6 ms·

Nicely written article, but I don’t see what the use of an ERP is? Can’t it just be replicated with some excel spreadsheets?

• taneq 7y ago
  If you're a big enough organisation to need an ERP like SAP, it would cost more to manage your data with spreadsheets than it would cost to just license SAP. I mean, that's literally how you price enterprise software.
  • sdan 7y ago
    Interesting. Was thinking that some startup could exactly do this, but realized that given how deeply integrated SAP/Oracle is (as mentioned in the article) it's very hard to do. Basically: Make a really bad product + make it mission critical = a product that people are literally glued to using
    • bonzini 7y ago
      Salesforce is probably the closest that happened to "some startup that could do this", and it's almost as big and complex as SAP.
• Manfred 7y ago
  ERP is basically a centralized hosted version of a lot of spreadsheets. So no, because Excel doesn’t facilitate cooperation very well.
  • sanxiyn 7y ago
    So Google Sheets would work?
    • ta999999171 7y ago
      If you have 400-1000 hours to reinvent the wheel, sure!
• halfnormalform 7y ago
  In the the same way the Mona Lisa can just be replicated with some canvas and paint, sure.
• roel_v 7y ago
  Peak HN right here.
  • zxienin 7y ago
    in what way?
    • mopsi 7y ago
      Ridiculous to even suggest that the stock management, ordering, billing and delivery tracking for companies like Adidas and their partners worldwide could run on some Excel spreadsheets. Shows stunning disconnect from how much heavy lifting enterprise software like SAP does.
      • PleaseLoveMe 7y ago
        I think you'd be surprised how much is still done in Excel at even really big international companies
  • deleted 7y ago
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