SAP and System i

This isn't a question but a statement.  A brief history - our company
looked hard at SAP 2 years ago and I tried to do some investigations
regarding SAP on the iSeries.  There were a lot of unknowns and a lot of
FUD was being spread.

 

At the time it was rather painful to find things out but that is
improving.  To help get our staff on board we just completed an SAP
System i executive briefing in Rochester. I will make a general
statement in case you are wondering about whether or not you should run
SAP on the System i.  The answer is a resounding yes you should.  The
system does very well - it's native SAP code, the System i is no more
different than any other platform, installations are growing (fastest
growing OS at this time), the market share is not the largest but it's
good (15-20% of the SAP installations are net new System I customers) ,
the machine out performs a lot of other systems/configurations, SAP
invests a lot of time and money on the System i, IBM spends a lot of
time and money on SAP, takes less people to support, usually gets
implemented in 1/3 the time as other systems, etc., etc.

 

My apologies for sounding like a commercial but all of those positives I
stated up there were originally thrown up as negatives by a lot of
different people over the last 2 years.

 

Here are a couple of links that may help you gain some understanding....

 

http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs053006-story01.html

 

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/topstoriesFM?OpenForm&;
Site=eserveriseries (use SAP for a search keyword)

 

Ron Schmerbauch of IBM is the Development Team Leader for SAP on iSeries

 

Tamara Turnley-Robinson of IBM is the ISV Sales Manager that has the
responsibility for SAP.

 

The down side is - IBM Global Services (IGS) is as we know the System
i's worst enemy.  With regards to SAP they are no better and possibly
even worse.  The I might stand for IBM but I think the GS actually
stands for Go Spend.

 

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 complex problems of today cannot be solved by the minds that
created them."  Albert Einstein

"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