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What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

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Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#11

Post by cm2187 »

JetAlone wrote: post #5

You can copy off my homework, but just this once 1) They do Enterprise Resources Planning. 2) Because ERP is immensely complicated, and encompasses features that would be useful for almost anyone coordinating any organization, and ERP systems are really hard to change, so they have acquired a user base with lots of zeroes and a thick moat to keep them in.

Though they have many competitors. A consultant who works on integrating SAP told me once that what gave them a competitive edge is that they let 3rd party consultants integrate SAP while others insist on in house consultants. That means that 3rd party consultant have a clear preference when it is time to advise the client on which system they should pick. That was 20y ago, not sure if it is still the case.

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#12

Post by qikInNdOutReply »

hardware2win wrote: post #4

ERP industry is so hard(painful) that I wouldnt want to work in it unless they paid top of the top Good luck competing in that industry > 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. Gotta be fun :)

The only field german software could compete.

[ ] Digital Bureaucracy

[ ] All of the above

[ ] None of the above

My little pet theory is that the old "Do as you told" buisness-culture is to blame for germanys inability to produce great software. Software needs developers with agency, who refuse "idiotic" tasks and fight back to improve the product.

Know an israeli who complained about "endless arguing" in israeli software projects, while not recognicing the strength of that.

If its not fought over, all things are developed, all things become meh, teams exaust themselves doing all the things and the product fails, internally unoppossed, but externally years to late, bloated and mediocre to the core.

Still happy that SAP exists.

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#14

Post by raverbashing »

hardware2win wrote: post #4

ERP industry is so hard(painful) that I wouldnt want to work in it unless they paid top of the top Good luck competing in that industry > 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. Gotta be fun :)

True

But most companies are realizing their use case is not that complex and that in reality you don't need all those config options

Then you go with Salesforce or something else saving you one zero or maybe two even

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#17

Post by staticautomatic »

JetAlone wrote: post #5

You can copy off my homework, but just this once 1) They do Enterprise Resources Planning. 2) Because ERP is immensely complicated, and encompasses features that would be useful for almost anyone coordinating any organization, and ERP systems are really hard to change, so they have acquired a user base with lots of zeroes and a thick moat to keep them in.

A guy I interviewed a little while ago observed that SMB SaaS software always tends to become an ERP system on a long enough timeline. It can’t be categorically true but it seemed like a very astute generalization.

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#18

Post by numlock86 »

JetAlone wrote: post #5

You can copy off my homework, but just this once 1) They do Enterprise Resources Planning. 2) Because ERP is immensely complicated, and encompasses features that would be useful for almost anyone coordinating any organization, and ERP systems are really hard to change, so they have acquired a user base with lots of zeroes and a thick moat to keep them in.

Ah yes, I remember when Lidl tried to integrate SAP in 2015. No one really knows why and after already having spent €500,000,000 in 2016 they pulled the plug and just dropped the project because obviously it wasn't done at that point and they still would have to pay more to finish it. The initial offer never went public but I overheard someone once saying it was like €75,000,000 "only" ... They went back to further develop their own ERP system which is still in use today as far as I know.

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#19

Post by fabfabfab »

hardware2win wrote: post #4

ERP industry is so hard(painful) that I wouldnt want to work in it unless they paid top of the top Good luck competing in that industry > 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. Gotta be fun :)

We need to look at ERP software in positive light. Fab guy here, there is another beast like this that runs the whole fab. It's made by Applied Materials, called FAB300. It connects to inventory systems, SAP & finance, all the fab tools and process data, automation control through interfaces like SECS/GEM, monitors fab output and wafer starts, material systems and movement of wafers, recipe management, copy exact audits, etc.

ERP/MRP systems are complicated because businesses and factory management is complicated. The fact that we have such pieces of software is a testament that however shitty you think they are, at least we have them. They run real businesses and fabs in prod. They bring revenue and are responsible for running multi-billion dollars of turnover. Whole nation states depend on them. That's kind of amazing.

Idk, I have much respect for SAP and such as I grow older. I feel like if I were to design such a thing with 10k engineers at my disposal, it'd be much worse. It can certainly improve, of course.

Re: What's SAP, and why's it worth $163B? (2020)

#20

Post by hit8run »

Former SAP employee here. The ERP market is ridiculously complex. Legislation, TAX, complex organisational structures and a million things to get wrong. One of SAPs hidden superpowers in my opinion was and probably still is ABAP and the GUI Builder. The combination of the two enabled consultants to create dynamic internal applications with little effort smoothly integrated into the whole system. So they were doing low-code way before it was a thing in our industry. As you can see the blog authors (retool) try to achieve something similar 40 years later and it is still a challenge.
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