RE: SAP on AS400?

As you probably won't remember my company went through a whole process last
summer for a feasibility study on SAP.  Our parent company tends to
implement it on either Unix or Windows.  Our division is implements it on
Windows.  So, last summer I set out on trying to find information regarding
the iSeries because we heard things like (it's not strategic to SAP) or
that it's shrinking in market size (AMR stated that it went from 100 AS/400
customers three years ago to 50 last year), etc.

What I found out was:

1.)  Getting information from IBM was way to painful - finding who knew
about stuff was just to hard to find out.  You would think it would be
strategic.

2.)  OS/400 is a growing platform for SAP.  They went from 1,000
installations to 3,000 in three years.  Yes, OS/400 is the smallest OS but
it is also the fastest growing.  The AMR number mentioned above.....well
they sheepishly admitted that there numbers were based on actual AS/400
systems, not eServer, not iSeries, etc.  Like that made *&^%$#@ sense, and
of course that was after a month of people walking around going 100 to 50?

3.)  OS/400 is a very robust platform for SAP.  R3 was actually written to
the DB2/400 OS/400 platform but when that happened the box didn't have
enough horse to get it going - I'm going back 10+ years ago.

4.)  It is native - SAP goes out of it's way to be OS and DB agnostic.
There is a whole piece of middle ware that abstracts their environment to
the host system.

5.)  It performs very well.  It can be a big hoss depending on your size of
your implementation.  I think we were looking at a 32 Windows server
environment and 2 physical iSeries environment (notice something?).  This
was a runs everything but the kitchen sink type of solution.

6.)  It can be expensive to implement regardless of platform.  It can also
be done affordably - SAP is probably not a lot different than any large ERP
software package with it's failure rate.

7.)  SAP America (ok, the SAP America employee that we spoke with)
emphatically stated that iSeries implementation were regularly cheaper and
quicker to complete.  Less systems and our system/database management saves
time and money over anybody.

8.)  Good consulting companies will have implemented on any supported SAP
platform including the iSeries.  However, if they want to make more money
they will do it on Wintel, Unix, etc.  iSeries is the most affordable and
does reduce your demand for consulting dollars.  I know Starwood uses SAP
and used Gartner to benchmark them against other companies and they found
out they were more cost effective than similar companies.

9.)  A decent resource for SAP in the US is COMTECH.  Years ago they used
to be our BP (the change wasn't because they were bad) and I have spoken to
them regarding SAP.  This is unofficial but they may be the best source for
SAP iSeries implementations.

10.)  SAP implementations are definitely risky and not for the faint
hearted.  But they can be done and controlled.  Typically most ERP
implementations do not have a positive ROI (around 50%).  But most of that
stems from the aftermath of the implementation - "I had this report before
and I can't live without it", etc.  You can spend hundreds of thousands
reproducing what you had - which is kind of in direct opposition of the
nature of SAP.  But I know companies do it.  Our division is one of them.
Of course, the execs say everything is great.  You talk to 80% of the rest
of the people and they say it sucks.  Go figure.

11.)  Done right it can be beneficial for your company and your resume.
I'd love to have SAP on iSeries on my resume.  But chances are based on the
small minded world in our division it will most likely be Wintel and SQL
Server.

12.)  If the business needs/fit/functionality are legitimate I would
embrace it.

13.)  I would immediately start bugging IBM and other iSeries BP for the
straight scoop.  You get some big 4 type of firm or someone like Anderson,
CAP Gemini, etc. the first thing you will be doing is defending your
platform.  There is a lot of misinformation out there (ala AMR) as well as
bias.  If you don't get this you will be on the outside looking in.  Like
an idiot I've misplaced the name of my SAP America contact (I need to keep
that in my pocket).  At IBM I'm not sure who to contact - although I'd
personally go to Shearer.  Perhaps Mike Prochaska is a good starting point.
At Comtech (www.comtech-group.com) I would contact Greg Baumeyer (my former
rep) or Masood Ahmed (SAP Product Manager).

14.)  Most SAP iSeries implementations are overseas.  SAP is more prevalent
and iSeries seems to have a good customer base there.

Sorry for the length, can you tell my level of interest and passion on
this?




Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just"  Abraham Lincoln






                                                                           
             Chuck Lewis                                                   
             <chuck.lewis@lees                                             
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                                       RE: SAP on AS400?                   
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Evan wrote:

Very good advice Evan !

Chuck

<BIG snip>

For my money, if your people want to go SAP, I say you should embrace
the change wholeheartedly and try to get it implemented on the
iSeries if at all possible. More chance of that if you get involved
than if you oppose the whole idea. Obviously you will need to decide
for yourself  how far along the decision is and make your choice
appropriately but if you can keep the doors open...



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