…
If you think, that SAP's UI is inconsistent then you haven't seen the above mentioned EBS ;)
Input boxes behaving as buttons, tabs either changing behavior of UI components that are clearly drawn as being outside of the tab, or outright behaving as buttons that cause random actions, loads and loads of nested modal dialogs...
Re: What's SAP?
#398I teach enterprise systems at a university, with emphasis on SAP. It's hideous. Hideous. My students complain it is unusable (agree), doesn't make sense (agree), that they can't see the point (agree). When you look at the underlying database 'schema' (inverted commas deliberate) you'll find it's a massive, denormalised mess. Much of what SAP can do can be done at the local level using intuitive software. Reports, for…
Why is that taught at a university? It seems a junior college topic.
College for undergrads vs University for graduates is a UK and US thing, in most of the rest of the world you just have universities (or, like in my country, you have non-profit state-funded research universities that also teach undergrads and graduates and you have for-profit private colleges which are a lot lower quality who also teach undergrads and a few graduates, probably because a university degree is considered worth more so all the talented students go there and therefore you have to tech much slower in a college).
Re: What's SAP?
#399SAP implementation basically sunk Target's huge investment into operations in Canada https://www.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-can... Seems to me SAP is ripe for disruption, but it would be a very challenging throne to unseat.
> By using Target’s existing technology, employees in >
Canada could draw on the large amount of expertise in
the U.S. That plan had shortcomings as well. The
technology was not set up to deal with a foreign
country, and it would have to be customized to take
into account the Canadian dollar and even French-
language characters. Those changes would take time
which Target did not have.
Given Target's original system didn't have a multi-currency approach or use UTF8, my guess is the implementer (in this case Target) is also part of the problem.
It is hard to disrupt this type of software as migration involves migrating data, which is hard, in addition to changing a lot of employee workflows. Potentially, if something like 3D printing of metal parts took off, it could mean a new type of ERP system would be necessary, allowing for a new player to come in.
Re: What's SAP?
#400People complaining about how user-unfriendly SAP is or how companies adapt to SAP instead of the other way around are missing the point of SAP. The point of SAP is that the module for your type of business is being implemented at the market leader in your area, because they are the only ones who can afford it. SAP will come to the market leader and put their processes into software. Then everybody else adapts to SAP…
It seems super strange to adopt the market leader’s processes. You’d think the spirit should be that you can outdo/outcompete then instead of adopting what they’re doing...
Think POs, procurement, payables, receivables, treasury and inventory management etc. Is following what Toyota does strange?