SAP

A manufacturing company deploys SAP across supply chain, accounting, manufacturing. Integration takes three years, five hundred consultants, millions of hours. Every workflow depends on it. The system touches forty percent of annual operating costs. Replacing costs more than original implementation. The software is not sold. It is embedded. Switching costs more than staying. A company running SAP does not evaluate it against Workday or Oracle. Workday requires rip and replace costing as much as original implementation. Switching means disruption and three years of overhead. Most companies stay put. SAP's retention exceeds ninety-seven percent. Of the three percent leaving, most get acquired or merged into other systems.