On Tue, 2008-01-01 at 12:10 +1300, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > The worst one I used was based on a horrid thing called SAP. > > Please don't confuse the underlying SAP database engine with the > application which uses it.
Here here.... :-) Saying that SAP is horrid is like blaming PHP for all the bad CMS's out there on the web. The underlying technology in SAP is extremely cool, possibly the best thought out enterprise scale system out there. Unfortunately there seems to be this penchant for consultants to use it to create some of the worst solutions known to man. (I know, I worked with one of them!) As geeks we need to me thoughtful about technology vs solution/application issues. A lot of great technology and software is used to create crap solutions every day. On the flip side a lot of lousy technology is manipulated and stretched to create good solutions (Although those tend to be difficult to support and maintain!) IMHO, a lot of companies buy SAP on it's reputation with large scale sites overseas, and then are unable (or not willing) to commit the resources needed to craft solutions on the base system. They end up using a bunch of stock screens and workflow elements which give them a functional solution, not a good one. IMHO, SAP and it's 'implementation partners' are guilty of under-selling the on-going cost of ownership. Just my 2c worth. Oh, and happy new-year! :-)
