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Re: Why SAP is doing well when Oracle is not

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 11:06:47 -0800
Message-ID: <3E206B46.1A928C1A@exesolutions.com>


Simon Lenn wrote:

> Well Done DMZ.
>
> You think SAP is doing well read again they matched revenue by jacking
> up prices of existing customers. You think SAP is performing read
> customers are indeed stuck with a dead dinosaur they can't get rid of
> which as swallowed all their data. Read the attached articles the bank
> in Dec 2002 has written off nearly 1 billion dollars on their SAP
> project. Do you now know how SAP is making money it is bleeding its
> customers. Atleast thank Oracle its sales people are lazy and have
> gone golfing. SAP sales man are just out there looking for their next
> innocent victim. Companies that have brains read below are already
> starting throwing SAP out of the window and replacing it by other more
> humane manageable systems.
>
> Ask Larry to read this there is so much of juice here.
>
> Read these articles:
>
> Hersheys in America almost went bankrupt, read the following a stupid
> Bank in Australia even now have spent 1 billion dollars and 5 years on
> a SAP implementation and cannot get it to work and the idiots are
> still trying to fix it. Foxmeyer Sued SAP for making them go bankrupt.
> So Hersheys. Just 3 weeks back the German Army was crying for choosing
> to implement SAP reason everyday the German army is coughing 0.5
> million outside already the millions it is spending on a SAP project
> that is going nowhere.
>
> Will tell you all you need to know of SAP. But before you talk of SAP
> remember every SAP system data is sitting in a Oracle database - so
> Oracle is the lifeblood of a SAP system.
>
> http://www.vnunet.com/News/45873
>
> SAP's R/3 hits rail trio buffers
> By Steve Masters [21-01-1998]
> Three train operators have abandoned SAP's R/3
>
> Three train operators have abandoned SAP's R/3, despite the software
> group's efforts to woo medium-sized companies.
>
> Anglia Railways, Thames Trains and Thameslink are replacing R/3 with
> Navision Financials, a cheaper, less complex system. All 26 train
> operators inherited identical versions of R/3, dubbed Sapphire, from
> British Rail upon privatisation in 1994.
>
> Anglia Railways, a 30-user site, said it was dumping Sapphire because
> it was too inflexible. Anglia's chief accountant, Jayne Brown, who is
> managing Navision's implementation, said it was a matter 'of
> usability' rather than the price of licensing the software.
>
> 'If the current system could do everything we wanted it to, I can't
> see why anyone would want to get rid of R/3.'
>
> http://news.com.com/2100-1001-232404.html?tag=rn
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,14684,00.html
> http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-501511.html
> Kiss your Hershey treats goodbye
>
> Fraud drives banks IT Spending
> http://afr.com/it/2002/11/13/FFXVFCCOE8D.html
> NAB said it would take up to 10 years to amortise almost $900 million
> in capitalised software development costs.
>
> NAB carried the largest capitalised IT costs of all the major banks.
> Despite writedowns worth $88 million, including $38 million after tax
> on its troubled Integrated Systems Implementation, and amortisation
> worth $106 million, NAB still had $884 million in capitalised software
> development costs on its books.
>
> The ISI project, the bank's SAP enterprise software implementation,
> would be written off over 10 years and had a capitalised value of $279
> million.
>
> Deloitte sues NAB for $38 million in unpaid fees
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/24/1022038469411.html
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/07/1036308425133.html
>
> On other contentious accounting issues, NAB disclosed its capitalised
> software at $884 million, the bulk of which ($279 million) constitutes
> the so-called Integrated Systems Implementation Program - a common
> "global enterprise resource planning" system across all operations.
>
> The bank is amortising or writing off against profits the costs over a
> decade, starting next year, but wrote off $38 million in this result
> to cover "redundant" and "deferred" aspects of the project.
>
> Mr Cicutto defended the treatment of the ISI project, arguing it was
> "important and essential infrastructure" and it was not unusual for
> such projects to have a 'useful life' of 10 years, despite rapid
> technological change.
>
> "dmz17" <dmz17_at_nospam.nowhere.com> wrote in message news:<pan.2003.01.10.18.32.12.151014_at_nospam.nowhere.com>...
> > On Thu, 09 Jan 2003 18:28:25 +0000, Belinda wrote:
> >
> > > I am just pondering at some of Larry's criticism on SAP as a living
> > > dinosaur with all obsolete technology and been unable to climb to
> > > internet technologies, Java et all.
> > >
> > > Despite Larry's bashing of SAP and undoubtedly many SAP clients being
> > > unable to implement a fraction of SAP even after years why are people
> > > spending money on SAP and why is SAP doing well with a technology that
> > > Larry says is obsolete and difficult to use and implement and they are
> > > still doing well.
> > >
> > > Can somebody explain this. I am lost I still can't get this is oracle
> > > builds open systems, highly scalable, java/XML and internet enabled
> > > and its arch competition is missing all of this what makes the
> > > competition tick than Oracle.
> > >
> > > Is it that Oracle is not good at selling and only good at engineering
> > > products that are not sold properly.
> > >
> > > Bel
> > >
> > > SAP on track for 2002 as license sales hold up
> > >
> > > By James Mackenzie
> > > January 9, 2003 6:57 am PT
> > >
> > >
> > > FRANKFURT (REUTERS) - Germany's SAP AG confirmed its ability to
> > > withstand a slump in global software spending, saying on Thursday it
> > > would hit its 2002 profit goal as fourth-quarter license sales held up
> > > better than the market had expected.
> > >
> > > SAP shares surged after the company, Europe's biggest software maker,
> > > said it expected slightly higher 2002 sales, with operating profit
> > > margins before acquisition expenses and stock-based compensation costs
> > > at least one percentage point over the 20 percent in 2001.
> > >
> > > Software license sales in the fourth quarter, traditionally SAP's
> > > strongest, came in at around 950 million euros ($985 million), some
> > > eight percent below the year-earlier figure of 1.03 billion euros.
> > >
> > > But license sales, a key indicator of underlying demand, were above
> > > the highest analyst estimate seen by Reuters of 925 million euros and
> > > well ahead of an average estimate of 826 million. SAP's expectations
> > > for full-year overall sales also exceeded analysts' forecasts for a
> > > slight decline.
> > >
> > > Like the rest of the industry SAP, which supplies business planning
> > > and Web-based e-business software to some 17,500 customers worldwide,
> > > has been hit by a sharp slowdown in spending on information
> > > technology.
> > >
> > > But it has also benefited from the slowdown by taking business away
> > > from rivals as tighter budgets have forced customers to choose
> > > suppliers more carefully.
> > >
> > > "This is a very strong performance, no doubt about it," said JP Morgan
> > > analyst David Reynolds, who rates the share "overweight."
> > >
> > > "It confirms that in difficult markets, enterprise software customers
> > > clearly feel a lot more comfortable dealing with the large companies
> > > that are going to be around for some time," Reynolds said.
> > >
> > > By 1120 GMT, SAP shares were 3.45 percent higher at 88.86 euros,
> > > outperforming a fall of 1.7 percent on the Eurostoxx tech index.
> > >
> > > SAP abandoned its specific 2002 revenue target in October after being
> > > forced to lower earlier targets in the face of slowing demand, but it
> > > has stuck to a forecast of 21 percent operating profit margins for
> > > 2002.
> > >
> > > SAP shares have lost more than half their value since hitting a peak
> > > of 177.40 euros last March, but the shares rallied strongly at the end
> > > of 2002 and have more than doubled in value since October.
> > >
> > > GAINING GROUND
> > >
> > > SAP has focused closely on cutting operating costs, trimming travel
> > > and marketing budgets and freezing hiring, although it has avoided the
> > > mass layoffs seen at U.S. rivals such as Oracle or Siebel Systems.
> > >
> > > But the results also suggested that the group has been building up its
> > > position in its key markets.
> > >
> > > SAP's arch-rival Oracle Corp. last month posted a 34 percent fall in
> > > quarterly new license sales in the applications segment in which the
> > > two companies directly compete, although it said the slump in
> > > information technology spending was bottoming out.
> > >
> > > According to a survey of 340 software customers by JP Morgan in
> > > November and December, SAP appeared to have been able to implement at
> > > least modest price increases in the second half of 2002 despite the
> > > generally poor investment climate.
> > >
> > > Lehman Brothers analyst Coleen Kaiser, who raised her rating on the
> > > whole European software sector to "neutral" from "negative," said
> > > conditions in Europe appeared to be stabilizing and margins should
> > > improve further this year.
> > >
> > > "The market environment is not great, but we've definitely hit the
> > > bottom," she said.
> > >
> > > SAP gave no regional or product breakdown for its sales, but the key
> > > U.S. market appears to have held up, even if Europe is likely to have
> > > remained the group's core market.
> > >
> > > Bill McDermott, the recently appointed head of SAP America, told the
> > > Financial Times Deutschland last month that costs in the United States
> > > had been brought under control and that the unit would meet its
> > > financial targets for the year.
> > >
> > > ($1=.9641 Euro)
> >
> > Look at this and repeat that SAP is doing well.
> >
> > http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ORCL&d=c&k=c1&c=sap&a=v&p=s&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > dmz17

Mirrors what I have heard.

From my experience everyone of the closed systems (SAP, Siebel, and PeopleSoft) endears itself to someone. But that someone isn't the DBAs that have to keep it limping along.

Daniel Morgan Received on Sat Jan 11 2003 - 13:06:47 CST

Original text of this message

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