What do eggs, Volvos and SAP have in common?
Philosophy.
Well, my type of philosophy.
Which came first – the chicken or the egg?
Do bad drivers chose Volvos, or do Volvo drivers become bad drivers?
And finally, do large companies trying to avoid paying on time chose SAP, or does SAP turn good companies into late paying sloths?
I would love to say it is a one-off, but right now I can list 3 of my really bad outstanding debtors who all have the same type of response. And this is after the run around at the start of the process where the client wants something but then waits weeks for the purchase order to be raised.
And yes, I know SAP will run to the defence of saying the software only enforces the business practices that the client wants, and if the companies had better procedures, more staff, better communication, blah blah blah.
And Volvo would turn around and say “we can’t help it if people drive our cars like …”.
(At this stage I will throw in a pseudo-scientific hypothesis – recent research (no reference of course, this is the internet after all) has shown that air-bags increase dangerous driving behaviour because people feel safe. My theory is that if you are driving in a brick, you feel safe, and so you drive it like a tank).
And could you imagine the look of surprise on the first chicken’s face when it laid the first egg?
Conclusion: If companies can charge 2.5% for credit card payments, I think we can justify a 10% charge for SAP payments.