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One advantage (among many, really) of being in the SAP HR consulting industry for a long time is that I have seen what works well and what fails. I've seen really good SAP HR implementations, and unfortunately far more that were done poorly. I've seen technical configuration done well and within the standard SAP customizing framework, but more often I've seen it done poorly without standards or any sort of thought for maintenance. Why is there still, more than 15 years and hundreds of implementations since SAP HR was released for the US, such poor implementation practices?

People, processes and technology all have to work together to have a successful HR organization. We – consultants and companies alike – know that, yet so often we seem to lose track of it. Or more precisely, we lose track of the importance of balancing our effort among all three components. We tend to favor and emphasize technology all too often, at the expense of improving processes and people.

When was the last time you were congratulated for getting your basic work done accurately, completely and on-time? Did anyone notice? On the other hand, did anyone notice the last time you made mistakes, didn't finish something, or didn't complete it on time?

One of the challenges with HR and IT systems is that, left unchecked, complexity drives up operating costs and decreases agility. To be able to support the business, HR and IT have to be cost-effective and agile; otherwise how can they be taken as serious business partners within an organization? How does that complexity happen and what can you do about it?

There is no such thing as a 'plain vanilla' SAP HR implementation. When customers start their SAP implementations it's common to hear project managers and sponsors say that this will be a 'plain vanilla' implementation. Customizations and programming will be kept to a minimum, and modifications will be strictly forbidden. Those are fine intentions, but back in the real world: there is no such thing as a 'plain vanilla' SAP HR implementation.

When Tax Reporter is run to produce tax forms such as W-2's, 1099-R's, 941's and so on, it creates a number of different outputs. The log files and mag media files are produced as TemSe output - which is intended to be stored only temporarily. Each time a TemSe output is created, the system puts an expiration date on it. Subsequent maintenance programs run to delete all the TemSe objects that have expired. The default expiration date is today + 30 days.

SAP doesn't need enhanced. It is your business process that is wrong. (source)