During the Technology Days 2019 (February 12 and 13 in Bonn, Germany) organized by the German-speaking SAP user group DSAG, DSAG Chief Technology Officer Steffen Pietsch demanded something from SAP that a lot of SAP customers want, too. He demanded for SAP to finally do its homework and stop always pulling new IT tricks out of its ERP and CRM magician’s hat.
SAP customers have become an extended workbench for SAP. SAP programs new software and solutions, and then goes on to test it in day-to-day operations of users. The quality of SAP’s applications is decreasing steadily.
DSAG CTO Steffen Pietsch gives an example as to why he is criticizing SAP in the first place: SAP Business Partner.
If you are not familiar with SAP Business Partner, let me explain. It is an Abap object found in many SAP applications. It always means the same on paper, but there are huge differences in reality. The definition and function of the Business Partner varies from application to application.
One example would be how Business Partner fares in the SAP Business One system. The name of the Business Partner can be deleted without the system notifying or giving any indication to the user. The consequences from a programming perspective are disastrous.
Why is this important?
Some people might be wondering why this is so important. Without consistent and verified master and exchangeable data, there is no successful business transformation with Hana, S/4, BW/4, and C/4, as Data Migration Services demonstrated in our March cover story.
Master Data Management is the foundation for a successful S/4 and C/4 roadmap. SAP partner Data Migration Services has not only recognized the importance of data management, but also implemented it in its products.
Let’s circle back to what Steffen Pietsch has said. If I interpret the meaning behind his words correctly, the opinion in the SAP community can be summed up as follows: Many SAP customers and SAP partners, like Data Migration Services, have to fix SAP’s mistakes.
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