SAP products and solutions guidance

Filed in archive Enterprise Software on May 11, 2010

I have drifted further and further from talking about traditional enterprise CIO concerns here because I firmly believe the "traditional" enterprise CIO is an endangered species that won't be coming back from the brink of extinction any time soon. That divergence has, however, also resulted in the neglect of some elements that remain topical even in the evolving enterprise IT department. Massive, integrated ERP systems are among these (at least for the foreseeable future); the lure and allure of one-stop shopping continues to overcome the good sense of SOA, and roadblocks by vendors and customers alike have stalled out the promise of true pick-and-choose SaaS solutions.

For all practical purposes, this means you're going to be evaluating SAP if you're in the market for an ERP package. SAP has jumped on both the SOA and SaaS marketing bandwagons but, as is often the case with monolithic vendors vested in particular markets and development strategies, their use of the terms are more attention-getting than solution-providing.

Fortunately, Don Fornes has written an excellent and comprehensive overview of SAP's current offerings, designed for customers in the SME market, appropriately titled "SAP's SME Solutions - A Guide to the Product Portfolio."

I've mentioned before my increasing skepticism over the approach that demands business IT needs be categorized by number of employees, but that's the convention SAP uses and Don must follow. I suppose it's more forgivable in ERP systems than elsewhere; a deeper dissection of the portfolio range and applications might have gone into what to do if you don't fit the mold. Still, if you're writing a guide post, you have to stop somewhere, and this probably applies to 85% of potential adopters.

If you're small and growing, read the post before you go any further in evaluating your ERP options.