> It's 2020 and one would hope software companies realize the value of a good, clear, effective user interface.
SAP is not the only one; ever tried the enterprise software from Oracle? Or the open source ERPs/CRMs? Painful.
But everything has API's these days, so lot of departmental work is done on top. Small budgets so they have small, simple LoB apps made on top which are 'idiot proof'. These apps are very localized though; they cannot translate to other verticals, or even other companies, or even other countries because they are tailored exactly to how that department works.
I have to agree. I've had the massive misfortune to have to implement and test (almost?) every open source ERP/CRM system out there from vTiger, Odoo, SuiteCRM, Yeti, NextERP, Dolibarr, ...and more that I can't recall from the top of my head.
Each and every one of these systems suck. Sometimes they suck in creative and extraordinary ways. But, one thing you can count on is that there's a real reason that they suck. It turns out that the real world of business is complicated and messy. So, as you say, businesses build their own solution on top of these systems to simplify it for their users while keeping the capabilities of the underlying system intact. Of course, nobody is ever happy with the end result - it's always just the least terrible option.
On a slightly related topic since this may be seen by folks who can benefit from this information.
A lot of "Open Source" systems these days are not what you could honestly call open source. Odoo is the example I'll use, but what I'm about to say applies to a lot more than just Odoo. Most of the organizations behind these solutions are predatory. I've seen features get taken out, hidden, intentionally broken, or have fixes released that are only available in the 'pay us' versions. [0-1]Odoo's accounting functions are one such example.
If forced, I'd say Dolibarr is probably the best for 'real' ERP use-cases. I say 'real' because ERP is a buzzword that has been beaten to death to describe things that don't even approach what it's intended to mean.
A close second is Vienna Advantage. IIRC the development actually came from former SAP devs who have real-world exposure to the problems ERP is supposed to solve.
We actually tested Axelor as well! At the time, their documentation was quite lacking (in English at least) to the point that their installation instructions didn't result in a working system. (We got it working using a windows system and an older version, but weren't able to do so on a Debian?? system with the latest version at the time) I would be very happy to hear that things have improved because Axelor is probably the most 'user-friendly' and 'pretty' system we tested - assuming it's functioning.
At least as a software engineer for such kind of integrations you can take fulfilment by knowing you are helping real people do their job in a less painful way.
I know a few colleagues who enjoy that kind of work, slapping a much better and intuitive UI on top of their own services integrating with SAP, Salesforce and so on.
You improve overall productivity and can show that data comparing how much faster someone using your interface is versus the likes of SAPgui, etc.
From my experience, to integrate with SAP may not be that trivial with just calling SAP’s RFC. Companies may need to workaround SAP issues, for example, user license, slow RFC response. And also need to consider the case of error recovery, otherwise you will suffer from data inconsistent. What you end up actually are a set of “micro service” to build on top of SAP
Absolutely. I think that it's a necessity for businesses to periodically review their processes and see how 'tool x' fits in, and whether it can fit better. Filling in the gaps or improving workflows can unlock treasure troves of hidden value that are often left unnoticed. Fortunately, I think awareness about what is possible in that department is growing and that we'll see a lot more focus (rather, jobs) on such optimizations over the next 5-10 years.
Odoo was the worst experience I ever had. Granted, processes at that company could only be described, on a good day with a lot understatement, as st. But still, it felt like half of it was missing and the other half wasn't working properly. That and that the external developers had no idea how to manage inventories.
I have only been exposed to SAP a long, long while ago, but back then it was leaps and bounds better than the two ERP systems the company had used previously. If you think SAP is a nightmare, these other systems would probably drive you clinically insane.
One system had three completely different, supposedly equivalent, client UIs. Each was equally undiscoverable, and had its own set of arcane, non-standard and inconsistent UI conventions that was completely different fron the other clients. So even if you knew how to enter a certain record in one client, your knowledge was almost wntirely useless with confronted with one of the other two. I am not even getting started on the server implementation and the myriad of bugs in the system.
SAP is not the only one; ever tried the enterprise software from Oracle? Or the open source ERPs/CRMs? Painful.
But everything has API's these days, so lot of departmental work is done on top. Small budgets so they have small, simple LoB apps made on top which are 'idiot proof'. These apps are very localized though; they cannot translate to other verticals, or even other companies, or even other countries because they are tailored exactly to how that department works.