What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
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What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
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Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#2I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s.
Working with this stuff is so complex that in Germany, it's an often-told inside joke in the IT industry that some small and medium sized businesses actually became insolvent by moving to an SAP-based system.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#3I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Work…
My impression of the Tier-1 ERP systems is that they are effectively software mainframes.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#4I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Work…
A friend of mine once said: SAP sucks the blood out of the mittelstand.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#5I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Work…
My impression of the Tier-1 ERP systems is that they are effectively software mainframes.
It depends on your definition. As I understand it, mainframes are a 2 tiered approach (client-server). SAP, like most systems today are built in a 3 tiered approach (client-application-server). So much of what changed in the mainframe days shifted most of the processing to the application layer, rather than logic purely built on a massive database.
The software is good in a sense that it gets it's job done. For example, should an application that completes financial transactions for one company be any different for another? This is why companies continue to buy SAP. Usability is a big issue from the client side.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#6I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Work…
While SAP is not exactly cutting edge they have been adding some features to ABAP (their proprietary language) that you would expect to find in a modern language.
For instance, in your example you could use the CALL TRANSFORMATION statement to convert your table directly to XML.
The problem is that you can still write code as you would have done in the 1970's and SAP won't complain.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
My impression of the Tier-1 ERP systems is that they are effectively software mainframes.
It depends on your definition. As I understand it, mainframes are a 2 tiered approach (client-server). SAP, like most systems today are built in a 3 tiered approach (client-application-server). So much of what changed in the mainframe days shifted most of the processing to the application layer, rather than logic purely built on a massive database. The software is good in a sense that it gets it's job done. For examp…
"Tier-1 ERP" means the big boys (SAP, JDE, maybe MS Dynamics AX) not a software architecture.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#8I had a customer project two years ago: Import data that came out of SAP HR-PT into a MySQL database. HR-PT is the SAP personnel time recording system. This thing generates plain text tables with each entry having a fixed-width data type which has a peculiar German name. The 21st century solution for this would be an XML file. So the impression I got is that the whole SAP codebase seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Work…
A friend of mine once said: SAP sucks the blood out of the mittelstand.
"SAP is how Lucifer interacts with our world"
From: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/28/2143219/Allegedly-Rig...
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#9SAP's lack of openness is a huge problem, and will continue to hinder its development. Not only does the license cost millions of dollars, but then the enterprise that purchases it has to hire dozens to hundreds of expensive consultants to actually implement the behemoth. And if the company wants to actually understand how to use the system, they need to invest in expensive training sessions because any sort of public documentation (or documentation shipped with the system) is far too vague to actually provide usefulness.
I tend to think that the lack of openness is done on purpose - that is, SAP depends on its consulting partners to help sell its software, so they need an incentive to sell it (not to mention, SAP has a consultancy itself).
SAP has tried to evolve recently with new developments like HANA (mentioned in the article) and MII (tool used to connect manufacturing systems and provide real-time KPI dashboards), but without a more-open ecosystem that enables learning and innovation, it will continue to stagnate as modern technology overtakes it.
The biggest hindrance preventing companies from ditching SAP for a modern system is the fact that SAP is so complex and can handle so many business scenarios. Although it stands behind the curve in terms of technological innovation, it has decades of business specific functionality built into the system. That's the main reason, in my opinion, for why enterprises haven't jumped ship.
Re: What’s happening to the next generation of the SAP ecosystem?
#10They are actually startups tackling the SAP ecosystem with Open Source and/or Saas offers targeting small and medium businesses: OpenERP, BrightPearl, myERP.com