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Akatsukami
Global Moderator
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1787
Location: Bloomington, IL
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One of the question often asked about career guidance on this and our sister board is "Is there any future in mainframes since everyone is about to migrate to SAP?"
Now, there are some implied assumptions in that question that make it pretty much meaningless. An additional criterion, though, that I have heard (but don't know the truth of -- I have never worked in a shop that uses it) that no one has ever succeeded in customizing SAP to meet their needs; you change your business practices to match SAP, or roll your own solution.
Can those with exposure to SAP confirm or refute this? |
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dick scherrer
Moderator Emeritus
Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Posts: 19243
Location: Inside the Matrix
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Hello,
Depends on what is called "success" . . . 
The decision to implement SAP is usually made Way Up the food chain. Usually this decision is not made for actual business reasons or technical need.
How many want to show the decision was questionable (at best) down to completely pathetic. . . ?
I don't "do" SAP (or People Soft), but for the most part, my chronies tell me that any customization is best done external to the product (that word is several years old). A concern with this is that the customization may fall down with the next release.
Many people making decisions based on the presentation often believe (or become convinced) that changing the way their people work is not a big deal. Bad belief 
The places i've heard of who are satisfied with these products say the products are excellent - as long as you use them as delivered . . . |
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Pete Wilson
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Joined: 31 Dec 2009
Posts: 592
Location: London
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| One reason I've heard in support of SAP is that it can reduce the amount of support staff...a favourite of Mgmt, but I'm skeptical (of both SAP & Mgmt, not necessarily in that order!). I suspect that is only true if it is run vanilla style, which many places find incredibly hard to stick to. And as Dick suggests any application customised to deal with anomolies or shortcomings outside the product are going to become a maintenance issue. |
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Akatsukami
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Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1787
Location: Bloomington, IL
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A reporting function for one of our tools is performed via SAP Crystal Reports. Yesterday my team lead decided that it was incomprehensible and to re-write it...in Access  |
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Robert Sample
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Location: Dubuque, Iowa, USA
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| I took a Crystal Reports class a few years ago, used it for about a year and since then haven't done anything with it. Crystal Reports is not that related to SAP since it is a general-purpose reporting tool, but it is not the easiest thing to understand what is going on. And my organization tried to implement SAP but decided to go in another direction after a couple of years. |
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Anuj Dhawan
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Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 6248
Location: Mumbai, India
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| But I heard -- okay H E A R D - not the fact, that they don't start any enterprise in US unless they have decided to have SAP implementation in it, no? |
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Akatsukami
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Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1787
Location: Bloomington, IL
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| Anuj Dhawan wrote: |
| But I heard -- okay H E A R D - not the fact, that they don't start any enterprise in US unless they have decided to have SAP implementation in it, no? |
"They"? Is that the same "them" who told you I was paranoid?  |
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expat
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Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 8796
Location: Welsh Wales
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Just because you are paranoid
it doesn't mean that They are NOT out to get you |
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