Software horror show: SAP Concur • Hacker News Board

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#191

Post by hef19898 » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #30

ghaff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, Google Maps seems to be equally random when it starts guessing your destination. I reluctantly started using a corporate card for most things because I sort of had to. I don't like not getting the personal benefits but it actually does make (most) things easier with Concur. Only real issue is it's harder to split personal and company charges.

Don't you still need to make an expense report in that case?

Of course, you are still spending company money at thosr expenses have to be properly accounted for.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#192

Post by hef19898 » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 2:25 PM UTC

Macha wrote: post #179

Spooky23 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the company. If they don’t really care it’s more evidence/proof of expense than anything. My last employer used some stupid Oracle system to audit the hell out of everything. One time I was flagged for taking a suboptimal route that increased toll expense by $3. Hilarious. I spent like 1.5 hours @ $90 on justification of $3.

Yeah, our automated system (Concur) does end up insisting on justifications for why you picked the 12 hour direct flight which is $100 more expensive than the three options with 2 stopovers and a total travel time in the 18-20 hour range (or sometimes even overnight stays in airports). Feels like a lot of the goal in these systems is to try enforce rules that no person expense manager could try insist on with a strai…

Thats interbal policy so, and hardly a problem with the expense system in question.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#193

Post by beart » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 2:48 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #18

I hate submitting expenses probably as much as the typical engineer, but Concur seems “no better, no worse” than the typical dumpster fire of these systems. I will say that it does have good integration between the company card transactions and the expense reporting feature. I am more mystified than the author at why my 75-mile range electric car offers a default sorted list by full street name, then by state , happi…

My experience as a traveling engineer

The software we used before Concur was definitely better, or maybe it was the original version of the software before SAP bought them, I'm not sure. Prior to the switch, expense reports would take 5-10 minutes. After the switch, more than an hour easily. They made a lot of changes to Concur to try to help speed up the process, and fill gaps where the old software worked great. However, the final product still ended up far less efficient, and far more confusing.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#194

Post by Spooky23 » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #192

Macha wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, our automated system (Concur) does end up insisting on justifications for why you picked the 12 hour direct flight which is $100 more expensive than the three options with 2 stopovers and a total travel time in the 18-20 hour range (or sometimes even overnight stays in airports). Feels like a lot of the goal in these systems is to try enforce rules that no person expense manager could try insist on with a strai…

Thats interbal policy so, and hardly a problem with the expense system in question.

Yes and no. Usually the ROI is built on bullshit like this.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#195

Post by bornfreddy » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

gernb wrote: post #153

acdha wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even know how to rationalize this anymore. Enterprise IT is like that because the buyer never uses it and often assumes anyone complaining is just whiny/lazy. A previous employer had a massive outage with an expensive ’Orrible reporting application: down for weeks, developers expecting them to repair corrupted data, etc. They paid many millions of dollars to license that app and millions more for “support”,…

Google uses it. My fiction is someone got a kickback and/or owns stock

Google uses Oracle??? Please, do tell more.

Edit: indeed it does: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/05/google-will-stop-using-oracl...

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#196

Post by XajniN » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

mjd wrote: post #63

X-Cubed wrote: post #46

Even Google Calendar does this. If I'm adding an event an hour from now, why does the Location auto-complete list show locations that are impossible to reach in time at the top of the list? Is it not more likely that I would be booking an event near to my either my current location or my home?

My number one complaint about Goofle Calendar is that it'll let me schedule an event in the past, with a reminder and everything, and say nothing.

Will the reminder work if you time travel to the past?

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#197

Post by emodendroket » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 5:45 PM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #191

emodendroket wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you still need to make an expense report in that case?

Of course, you are still spending company money at thosr expenses have to be properly accounted for.

Sure but I was asking why it saved any trouble.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#198

Post by AtNightWeCode » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

Always sort data server-side if you don't have a good reason not to. I know nothing about this product but I have seen a lot of bugs caused by the assumption that there is an assumed default sort-order.

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#199

Post by dakial1 » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 9:25 PM UTC

Like the author say in the update at the end of the text, my bet is that they used an already sorted database (to save processing power) and when SAP acquired Concur they changed the backend and never corrected the issue. Showing a total disregard for CX, they probably don't have anyone doing any meaningful UX work on that software. My company uses Rydoo and man is that thing easy to use. Could be smarter with chargecodes, but still is lightyears away from Concur....

Re: Software horror show: SAP Concur

#200

Post by josephg » Mon, Dec 05, 2022, 11:50 PM UTC

_s wrote: post #180

josephg wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 30 years of programming I've worked in plenty of systems where this sort of thing is nontrivial too. But its always the result of incompetent abstractions getting in the programmer's way. Downvotes notwithstanding, I stand by my claim that this is always the result of incompetence. Either at the small level (laziness) or at a larger scale (incompetent system design).

I would even go as far as saying the opposite - engineers too "competent" for their own good. I've walked in to so many code based where very talented individuals have made incredibly complex systems, using all their technical know how of best practices & patterns, abstraction layers and facades ... and ignored the fact that all they needed was a three field form with a submit button. It's not just worth knowing if y…

Yeah - overly clever design isn't good design.

The novice creates simple work because she isn't capable. The apprentice makes unnecessarily complex designs to impress. The master makes things simple because extra work would be unnecessary. Mastery isn't measured by much complexity has been added. Its measured by how much complexity has been taken away.