How Accurate Was SAP on Containing Best Practices?

Table of Contents: Select a Link to be Taken to That Section

Executive Summary

For years SAP has said that its software contained best practices.
In this article, we review the accuracy of this claim.

Video Introduction: What SAP Said About its Software Containing Best Practices

Text Introduction (Skip if You Watched the Video)

Best practices are a consultant-ese statement. Most consulting companies state that they offer their customers the best practices. However, SAP used the term a bit differently and was probably the most aggressive in pushing the idea of best practices in its software. The concept was that SAP had gone through its large account base and had taken the best practices from various customers and placed these best practices into the software. SAP proposed that whatever the prospect was doing in its existing systems was inferior to the best practices within SAP’s software. SAP’s claims regarding best practices have extended even beyond this to state that everything within SAP is a best practice. You will learn how accurate SAP was in its claims around best practices.

Our References for This Article

If you want to see our references for this article and other related Brightwork articles, see this link.

Notice of Lack of Financial Bias: We have no financial ties to SAP or any other entity mentioned in this article.

This is published by a research entity, not some lowbrow entity that is part of the SAP ecosystem.
Second, no one paid for this article to be written, and it is not pretending to inform you while being rigged to sell you software or consulting services. Unlike nearly every other article you will find from Google on this topic, it has had no input from any company's marketing or sales department. As you are reading this article, consider how rare this is. The vast majority of information on the Internet on SAP is provided by SAP, which is filled with false claims and sleazy consulting companies and SAP consultants who will tell any lie for personal benefit. Furthermore, SAP pays off all IT analysts -- who have the same concern for accuracy as SAP. Not one of these entities will disclose their pro-SAP financial bias to their readers.

The Truth About Best Practices

There has been significant research into best practices, as they are widely claimed.

The conclusion?

According to academic research, best practices are not a legitimate claim. It has a secondary problem of being a self-granted accolade, and thirdly what entity determines what best practices are? We covered this in detail in our 2010 article How Valid are SAP’s Best Practice Claims?

Interestingly, as participants on SAP projects, it is amazing how best practices are still used.

Conclusion and Calculation

SAP receives a 0% accuracy rating on SAP containing best practices.

Link to the Parent Article

This is one of many research articles on a specific topic that supports a larger research calculation. For the overview of the research calculation for all of the SAP topics that were part of the study, see the following primary research A Study into SAP’s Accuracy.