SAP plans closer watch on customers-WSJ

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - After a number of incidents in which clients suffered glitches with its software, SAP AG, Europe's biggest software maker, wants to keep closer tabs on customers to protect them from further problems, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

SAP's U.S. unit wants to assemble a crew of ``global overseers'' to work with clients' top technology executives and raise red flags when computer projects become to complex to run reliably, the Journal said.

The programme would also provide SAP with a record of its recommendation in case a customer tries to sue, as defunct drug distributor FoxMeyer Corp. did last year, the Journal said.

``This will give us something that shows what we recommended and that the customer went with it or not,'' it quoted Marikit Klein-Smith, an SAP America spokeswoman, as saying.

It said there have been problems this year with installations of its software at Hershey Foods Corp. (NYSE:HSY - news), Allied Waste Industries Inc. (NYSE:AW - news), Waste Management Inc. (NYSE:WMI - news) and this week at Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE:WHR - news).

In the case of Whirlpool, the Journal quoted SAP America vice president Jeff Zimmerman as saying SAP had warned Whirlpool of problems before the system went into use, but the company had proceeded anyway.

-- Eggman (low profile@sold stocks.com), November 12, 1999

Answers

How about this: You shoot me in your foot.

Might as well at this late date.

...(hitting the)...

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), November 12, 1999.

They all will have to "proceed anyway" real soon now.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 12, 1999.

I can't blame SAP AG for wanting to keep closer documentaton on its projects, it seems to have come dangerously close to allowing its good name to be ruined by companies wanting to do a rush implementation with its software.

-- Stanley Lucas (StanleyLucas@WebTv.net), November 12, 1999.

Rushed computer system installations lead to problems...as so many more firms are about to discover. The disruptions are starting, and very few are noticing.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 12, 1999.