Podcast

Atlas Tube explains how to grow, get value out of SAP

Atlas Tube, an SAP customer, tells a story that holds plenty of lessons for SAP customers. Atlas Tube bought SAP's core ERP package in the 1990s, when it was a small company. Today, Atlas Tube does over $2 billion in revenue, but has never had to turn to another ERP provider. Ed Maes, CIO of Atlas Tube, talked with us about a number of factors in his company's selection and implementation of SAP. He shares why Atlas Tube considered SAP appropriate for smaller organizations and how SAP beat out Oracle and SSA for Atlas Tube's business. He also shares how SAP has scaled along with Atlas Tube, why the company chose Unisys as a systems integrator, why system uptime is a strategic issue for every manufacturing business and how Atlas Tube negotiates with IT vendors. Maes has been a CIO for 13 years, or over six times the length of an average CIO.

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An SAP customer reveals all
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Highlights:

  • 2:30: Why Atlas Tube chose SAP

  • 4:35: SAP products used by Atlas Tube

  • 5:30: The vital role of SAP systems integration

  • 7:44: Challenges of managing real-time SAP

  • 9:17: Learning from IT mistakes

  • 11:07: How Unisys manages Atlas Tube's SAP environment

  • 14:33: Why system uptime is strategic

  • 15:56: How to negotiate with SAP

  • 17:46: CIO continuity and the success of SAP and IT projects

  • 20:40: Why Atlas Tube doesn't customize SAP

  • 22:40: Why you should apply updates and enhancements to SAP


    • This was first published in October 2008

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