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SAP Falls Off BusinessWeek 100 IT List

SAP has fallen off the BusinessWeek list of top 100 IT companies. From the article, here is the explanation why SAP was removed:

SAP
A new line of software from SAP will let customers tap into programs on an SAP
[NYSE:SAP] server and use SAP functions without installing and maintaining them on their own computers. The strategy could appeal to small and midsize companies that don’t have big IT departments. But it also puts SAP into more direct competition with companies such as Salesforce.com and could suck sales from SAP’s traditional software lines. Investors are nervous, knocking SAP’s stock price down 12% since January and pushing it off our list, down from No. 39 last year. Things don’t figure to get much easier, as archrival Oracle Corp. (ORCL ) is aggressively pushing into SAP strongholds, including manufacturing. In a tacit admission that SAP needs to listen more closely to its users, company overseers in March promoted customer-relations specialist Léo Apotheker to deputy CEO. In two years he is likely to succeed CEO Henning Kagermann.

Given the amount of worldwide financial information flowing through SAP systems, it’s pretty shocking for the company to be off this list.

[Thanks to Vinnie Mirchandani for pointing this out.] 

Posted on Mon, June 25, 2007 at 10:23AM by Registered CommenterMichael Krigsman in | Comments3 Comments

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Reader Comments (3)

I don't know how any business uses SAP and stays afloat. It is the single worse piece of software I have used in 30+ years. Or maybe Accenture just butchered the installation where I work. BW databases where the same names are used to describe 3 different fields in the same multiprovider.
August 1, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterno name please
If you send me an anonymous, private email, I would be interested to learn more about the failure in your company.
August 1, 2007 | Registered CommenterMichael Krigsman
I design software for business. Accounting, distribution scheduling etc and have implemented in a number of companies, Customers are still using applications I wrote ten years ago.

Other than size,the basic principles of business are the same,

I can't for the life of me understand why software implementation would run into hundreds of millions of dollars, and maintenance there after into the millions, with users hating it and bugs and misinformation running rampant. Something is wrong here.

Unfortunately, accountants who have know idea about software are relied upon in many cases to make recommendations as to what to buy. And to be on the safe side, they recommend the priciest as they assume if it is expensive, it must be good.
December 18, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterRobert Roels

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