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Software horror show: SAP Concur

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Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#21

Post by popotamonga »

jbk wrote: post #15

Have you ever used SAP Ariba? Numerous large American tech companies are using that for supplier, including Intel, Google or ARM. They used to have their own system, and they moved to that abomination. Everything is counter-productive, the UX is insane, but to give you an idea: you have a list of PO or invoices, but you cannot click on them to see them, you have a three-dot menu that allows you to get an email to "ac…

The nightmares. I was a supplier for cocacola and it was so bad they had to do the invoicing for me because it was magic.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#22

Post by a2800276 »

"And then the product manager didn't point at the screen and say “wouldn't it be better to alphabetize these?”

And the UX person, if there was one, didn't raise any red flag, or if they did nothing was done."

...and all of the no doubt uncountable complaints by the poor sods being forced to use this pile of crap by senior executives, who have secretaries to fill out their expense reports for them and get invited to luxury junkets by SAP, were utterly ignored

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#24

Post by IshKebab »

jl6 wrote: post #12

The most fundamental theorem of Enterprise software is that the users aren’t the the customer, and so UX issues fall to the very bottom of the priority list. So the explanation is very plausible. Furthermore, amongst the already-low-priority UX issues, I can imagine UX of the expenses application being rock bottom, because which business ever called up their ERP vendor and said “we need to make it easier for our staf…

> which business ever called up their ERP vendor and said “we need to make it easier for our staff to claim expenses”?

Businesses that were fed up with fielding questions from employees about how to claim expenses?

In my experience it's reasonably common for companies to switch expense claim systems because their existing one was rubbish. I haven't worked for any SAP-using megacorps though tbf.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#25

Post by jimnotgym »

jl6 wrote: post #12

The most fundamental theorem of Enterprise software is that the users aren’t the the customer, and so UX issues fall to the very bottom of the priority list. So the explanation is very plausible. Furthermore, amongst the already-low-priority UX issues, I can imagine UX of the expenses application being rock bottom, because which business ever called up their ERP vendor and said “we need to make it easier for our staf…

That is the crux of it.

I have a background in finance, and I think everyone is missing the problem that this is trying to solve.

People are careless when they claim expenses. They claim for things they lost the receipt for and then they try and pressure some accounts clerk into forcing it through. They make careless mistakes like multiplying their milage by the wrong rate, because they don't see why they should have to look up the right one. Then their line manager doesn't get around to signing it off, so employee chases accounts team, and accounts team have to chase approvers. Senior people are usually worst.

The accounts team then hand to justify why they processed a claim despite x,y and z...to external auditors.

Setting an expectation that if you don't get it right up front, the computer won't let you through is a very powerful selling point to a CFO who has to control this rubbish

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#27

Post by a2800276 »

xupybd wrote: post #14
notimetorelax wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that giving my receipts to an admin also requires a fair amount of input from me before they can file the expense report. I’d rather much prefer an expense tool that works.

Xero has a great tool but last I checked it was $5 per employee per month. With many not making claims every month that is too much overhead per claim.

SAP is notoriously expensive. It's not conceivable that anyone chose SAP to save a dime. Or $5.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#29

Post by samwillis »

pflenker wrote: post #23

With sap, the end user is not the customer. Hence, the whole thing is designed to pass a sales pitch and nothing else. The people who use this are not the ones who make the buy decision.

That's the same with all enterprise software sales. However the counter argument is that there are multiple layers of "end user" and the executives who purchase it, but don't "use" it, are still recipients of the the output from the system. They will read the reports, and use it for insight.

Point is though, you are right, the majority of users of these systems are very removed from the purchasing decisions. And therefor the UX for them is very often subpar.

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