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What's SAP?

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Re: What's SAP?

#491

Post by huherto »

mr_gibbins wrote: post #230

I 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…

> I (am actually told to) teach that changing the business to fit SAP is preferable to changing SAP to fit the business.

That is my goto advice on buy vs build. If you buy, then you should be willing to change your business to fit. Otherwise you should build. The more you resist changing your business the more you should build. The more you don't want to build, the more you should be willing to adapt.

Re: What's SAP?

#492

Post by jsmith99 »

tomnipotent wrote: post #417
mr_gibbins wrote: post #230

I 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…

> SAP can do can be done at the local level using intuitive software No they cannot. ERP's are beasts of expert domain knowledge hidden in shitty codebases, but don't be confused for an even a moment to think you can do it yourself. It's a fools errand, and I'd fire or not hire anyone that tried to intentionally do this rather than just build something basic to hedge time until you have to implement something more se…

As a financial auditor, if a client uses SAP or some other standard ERP we can just ask for a general ledger report and get to work. If they are using something bespoke I would probably put my head in my hands and send an urgent email to our dreaded IT systems audit team, at major expense to the client.

Re: What's SAP?

#493

Post by SergeAx »

deelly wrote: post #108
shrimpx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Yes, Its really super strange to adopt Google, Microsoft, Apple processes.. Yes?

Actually yes. I saw numerous teams adopting monorepos, k8s, microservices and other buzzwords, and either suffering infinitely or putting enormous effort into dragging those to the point of sheer mediocrity. Because they are not Google and will never be.

Re: What's SAP?

#494

Post by S3raph »

cr0sh wrote: post #414
chadash wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I (am actually told to) teach that changing the business to fit SAP is preferable to changing SAP to fit the business. And it's accurate advice. It shouldn't be, but it is. SAP is SAP. It doesn't care about your USP. Or your custom approach to business. As far as SAP is concerned all businesses are the same, they do the same things, and all must conform. Resistance is futile. I've worked in companies making decisio…

I once worked for a company that let me go because I looked bad on their bottom line and they were looking to sell the company, around 2003. So, severance package in hand, and one week later I had a new position at another company making much more than I was originally. Anyhow - I was essentially the sole developer of a simple ERP system written in VB6 and using an Access 2003 MDB file for storage. It was being used…

Great story, I don't want to know the number of companies that run business critical stuff on excel vba macros + access DB some guy wrote 15 years ago.

Re: What's SAP?

#496

Post by tomc1985 »

mr_gibbins wrote: post #230

I 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…

I remember having to pull data from SAP for some university courses. It was misery incarnate

Re: What's SAP?

#497

Post by Arwill »

asc_jiji wrote: post #490
tubbs wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny - I spend years as an SAP ABAP developer and the very day I start my new position apart from SAP, it's on the front page of HN. ABAP will always hold a special, quirky little place in my heart. It's very powerful, but also totally frustrating. The language is a COBOL-like language made by Germans with a keyword graveyard as big as Berlin. The ABAP community (in my experience, online and offline) is totally…

No, you got code clarity wrong. Code clarity in ABAP means using System Hungarian Notation and it baffles me that almost every ABAP programmer I talk to think it's not redudant to use a command such as READ TABLE on a variable called GT_VBAK(for non-abapers, G for global variable, T for table). The only advantage that I see is that for the most part, every program will look almost the same regarding standard SAP tabl…

At some clients you have to sign their development guidelines, and you have no choice but to use that notation. The rule at big enterprises is that new rules get added, but old, even archaic rules seldom get removed.

Re: What's SAP?

#498

Post by philjohn »

mr_gibbins wrote: post #230

I 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…

The company my dad worked for went through the migration to SAP in the 90's and he said the same thing about not changing SAP, but changing the company as well.

Re: What's SAP?

#499

Post by SergeAx »

appleiigs wrote: post #484
tomnipotent wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SAP can do can be done at the local level using intuitive software No they cannot. ERP's are beasts of expert domain knowledge hidden in shitty codebases, but don't be confused for an even a moment to think you can do it yourself. It's a fools errand, and I'd fire or not hire anyone that tried to intentionally do this rather than just build something basic to hedge time until you have to implement something more se…

What if you were given a budget of $100 million to $500 million - just for 1 company? What about $1 billion like Dow Chemical and the US Navy?

My thought is that you will spend first year hiring talents.

Re: What's SAP?

#500

Post by panabee »

npace12 wrote: post #475
tubbs wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny - I spend years as an SAP ABAP developer and the very day I start my new position apart from SAP, it's on the front page of HN. ABAP will always hold a special, quirky little place in my heart. It's very powerful, but also totally frustrating. The language is a COBOL-like language made by Germans with a keyword graveyard as big as Berlin. The ABAP community (in my experience, online and offline) is totally…

Congrats on your new position. Get ready for some debugger withdrawal. I haven't found anything better since :)

Interesting. Second comment about how awesome the debugger is. What could other debuggers learn from SAP's debugger?
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