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Products => Computers => Programming => Topic started by: sarajoe on September 29, 2021, 05:14:29 am

Title: sap basis
Post by: sarajoe on September 29, 2021, 05:14:29 am
I have a "how might one approach this problem in SAP" question, but I'm not looking for a programming answer, since I want process and configuration suggestions, not customisation.

Despite there being an sap
 tag on Stack Overflow, it is not technically a programming issue, so in theory it doesn't belong on Stack Overflow.

However, as SAP configuration is so complex and variable, it could conceivably be regarded as a very high level language, and thus become eligible for Stack Overflow?

What does the community think? Am I going to get downvoted, etc. for asking this kind of question on the SAP tag on Stack Overflow?

Title: Re: sap basis
Post by: brucehoult on September 29, 2021, 08:22:07 am
I know less than nothing about SAP, but I always imagined that in exchange for their huge fees there would be a ton of course materials and expert technical support.
Title: Re: sap basis
Post by: JPortici on September 30, 2021, 05:36:26 am
I know less than nothing about SAP, but I always imagined that in exchange for their huge fees there would be a ton of course materials and expert technical support.

Hah!
no, not really. Support is three digits an hour, i couldn't manage to get a hold on useful documentation so everything must go through support
Tried to ask for the APIs so i can automate trivial processes (that can of course be done with yet another plugin that wasn't included in the rather expensive package)
guess the answer

But on their defense, i have a friend that works as a consultant for one of those companies.. I believe him when he says the reason why they behave like they do is 50% because it's required to keep the customer on a leash, the other 50% is because the software is really complex and it takes little effort to have unintended consequences

Also, i have always had a middle man between my requests and what can be done
Title: Re: sap basis
Post by: Nominal Animal on October 01, 2021, 05:27:36 pm
Also, i have always had a middle man between my requests and what can be done
Eww-ouch.  The main reason why my customers really liked me when I did IT consulting/design/implementation stuff was that I always said nothing is impossible, it's just a question of effort -- time and money --, then immediately giving an estimated range of cost (both time and money-wise) for the feature set (obviously with a warning that it is just a rough estimate, not an offer).  Never SAP, though, obviously.

Having a middle man between every question/request and even the roughest kind of information for new features must feel like walking in shoes filled with sharp gravel and broken glass.
Title: Re: sap basis
Post by: cfbsoftware on October 02, 2021, 01:42:53 am
I would have thought SAP Community would be a better first choice for asking SAP questions:

https://community.sap.com/

I used to come up against SAP occasionally when I was a developer in a Maintenance Management software company. I recall one maintenance manager complaining that they had to replace our software with SAP because of company policy. His major gripe was that the only Help files that he had access to at that time were written in German!
Title: Re: sap basis
Post by: JPortici on October 02, 2021, 10:39:05 pm
Having a middle man between every question/request and even the roughest kind of information for new features must feel like walking in shoes filled with sharp gravel and broken glass.

yeeeeeah. Truth to be told I've almost given up, maybe if i can be even more sarcastic when the middleman rants that things don't work he'll understand