Dumb question: what is SAP

[ThomasSoerensen]

in my absence can you line me up a list of good you tube top gear videos to watch during the night

thanks

Milan.

bring in your own pc - get on finalgear and enjoy

enjoy the night

[milanbenes]

NotAllThere,

I beg to differ, it is difficult and that is why the big consultancies mainly stikc to the Project Management side and us parasites to do the hands on deep techy stuff

Milan.

[sasguru]

NotAllThere,

us parasites to do the hands on deep techy stuff

Milan.

have you worked out how to convert Imperial to metric measures yet?

[NotAllThere]

NotAllThere,

I beg to differ, it is difficult and that is why the big consultancies mainly stikc to the Project Management side and us parasites to do the hands on deep techy stuff

Milan.

True. I just don't find it difficult, because I'm such a genius.

[TykeMerc]

as I said sas

you're out of your depth here

I really enjoy my work, installations upgrades, 3rd level support on a range of components from the portfolio

fascinating the integrations we set up

Milan.

Indeed, having worked on some SAP integrations upgrades and interfaces and done a fair bit with other ERP's I find it interesting.

Someone posted in this thread (sorry I can't be arsed to find it to quote) that installing SAP or any other ERP results in companies having to change the way they work to fit the application this is true to an extent although it's quite possible to bespoke the hell out of an ERP if you are nuts enough.
That being said businesses tend to evolve their processes over years and typically retain a lot of out of date or plain bad methods simply through inertia or never having actually sat down and thought through what improvements they can make. Installing an ERP forces wide scale review and update of processes, that review starts with the detailed requirements for the project in the first place.
ERP software isn't cheap to buy or maintain, but it's popular because it saves money in the long run (assuming it's configured and used right) through increased efficiency.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Indeed, having worked on some SAP integrations upgrades and interfaces and done a fair bit with other ERP's I find it interesting.

Someone posted in this thread (sorry I can't be arsed to find it to quote) that installing SAP or any other ERP results in companies having to change the way they work to fit the application this is true to an extent although it's quite possible to bespoke the hell out of an ERP if you are nuts enough.
That being said businesses tend to evolve their processes over years and typically retain a lot of out of date or plain bad methods simply through inertia or never having actually sat down and thought through what improvements they can make. Installing an ERP forces wide scale review and update of processes, that review starts with the detailed requirements for the project in the first place.
ERP software isn't cheap to buy or maintain, but it's popular because it saves money in the long run (assuming it's configured and used right) through increased efficiency.

I find that quite a lot are nuts enough to do this.

[TykeMerc]

I find that quite a lot are nuts enough to do this.

Me too, they'd rather not bother with the process reviews and make the app fit their existing bad methods, seen it all too often, it costs loads and deviating from a COTS solution increases their ongoing costs too and perpetuates their bad business practices.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Me too, they'd rather not bother with the process reviews and make the app fit their existing bad methods, seen it all too often, it costs loads and deviating from a COTS solution increases their ongoing costs too and perpetuates their bad business practices.

I agree.

And then top management wonder why the projected savings are not met.

[TykeMerc]

I agree.

And then top management wonder why the projected savings are not met.

As a PM I then show them the list of changes they required, the offers from the project BA and vendor to review the business processes and point out why their benefits case has essentially been flushed down the bog despite me having raised the risks on the register and Project Board review reports which they've signed.
Business decisions to make changes have to be signed off so it's their fault and not the project team who've screwed it up.

[Fishface]

The business runs the business - I find it hilarious when IT/ERP people suggest the business should be changed according to an ERP configuration.

It might work in single country/jurisdiction setups - when you have multiple jurisdictions, languages, markets, sales chanels, culture, etc, etc. - just falls on its arse