[youdonthavekids]

"SQL doesn't"... you are correct, SQL can't figure out how much tax you need to pay across 9 tax jurisdictions. SQL can't tell me the best way for my warehouse picking robots to move across the floor based on the layout of the warehouse and what others products are being picked right this second plus over the next few minutes. The list is really endless of what SAP will do and SQL won't. It would take decades to replicate what SAP does.

[SamuelAdams]

I mean I guess you can throw all that functionality in a bunch of triggers but that would slow down your database to a crawl every time one record updated.

[NDizzle]

Have the triggers publish to service broker!

[crimsonalucard]

Sounds like SAP does custom App building. Do they use a custom underlying database technology as well?

Would it be equivalent to contracting some software system to a a company that would build the system using SQL?