SAP and it's ilk provide a real service. They protect and take care of a lot of problems, the issue is they're so flexible that sometimes people build ad-hoc t

SAP and it's ilk provide a real service. They protect and take care of a lot of problems, the issue is they're so flexible that sometimes people build ad-hoc things on top of them and over time it becomes a ridiculous monstrosity similar to any other system in a company with major legacy. There is no inherent solution to this problem other than disciple (or control, which has it's own productivity issues). A lot of things developers must build in, and decisions developers make, are built in already for these systems.