SAP system SUCKS! This is Germany's revenge for WWII!!!

same thing happening to us.

Big company bought us and is moving us from a custom built Microsoft Dynamics AX to SAP.

Our manufacturing facility is having a shit fit.

So am I. I'm the one who has to head up the data migration and implementation.

I might quit and go live in the bush.

I've heard it's costing millions for our company to get this implemented, and then once it's up and running, I'm sure we're going to lose millions more once our service starts going down hill because we can't do the things we use to do and as efficiently. Things I use to be able to do in one step now will take me ten -- unbelievable! Seriously, I've heard this same store over and over again -- what is it with SAP? Why are major companies going to this? Somebody is making a boat load from this company.

SAP is sucking the company to death.
We merged with another company and they had SAP as their backbone. We had a mix of two systems. The sales pitch was great! One system with live data interaction. Our old system posted parts usage every hour. Upon first implementation ALL parts that we use on a daily basis were shipped out as "overnight-RED" shipments for a month. (There are close to 600 techs out in the field receiving parts.)
The SAP system is slow and goes down multiple times a week. There is a portable access implementation called SYCLO-Agentry which is painfully slow to use and here is where I really love the executive thought process. We are supposed to be updating our calls live through our cell phones and laptops but, we service the hospital/healthcare industry... where we aren't supposed to be using our cell phones. For me to open a work order used to take ONE minute. It now takes TWELVE minutes. To the executive morons that don't have to use SAP I bet it is great. To everyone else, crap.
...overall it is approx 10 times slower, and the implementation is still ongoing and it has been eleven months.

SAP is smart to get a company in control. They will build up an internal Customer Competence Centre, or SAP CCC. This internal body is to support SAP activities, only. CCC will also block all third party solutions, like MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to intgerate with SAP ERP. Only the mighty MS Excell is accepted. This blocking policy is called SAP Unless Policy. There is even a scientific paper of SAP's way doing business. Read this: [link to arno.uvt.nl] .

The upper management cuts deals with the implementers, execs and SAP themselves.
It's a kickback of sorts....and it lines all their pockets well.

I have PERSONALLY seen this in one major company that EVERYONE has heard of.
I will not repeat the name here.



Last Edited by Useless Cookie Eater on 12/22/2012 04:16 AM

SAP only works for industries with well defined sections, roles and departments. It is very difficult and expensive to implement in government type bureaucracies where rules are lax an people depend on meeting with others to get information for their jobs. Some years back the Canadian revenue agency wasted over 3/4 Billion dollars trying to implement it.

SAP is designed to work with efficient Germanic companies. Many western organizations buy it hoping that by forcing rules, they can force an organization to change and become efficient.

strange for you to say that, it is a major component for local and regional authorities here in UK, councils and government etc, and it is quite shit tbh

Some ten years ago I did a migration from COPICS to SAP for a division of a global multinational. It cost a bomb.

There was a big problem at the time with the oracle version of SAP, Oracle was not up to the thruput volumes required.

The feeling was that the DB2 based version worked well, but the Oracle version was a disaster....

Not much seems to have changed

What happens is that you are forced to implement it because that is the directive but it's sooo uncustomizable that a company is forced to make dozens of exceptions in order to keep clients happy - so what's the freaking point of spending millions on training and implementation if you either CAN'T use it in certain situations or you have to use some hobbled, duct-taped version?

Clunky, bolt on system that you will need a lot of training on that is good if implemented PROPERLY.

Trouble is more than half the people who implement these projects dont know their arse from the head as a result only look at the PERCIEVED bottom line when in truth you're right it will set you back 20 years having to start all over again.

Throw everything you know out the window and be prepared to meet the DEC/VAX equivalent of systems.

Good luck with that,

Be prepared to be spending less time on here talking about it and holding your head in your hands for very long periods of time.

I suggest you stock up on coffee and anti depressants.

these days Oracle basically crushes DB2 on throughput

Our company spends more time managing SAP and trying to make it work than actually producing shit.

Enterprise SAP implementation and migration takes upwards of 2-3 years...on a good migration.

Yep, about 9 years experience with it. If you have a good I.T. deptartment they can work with SAP folks to make it work great. They can customize it to fit your every need.

Why do you think that SAP is becoming universal in the corporate realm?

i did some Y2K work with Exxon back in the 1990's and they went to SAP's mainframe version using DB2 as a the data base manager.


i just went and googled them and they are still using the SAP.


it must be working for them cause Exxon's Supply Chain is probably the largest in the World.

Because the few people who own the biggest companies in the world would rather just a one program to do things.

My career of 25 years ended in no small part to SAP.
"We" were looking at software, and SAP presented it to us several times. Not once were they able to answer any of our questions, nor could any of the presenters even operate their own software.
But, the decision way above us was made to go with SAP.
I'll never forget the consultants and "new blood" saying "You can not help tear it down unless you help build it" and then proceeded to destroy everything we built over 25 years, without any concern for those that built the company to what it had become, or how we did it.
Prior to SAP, we could implement a computer conversion in 10 business days, no problem, no turnover.
After SAP, it was a several month process and there was significant turnover. Not fun witnessing adults breaking down and crying while trying to learn the "system".
SAP proved itself to be less than intuitive, far less efficient and - exactly what those with the money and power wanted.
More power that only they would control, damn the rest of us.
It was one of, if not the worst experience I have ever had. It's been many years and I am still have not fully recovered from that experience.
I was told to make SAP work the way I wanted it to work by the Vice President I worked for - that was the worst advise I was ever given in my life. He should of been honest and told me to learn SAP as you much do business how SAP dictates it. Looking back, he wanted me out anyway, due to other reasons, and he won.
I put endless days into trying to make the best of the conversion, and it was for absolutely nothing.
In order to succeed with SAP and the new mentality it will bring to your company, become ruthless and care not about other humans, as they are inferior to the all mighty SAP.
It's a crying shame, criminal even....

The IT department is now the largest department in the company I used to work for.

SAP is great for IT departments, that is a fact.

I know this thread is a year old, but I just wanted to say for the Internet archives. SAP STILL SUCKS!

As an IT Consultant who has witnessed the total destruction of 5 clients' budgets by SAP, I was frustrated to see our senior managed decide that SAP is the "right" solution.

In some ways I should not be surprised considering my own company relies of its former reputation to deliver s*&t solutions from outsourced software that runs like crap.

Thanks to SAP all of our old reports are gone and we have absolutely no way to measure P&L outside of using Microsoft Excel.

Advice to others: If your management want to implement SAP, tell them to save he money, throw out all your great customization and and use Microsoft Excel to manager everything. That is what you will be doing in six months after your SAP implementation goes live.

t-minus 21 days into the integration of this pc o shit program...

the feds should have used this for their income equality strategy - I would work like a charm...

er, on second thought, maybe that's why they didn't use it...

SAP is a big scam. It's a money sucking machine!

the last two places i worked for used it.

what seems to be your major problem? Other than not knowing how to use it?

LMAO, I am an SAP Software Engineer and your points are valid. Out of the box SAP functionality is very rigid. The only way to get what you need for reporting capabilities is write custom code. My company is slowly moving most homegrown applications to SAP so five years ago I switched from Windows/Unix to SAP Abap/WebDynpro.

Only way SAP seems to work is when no other system has been used so in your case, good luck to you. But that's what usually happens with such systems. If they replaced a customized system, they'll never able to match it.

Also, SAP seems to hire only Indians and soon enough you'll get an email that says, Sir, please do the needful!

Last Edited by bluestar47 on 04/21/2015 07:00 PM

SAP does not only hire Indians. In fact SAP is one of the top companies to work for in the US. The systems are based on logic, as opposed to pretty UI's and that logic has been created as simple as possible to allow for the migrations from other systems. OOTB is not meant to be completely robust, it's meant to be adaptable.

In a Marxist system SAP is welcome because it destroys efficient productivity.