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SAP is designed based on priority of the requirements by people in a company who will never use it but will ask their staff to extract the data and present them

SAP is designed based on priority of the requirements by people in a company who will never use it but will ask their staff to extract the data and present them in PowerPoint or excel. So the UI design of SAP is user hostile. Even by embracing modern web components and openUI toolkit SAP will continue to be user hostile design. SAP will need to change the foundations completely to change it and also re do things. But then it will put them in direct competition with modern software makers who can beat them. So I am doubtful things will change, SAP will go the path of IBM in times to come.

hef19898 7y ago
While the first thing is in itself bad enough, it becomes just dangerous when these powerpoint higher-ups refuse to, and don't, understand how SAP, and thus an integral part of their business, works. Saw that more than once. Which is also one big reason why the SAP instances I worked with at multiple companies are that bad. Not necessarily bacause of SAP, but because of tech-iliterate old-guard managers trying to work with "computers" and "software".
lioeters 7y ago
Not having much experience with SAP (but having dealt with frustrating enterprise software), I know what people mean by user-hostile UI/UX. It's a symptom of a systemic issue commonly seen in corporations, government, public administration, any large institution. It's what happens when the users have no choice in the matter, there is no reasonable alternative or competition - therefore no incentive to change or improve. Whether it's intentionally designed to be user-hostile, I've suspected (and doubted) that myself.. There might be a logical explanation how that's desirable or even profitable, as a kind of moat or gate-keeping. With its legacy and massive complexity, SAP would require a visionary to re-architect it from the ground up. Unfortunately, that rarely happens in enterprise software. We can only hope that scrappy startups arise to replace and evolve.

hef19898 7y ago

While the first thing is in itself bad enough, it becomes just dangerous when these powerpoint higher-ups refuse to, and don't, understand how SAP, and thus an integral part of their business, works. Saw that more than once. Which is also one big reason why the SAP instances I worked with at multiple companies are that bad. Not necessarily bacause of SAP, but because of tech-iliterate old-guard managers trying to work with "computers" and "software".

lioeters 7y ago

Not having much experience with SAP (but having dealt with frustrating enterprise software), I know what people mean by user-hostile UI/UX. It's a symptom of a systemic issue commonly seen in corporations, government, public administration, any large institution. It's what happens when the users have no choice in the matter, there is no reasonable alternative or competition - therefore no incentive to change or improve. Whether it's intentionally designed to be user-hostile, I've suspected (and doubted) that myself.. There might be a logical explanation how that's desirable or even profitable, as a kind of moat or gate-keeping. With its legacy and massive complexity, SAP would require a visionary to re-architect it from the ground up. Unfortunately, that rarely happens in enterprise software. We can only hope that scrappy startups arise to replace and evolve.