Aberdeen Group
“Aberdeen estimates Baan enjoys a lead of 12 to 18 months versus SAP, and fully 18 to 24 months versus Oracle.”
Source: Aberdeen Group 1 July 1997
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
“It’s two principal competitors, Oracle and SAP, are currently at a disadvantage in the mid-market because of their more limited adaptability.”
Source: DMG February 14, 1997, p. 5

“Baan is now in a position to be a fierce competitor in its targeted industries, most of which overlap squarely with SAP’s. The can already deliver the rapid configuration that SAP can only promise and the manufacturing functionality that has only begun to mature in R/3’s most recent release.”
Source: DMG February 14, 1997, p. 53

“Filling the gap between an industry-specific and a company-specific version is where R/3 has serious difficulties.”
Source: DMG February 14, 1997, p. 54

“In fact SAP’s fast, low-cost implementation program, known as ASAP, imposes the condition that no software modifications are allowed. In other words, if the software won’t easily fit the business, customers must change their business to fit the software.”
Source: DMG February 14, 1997, pp. 54-55
Gartner Group
“While 4.0 and new release-independent components fill in needed gaps and a variety of intriguing features, it will not be until 2000 and beyond that R/3 will deploy leading manufacturing and distribution functionality.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“Service and support have gotten significantly better, yet many customers continue to complain of the high cost and difficult-to-manage upgrade cycle.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP’s vision does not include the ways and means by which enterprises can expect to get the cost of SAP implementations lower from where they have been historically.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP’s approach to cost issues as well as the associated complexity of its suite has been reactionary and tactical.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“Its vision for functional development – beyond order management, materials management and high level manufacturing and back office functions – is not leading edge, which is an issue for enterprises.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP continues to ask enterprises to report what is missing from the application in relation to what is there, rather than striking out with innovative ideas.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“At best, enterprises should expect better practices, not best practices embedded in R/3’s functionality.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP’s R&D and management resources continue to be fragmented with growing attempts to better penetrate non-manufacturing verticals.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“While SAP is extremely broad, it is not uniformly deep, though its sales and marketing arms would like to convey that impression.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP has launched a wide variety of vertical industry initiatives: too many in our view.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“We continue to believe that over 50 percent of SAP’s vertical initiatives will not deliver world-class functionality by 2000.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“SAP continues not to recognize that R/3 is a complex solution.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“The reason for the breadth of add-on tools from either SAP or the implementers is because R/3 configuration and maintenance are not intuitive.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“Many enterprises that are installing SAP often tell Gartner Group that they feel fortunate if they are only 20 percent to 30 percent over budget for multimillion dollar installations.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“We continue to believe that SAP’s ability to mask its overall complexity will lag market needs and requirements.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“ASAP helps for only reasonably defined business cases and does not address the larger or multinational implementations.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“This complexity and “war stories” continue the mystique of SAP as being the high-priced and complex application to implement – not just among prospects but also among its client base.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“Like all vendors, SAP promotes itself as open to integration with third parties; however, this desire is more of a market posturing than an off-the-shelf offering.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“We believe that R/3 API’s will be designed to integrate with a limited number of applications SAP deems noncompetitive.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997

“Recently, SAP began to address making R/3 more agile, but its approach in vision and execution is still somewhat behind other competitors – i.e. Baan – that have focused on this issue for a while.”
Source: Gartner Group, ERP Vendor Guide – SAP R/3, 1997
META Group
“After subjecting its users to two false Data Warehouse starts - Logistics Information System (LIS) and Open Information Warehouse - SAP is now preparing to unveil its Business Information Warehouse (BIW), a more integrated, OLAP-enabled revision of OIW (1Q98). While comprehensive on paper, BIW is an ambitious architectural undertaking, even for SAP and its vast development resources.”
Source: META Group, October 1997

“Despite its extensive and comprehensive development (now in retail and Data Warehouse), SAP remains too proprietary in its interfaces.”
Source: META Group, June 1997
Ovum
“R/3 only supports basic process industry requirements.”
Source: Ovum Evaluates ERP for Manufacturers, 1997

“While SAP has improved the implementation time scales for R/3, it is still an expensive solution compared to its competitors.”
Source: Ovum Evaluates Corporate Financial Systems, October 1997