Anyone here familiar with SAP?

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
It makes otherwise productive people completely unproductive.

Exactly

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RalphTheCow
This SAP thing is horrible. Our company just keeps hiring people to deal with it.

I have yet to hear of a smooth SAP rollout.

Never going to happen. The only people who make out on the deal are the consultants. They roll in, tell you to document how you do everything (EVERYTHING!), then they set up the system mostly like that. When you find out that out of 1,000,000 details you forgot a few, well, time to pay more money to fix things. The things that the consultants screwed up, you pay them more money to fix those too, because it's impossible to find out exactly what they were supposed to do when the answer is somewhere in a 500-foot high stack of documents they created.

"Here's a 400-page document that describes your process for purchasing material. Please review it and indicate any corrections. We will have a meeting tomorrow to go over any issues." Yeah, right.

Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RalphTheCow
This SAP thing is horrible. Our company just keeps hiring people to deal with it.

I have yet to hear of a smooth SAP rollout.

Never going to happen. The only people who make out on the deal are the consultants. They roll in, tell you to document how you do everything (EVERYTHING!), then they set up the system mostly like that. When you find out that out of 1,000,000 details you forgot a few, well, time to pay more money to fix things. The things that the consultants screwed up, you pay them more money to fix those too, because it's impossible to find out exactly what they were supposed to do when the answer is somewhere in a 500-foot high stack of documents they created.

"Here's a 400-page document that describes your process for purchasing material. Please review it and indicate any corrections. We will have a meeting tomorrow to go over any issues." Yeah, right.

Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

And best of all, the consultants usually aren't responsible when their advice doesn't work! They get to blame the vendor, collect their paycheck, and get the hell out of there

 

[Scarpozzi]

Consultants are great though when your hiring budget is frozen and you need extra manpower. The downside is that you have to really work to figure out what the heck they installed and how. Even worse is when you pay for something and then realize the staff requirement to run it day-to-day is too much for your current employees and you have to approve another position.

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RalphTheCow
This SAP thing is horrible. Our company just keeps hiring people to deal with it.

I have yet to hear of a smooth SAP rollout.

Never going to happen. The only people who make out on the deal are the consultants. They roll in, tell you to document how you do everything (EVERYTHING!), then they set up the system mostly like that. When you find out that out of 1,000,000 details you forgot a few, well, time to pay more money to fix things. The things that the consultants screwed up, you pay them more money to fix those too, because it's impossible to find out exactly what they were supposed to do when the answer is somewhere in a 500-foot high stack of documents they created.

"Here's a 400-page document that describes your process for purchasing material. Please review it and indicate any corrections. We will have a meeting tomorrow to go over any issues." Yeah, right.

Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Sadly, I'd say most of the consultants I've seen at my work place don't do much of anything. There are a few good ones but a lot of the proposals they have are pretty lame.

 

[Howard]

Our company uses Syspro.

 

[sciencewhiz]

We use Peoplesoft for HR and SAP for everything else.

I don't use SAP but work with several people who do and they don't have any complaints except for garbage in / garbage out.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: jman19

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RalphTheCow
This SAP thing is horrible. Our company just keeps hiring people to deal with it.

I have yet to hear of a smooth SAP rollout.

Never going to happen. The only people who make out on the deal are the consultants. They roll in, tell you to document how you do everything (EVERYTHING!), then they set up the system mostly like that. When you find out that out of 1,000,000 details you forgot a few, well, time to pay more money to fix things. The things that the consultants screwed up, you pay them more money to fix those too, because it's impossible to find out exactly what they were supposed to do when the answer is somewhere in a 500-foot high stack of documents they created.

"Here's a 400-page document that describes your process for purchasing material. Please review it and indicate any corrections. We will have a meeting tomorrow to go over any issues." Yeah, right.

Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Sadly, I'd say most of the consultants I've seen at my work place don't do much of anything. There are a few good ones but a lot of the proposals they have are pretty lame.

At my work I can think of an example of someone who left my team to join the consulting group. Sure enough, he's lost his technical edge...

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: Kadarin

Originally posted by: jman19

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RalphTheCow
This SAP thing is horrible. Our company just keeps hiring people to deal with it.

I have yet to hear of a smooth SAP rollout.

Never going to happen. The only people who make out on the deal are the consultants. They roll in, tell you to document how you do everything (EVERYTHING!), then they set up the system mostly like that. When you find out that out of 1,000,000 details you forgot a few, well, time to pay more money to fix things. The things that the consultants screwed up, you pay them more money to fix those too, because it's impossible to find out exactly what they were supposed to do when the answer is somewhere in a 500-foot high stack of documents they created.

"Here's a 400-page document that describes your process for purchasing material. Please review it and indicate any corrections. We will have a meeting tomorrow to go over any issues." Yeah, right.

Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Sadly, I'd say most of the consultants I've seen at my work place don't do much of anything. There are a few good ones but a lot of the proposals they have are pretty lame.

At my work I can think of an example of someone who left my team to join the consulting group. Sure enough, he's lost his technical edge...

Well when you replace all that work time not doing much it is bound to happen

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Kadarin
At my work I can think of an example of someone who left my team to join the consulting group. Sure enough, he's lost his technical edge...

And this is what I keep trying to pound into ATOT skulls...

Technical only gets you so far. You MUST move beyond that.

 

[andylawcc]

whoa... is it that bad? [my company uses it too]

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Kadarin
At my work I can think of an example of someone who left my team to join the consulting group. Sure enough, he's lost his technical edge...

And this is what I keep trying to pound into ATOT skulls...

Technical only gets you so far. You MUST move beyond that.

Yes thank you oh wise one. Do you ever stop prattling on about that?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Well, you got it half right.

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: spidey07
Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Well, you got it half right.

first or second?

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: andylawcc

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: spidey07
Don't knock it. Consulting is great.

"We don't actually do anything, we just tell you how to do it."

Well, you got it half right.

first or second?

If you have dealt with consultants you'd know the answer pretty quickly

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: her209
Hmmm... so why hasn't Microsoft gotten into the game?

They create the horrible abomination known as MS dynamics aka great plains

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: spidey07
There is no one book. What do you need to know? Are you developing, are you basis, are you implementation?

Details man!

oh, and agree that SAP turns productivity into a dead stop. But man, people lap up the kool-aid and pay damn good money for you to feed it to them.

I think a general book at first would work best, since as of right now i totally don't have a clue about SAP or ERP systems

 

[BUTCH1]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
It makes otherwise productive people completely unproductive.

Exactly

We got SAP about a year ago, promptly named it "Stop all production". It's the most
bloated thing alive and no one likes it but the company paid like 1.5 mil for it so it's
like this "your gonna like it, weather you like it or not". The beatings will continue until
morale improves..

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: Kadarin
Our company decided against SAP in favor of Siebel for a new ticketing system. That's sort of like choosing between Hannibal Lechter and Geoffrey Dahmer to have as dinner guests...

Siebel... *shudder*

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
I need to read up on SAP ERP for my new job, can anyone recommend a good book to read?

TIA

EDIT: I am looking for a general book first, something like SAP 101, or ERP 101..

What version of the software are you going to be working with? R/3 or mySAP?

 

[Fritzo]

In WoW, my Rogue has Improved Sap and can knock someone out for about 20 seconds

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: her209
What's the alternative?

Peoplesoft.

You're gonna pick one of the two.

Not surprisingly, the industry is moving back to mainframe computing for ERP.

SAP is a godsend compared to peoplesoft. That said, SAP blows.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
I hate it when I hit the SAP button on the TV clicker and there's a Portuguese auctioneer trying to hawk his clapped out CarmenGia. :Q

first thing i thought of

 

[wyvrn]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: her209
What's the alternative?

Peoplesoft.

You're gonna pick one of the two.

Not surprisingly, the industry is moving back to mainframe computing for ERP.

What about Oracle?

I know there are a bunch of mid range ERP systems in use too, but don't remember any off the top of my head.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: wyvrn

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: her209
What's the alternative?

Peoplesoft.

You're gonna pick one of the two.

Not surprisingly, the industry is moving back to mainframe computing for ERP.

What about Oracle?

I know there are a bunch of mid range ERP systems in use too, but don't remember any off the top of my head.

Oracle owns peoplesoft. IIRC, peoplesoft was more geared towards service industries.

Some midplayers are jgedwards, ms dynamics, mas200 (maybe a bit on the smaller side...). Tons of other ones for specific industries (hospitals, manufacturing)