Speaking of SAP, they were a major (MAJOR) sponsor of the F1 race here in
Indy last month.  Their signs are still up around the speedway.  Since F1 is
tradionally an European crowd, it makes sense that their major customer base
is over there....

-----Original Message-----
From: Gavin Scott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 1:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: SAP


Dave writes:
> SAP success seems to be more of a European phenomenon.

Having been involved for a while with marketing of a product in both the US
and Europe, I would agree that there are indeed significant cultural
differences in different parts of the world that will have a large impact on
things like implementation success.

In the case of our product, we found that European companies were more
oriented around strong central control of operations, and could order the
rank and file to adapt to a new system even if parts of that adaptation were
painful for one reason or another.

In the US, typically the users were much more in control, and could refuse
to have anything to do with a system that didn't appear to be designed
exclusively for their benefit.

Many Europeans seemed to have a much more fatalistic outlook than the
Americans who were used to always getting things "their way".

G.