About incomprehensible PROGRAMMERS language ( “Sap” & “Columbus” ) 15.03.05
“Very complicated program interface. Can’t train the regional businessmen to work with ?Sap?” (acc. to a former ?Eldorado? administrators).
PROGRAMMERS use their own language (advanced Internet users’ language) that is very similar to LATIN in its incomprehensibility to a plain Russian businessman or company managers. None businessman and manager (me included) actually CAN’T UNDERSTAND what they mean by saying “?the most advanced solutions based on ERP, CRM, E-business and other technologies” (quoted from ?Columbus? website). But they all are afraid to display their IGNORANCE to others. Thus ?Tekhnosila? and other large companies ordered the things that sounded nice (like Latin) but none knew what they were.
In fact, in this context it means a modern ACCOUNTING SYSTEM involving some elements of the SIMPLEST STATISTICS. Analysis of any COMPLETED transactions (like sales analysis) is called just mere STATISTICS (not ERP, CRM, etc.). So, such “statistics” is good for REPORTS (accounting) but is bad for FORECASTS. For businessmen this is the “crudest” and “bluntest” forecast that cannot account for local changes in commercial conditions, sales, competitors and very serious Russian RISKS. However, for programmers (Columbus) it is the SIMPLEST “universal” product, the simplest and cheapest programming, the simplest and cheapest support, But that’s the only thing that just PROGRAMMERS can do well being unaware of the Russian market, details of Russian COMMERCE or country-specific RISKS. According to my personal experience, ?Columbus? (and ?Sap?) does not have any (Russian) “businessmen”. There are just programmers, administrators and accountants. THEY do not know the structure of the Russian market and therefore can’t make any serious improvements even if they really wanted (actually, they do not even know what shall be included in your price list, not to mention the market structure). Programmers are just TRANSLATORS, they need a finished system and they will just translate it into the “Internet language” under your guidance.
The BUSINESSMEN know the structure of the REAL market structure. It is VERY SIMPLE and comprehensible; it consists of price lists and ?product orders? updated in real time. It also includes purchasers, shops, warehouses, vendors, and competitors. If you need the most exact information on what your shop needs (today, tomorrow, next month, etc), just ASK IT. I mean, let your purchaser, shop or warehouse included in your system, submit and edit their “PRODUCT ORDER” in real time ? and that will be your most exact FORECAST considering all local risks, commercial conditions, sales, etc (that’s clear for any businessman and manager). Before shipping the products from Moscow to Khabarovsk, you will take the Khabarovsk prices of your COMPETITORS, compare them to your Moscow prices and add the shipping costs. Again, considering the COMPETITORS’ prices in Khabarovsk, you can determine the MAXIMUM prices to sell your products (plan your MAXIMUM PROFIT). This is simple and clear for any businessman or manager ? that’s the way MY CORPORATE SYSTEM works and that’s what it really includes. It is very friendly to BUSINESSMEN. I mean I’ve taken the maximum advantage of Internet, software and hardware (plus my vast experience) for your corporate system could maximally fit the CURRENT RUSSIAN MARKET and let you gain the MAXIMUM profit with MINIMUM (but real) RUSSIAN RISKS. The system involves the simplest and the plainest language that will be understood by any businessman. It has a great number of hints and instructions (there were hundreds of design iterations).
Systems like ?Axapta? (Columbus) and ?Sap? were developed in 1970-1980-ties, when there were no Internet and other software and hardware. That time it was technically impossible to process the data from your shops. Statistic-based supplies planning (sales analysis) remained very “crude” but that was the only thing available. Unfortunately, by now their supplies planning is based on just statistics (sales analysis) and improvements are made only to accounting. For them it is simpler and cheaper. On a hardware and software level they cannot supplement their old systems neither with product orders submission nor with processing competitors’ price lists (nor with other real market components) ? all these would require a new system. For them it’s too hard.
To understand what unawareness of market structure can bring, imagine you got appendicitis and come to hospital. The businessman that knows the market structure (or health professions like ophthalmologist or surgeon, etc.) will apply directly to a surgeon. But ?Columbus? (Sap) programmers will offer you to get your brains x-rayed, take the most advanced computers and recover from your brain the data on all your stomach problems for the last 300 years. Then they will take the proprietary, the most advanced (and expensive) and the slowest (for some reason) program to find the most fitting case. If it is your first appendicitis, most probably, you will die in pain.
The programmers do not know the structure of the Russian market nor how to treat the real RISKS. They can offer just an accounting and fortunetelling with a mere statistics. Neither can they write plainly (like me). Therefore the things in their system will be understood only by programmers but none of businessmen or managers.
With best regards,
Pavel Karpov
General Director and Developer of www.technobazar.ru
Phone +7 985 766 67 87