[arethuza]

A lot of variation in business processes doesn't have any real justification it's often just "that's how we've always done it".

Edit: There can be risks when an ERP supplier fundamentally fails to understand your business model - SAP managed to do this with a former employer of mine which led them to be shown the door.

[dspillett]

> A lot of variation in business processes doesn't have any real justification it's often just "that's how we've always done it".

Far too often.

Sometimes we fight a bit to convince our clients to actually take advantage of what a modern system can do for them.

Sometimes we have to give in watch the horror unfold as they use our services to hackily re-implement something that is basically a copy of an old desktop app that was a copy of an old mainframe app that was just an automated version of a paper-based system…

[listenallyall]

I always find it amusing when people talk shit about SAP and brag about giving them the boot. SAP already got your money... big deal, you cut off a few years of support fees. SAP grows and grows despite seemingly everybody saying how terrible the product is. My hat is off to them for finding (and heavily compensating) some truly talented salespeople who can consistently resell their turd to CEOs.

[arethuza]

I should have mentioned that they got the boot during the sales process - so they hadn't won the work yet.

It wasn't a criticism of the SAP product - just that they the sales team constantly got a a basic thing incorrect in a rather dogmatic way.

[hef19898]

Then it was the right way to select a provider. Realizing that during implementation is recipe for disaster. Wether it is SAP or someone else.