The paradox of the button: a company trapped in LOST. In the iconic series, there was a scene repeated ad nauseam: John Locke, the obsessive and enigmatic character, had to press a button every 108 minutes to avoid a catastrophe. He did not know exactly why he did it. No one explained to him the meaning of the mechanism. He only knew that if he stopped doing it... something serious would happen.
Many companies today are trapped in this same logic.
Press the button.
They review bad reports, approve poorly designed processes, manually correct errors in SAP... all to keep the operation running. Not because it works well, but because do not dare to address the cause of the bottleneck.
And in this cycle, there is always a corporate "John Locke": that employee who "unlocks" the processes... without questioning them. Until one day, time is running out. And everything collapses.
🧠 It's not a technical bottleneck: it's an organizational symptom.
A bottleneck does not appear out of nowhere. It is built with small decisions, with approvals that are delayed, with people who centralize, with steps that no one challenges.
SAP does not shout. SAP does not accuse. SAP shows. And sometimes, it shows more than you'd like to see.
The truth is that your system has been talking to you for a long time. With logs that stretch. With commands that don't move forward. With data that repeats like broken records.
A bottleneck in SAP is not just an inefficiency. It is a mirror of the business culture. It is the place where organizational design, decision making and technology fail to synchronize.
And therein lies the real challenge: recognize that it is not just about the system, but about what the system reflects.
🧠 What is a bottleneck... and how does SAP reveal it?
He is not just a slow person. It's the exact point where your culture clashes with your system.
It may be in an approval step that no one questions, in a report that only those who created it understand, or in a screen that requires three clicks too many... and ends up being avoided.
SAP reveals it without words: with frozen metrics, delayed tasks, incomplete orders and frustrated users. Slowness is not always technical. It is often structural.
The bottleneck is a muted scream in the data stream. If you don't hear it, it's not because it's not there... it's because you're not looking.
🔍 The alerts SAP throws at you - and you ignore them
- ⏱ Logs that seem to stretch forever.
- 📦 Inventories that do not move... because no one closed the previous transaction.
- 📉 Production reports with absurd drops.
- 🔄 Processes that remain in loop, because no one wants to take on the next step.
The result? Slow decisions, frustrated operations, and an organization that moves at an Excel pace.
And the most serious thing: people begin to distrust the system. What used to be a map to navigate, becomes a labyrinth from which everyone tries to get out on their own.
🧩 Real cases that do not need exaggeration.
Sales: Quotes by the hundreds... but orders by the dozen. Because no one closes, no one follows, no one leads. CRM and SAP seem to speak different languages.
Production: Open, partial, unconfirmed orders. SAP says you produce. Customer says they don't receive. Data does not align with reality, and visibility is lost.
Logistics: Physical deliveries without digital backup. Real inventory and SAP greet each other... but do not know each other. Reprocesses, eternal audits, and loss of traceability.
Management: If your team needs three Excel to explain what the system already has, The neck is not technical. It is strategic. Lack of digital ergonomics generates focus leakage.
⚠️ Why does this happen (and why do we normalize it)?
Because we believe that SAP fixes everything. Because no one wants to review the entire process. Because we rely more on habit than on data.
The real bottleneck is the inability to listen to what the system is trying to tell you.
We get used to living with slowness. And in that uncomfortable comfort, chaos becomes landscape.
🧠 The role that the IT leader can't avoid
In this scenario, the IT Manager cannot be a simple IT person of the past, waiting for requirements or solving tickets. Today he or she must be at the center of the business, understanding the processes more clearly than anyone else, anticipating blockages, proposing flows, and providing real visibility for timely decisions.
It is no longer enough to keep the system running: it is necessary to improve how the organization flows through it.
This includes building strategically thought-out reports, integrating visual tools, and even designing "ergonomic" developments on top of SAP using APIs such as Service Layer, frameworks such as Blazor or other technologies that allow the user to understand, decide and act.
Today's CIO does not wait for orders: he diagnoses, proposes, leads. He identifies invisible bottlenecks and turns them into impactful projects.
🛠️ And how do you unlock it without wiping out everything?
✅ Activate logs. But read them carefully.
✅ Review processes as value streams, not as black boxes.
✅ Make traceability between areas. Boundaries generate friction.
✅ Eliminates steps that add control but detract from fluidity.
✅ Give visual tools to management. Qlik, Blazor, Power BI. But let them speak the language of the business.
Because unlocking is not improvising. It is redesigning with intelligence.
🧭 Epilogue: Stop pressing the button.
In LOST, the button became an absurd routine: pressing it was more important than understanding the system. Until one day, someone refused. He wanted to know why. And then, the truth was unleashed...or disaster.
Your organization can go on like this: stuck in cycles, unlocking the urgent, ignoring the important.
Or you can break the wheel.
👉 Stop pressing the button without thinking.
👉 Look at the logs with intent.
👉 Turn bottlenecks into improvement maps.
👉 And use SAP for what it really is: a compass for operational truth.
Because the difference between surviving and transforming... is in listening to what SAP is already showing you.
📖 Previous chapters in this series:
- When the system is the message
- SAP and operational informality
- SAP and digital ergonomics
- SAP data without information
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