Comment by delfinom | Hacker News Reader

Comment by delfinom | Hacker News Reader

>The council now plans to begin a "refreshed programme to implement Oracle Fusion as the preferred ERP system, based on a model of 'adopt not adapt' with a new set of suppliers…

LOL.

Story as old as time. Bean counters chase a cheaper ERP solution, but then everyone else wants the new ERP to work just like the old ERP. One 5000% overbudget later, the new ERP now works like the old ERP after spending 20 years worth old-erp subscription payments on only the upgrade. Or your project fails and you give up.

Government does it and so do businesses.

It's also why some ERPs are monstrosities because they also try and contort the ERP out of the box to make every possible sale.

The other joke is startups and vendors that say, ALL OTHER ERPS SUCK, IM GOING TO MAKE A STREAMLINED BETTER ERP. 10 years later its a monstrosity because they tailored it to make every possible sale just like the other guys.

I've had these ERP struggles for the past 5 years as we've been going through our migration to Dynamics 365. The harsh reality is there are an insane amount of ERP solutions out there, and most of them are objectively terrible to work with.

You hit the nail on the head, though. We make the most progress in the migration when someone leaves the company or a new person is brought in.

That's the thing with tools like SAP, etc., the "trick" is to "not make SAP do what you want via customization", because then upgrades will be horrific, but "make your business do things the SAP way", which also isn't entirely feasible.

How do they exist 10 years later? SAP, or another big name, will always be a better candidate for providing a 'monstrosity' ERP.

Because they come in lower cost and target smaller businesses who need a ERP. SAP is far too expensive in cost and labor for businesses at that scale.

Those smaller businesses and the ERP grow up together.

Can you list some examples?

There aren't that many companies that have gone from small and scrappy into a huge organization in 10 years. And I thought I knew all of them for the last few decades.

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