Programmers, how has your experience in the ERP field been so far?

I am curious, could you elaborate on why do you feel is an insult to programmers? 🙂

I had a CEO in one of the companies that I worked in, for example, who used to say things like this in internal meetings, "Ignore him, he is just a technical person", not referring to me, but generally when he mentions technical consultants. I knew this because I knew someone who used to attend those internal management calls. Also, it is very rare to see a consulting company act like a software company. Not sure why... that usually harms them in the long run, but they don't care. And it is usually because the CEOs have no technical background, so they think anyone complaining about something like software, and not about the direct process of making money, is just focusing on some nonsensical, useless perfection, or maybe just an attention seeker, or whatever labels people throw on each other these days. And although I worked with a lot of talented, respectable FCs, some think they can act in a superior way when they interact with TCs, not sure why.

Maybe you're just working for the wrong company.

It's not really glamorous or even hard stuff but unlike working at a "corporate" job at a big company, you are closer to seeing how what you do impacts the end user which I really like. For example, when I worked at Cerner, I could add a feature but never hear anything about it. With NetSuite, I get to talk to the client(s) and hear feedback from the client(s) often and in my mind, that helps me like what I'm doing more. I've been doing NetSuite dev for over 10 years now and have become highly specialized in just doing NetSuite. It's either a downside or upside (or even both depending on how you look at it) since if it ever goes away, you've been so locked into this 1 specialized thing that other skills could potentially diminish. The upside is that I make 2x the money of what I would make working at a corporate gig from my past experiences.

@creece In your company, how do they deal with software in general? How would you describe it?

What do you mean by deal with software? like how do we create it and maintain it from idea to implementation?

@creece Yeah, do you usually receive clear requirements? Does anyone review the code? Do you use SDF projects? If yes, how do you keep the code up to date with the manual changes that are being done on the system by others? Do reuse the solutions? Or, in a simpler way, do they care about software?

Requirements are pretty solid, but they are sometimes vague and get iterated on quite a bit. I design and code whatever it is. I do throw up a code review for whoever wants to look at it but most of the time there's no comments. We do use SDF projects but I only really code apps that I have control over. When i do work for clients, it's delivered in an SDF project and if they make changes without telling us then they just don't get pulled into the project. IMO manual changes are on them to keep track of and not me. Clients changing things on their own almost never happens. In the past, at other places, i've seen solutions re-used as sometimes there really is only 1 way to do something but I can't say i've done that myself. Most things are pretty unique to the client so there's no re-use. They def care about the software. What you write and put out is a reflection of yourself and the company. If its garbage, that comes back on you and the company.

Yeah, this is definitely better. Do you have to fill out timesheets?

I do fill out timesheets. If it's not client related for billable work, it's just a straight 40hrs no matter what I do for the week to the app development. Even if I work more I just log my 40 and go on with life (i'm salaried)

The sweet spot is working for a client, I guess. Not an implementation company.

ERPs are complex application software with tons of features. Netsuite is basically an accounting package with several modules like CRM, MRP, HRIS, Fixed Assets, etc. There is so much to learn in terms of basic accounting functionality, order management, inventory management, supply chain allocation, outsourced manufacturing, bill of materials, order reservations, inbound shipments, pricing strategy, promotions and discount management, ecommerce. The system is not perfect and that opens it up to customizable solutions that are tailored to any organzation’s business processes. The underlying technology stack consisting of scripting, worklfows, API via REST and soon to be deprecated SOAP might be limited in some respects but can be overcome with intentional design and structured development processes.

@Eric B Wow, really?

@Marwan what exactly do you mean by "Wow, really?"