Why the World Still Runs on SAP

(a16z.news)

13 points | by 7777777phil 16 hours ago ago

5 comments

  • nitwit005 13 hours ago ago

    > Consider what it looks like to use SAP!

    Never used SAP, but that just looks dense and keyboard navigable. The density makes it look ugly, but accounting people are rather vocal about preferring things that way.

  • mamonster 14 hours ago ago

    SAP is like BB Terminal: If someone is pitching you on replacing it, chances are they don't know even 50% of what it can do.

  • MarleTangible 15 hours ago ago

    Speaking from experience, it's because most systems and companies miss a lot of edge cases and standard business processes while they're trying to reinvent the wheel.

    A recent example of this is, when a job has multiple shipments, there can be no single due date, e.g. 5 EA due on Tuesday and remaining 7 EA due on Friday. It's a big surprise to new comers and when you add a couple of hundred edge cases like this, SAP becomes the standard way of both obtaining this information and in a way enforcing it.

    • firemelt 14 hours ago ago

      I think its because sales, I think all u said is the only reason to not use sap but going bespoke

      • MarleTangible 13 hours ago ago

        Bespoke works to a certain extend, just like having various spreadsheets with macros in them, but after a while having a standard business process becomes quite vital. Especially when other people already made the same mistakes and came up with good solutions, but also you will need talent that is already trained for these procedure. Otherwise, you may need to take the burden of training folks all the time for something that they will not be able to transfer anywhere.