There is a lie that SAP consultants repeat like a mantra that, honestly, has me tired: «Adapt to the standard, because the software knows more than you do.».
Let me be the dissenter in the room: This is only half true.
Yes, the standard is sacred for accounting, for generic purchases or for payroll. You don't need to reinvent the wheel of how an accounting entry is made. But when we talk about the Core Business that critical process in the production plant, in fruit selection, in last-mile logistics - the «standard» can be a death trap if we do not apply the correct Digital Ergonomics in SAP.
If to dispatch a truck my operator has to navigate through 5 tabs, make 20 clicks and confirm 3 pop-ups (the famous «standard»), we have failed. That's not digital transformation; that's digitized bureaucracy.
Digital Ergonomics at SAP: The Missing Link
In my previous articles in the series Inconvenient Truths, I have talked about the importance of saying «NO» to whims. But today I want to talk about when it is vital to say «YES».
I believe strongly in the Digital Ergonomics. It is the art of designing systems where the technology folds to the user, and not the other way around. It is the difference between a system that register data and one that accelerates What's the point of having S/4HANA running in the cloud if the user experience is medieval torture?
To understand the risk, let's look at the hard data of what happens when we ignore the balance between governance and usability:
- The Zimmer Biomet Disaster (2025): The cost of not having governance? US$172 million in a lawsuit after its failed implementation. The root cause? It wasn't the code, it was a lack of courage. They allowed more than 50 Change Requests uncontrolled and prioritized political dates over operational stability.
- The Birmingham Catastrophe (Updated 2026): They went from a budget of £19 million to more than £19 million. £100 million. They tried to «adapt» the software without redesigning the process, and today they are still behind because they did not manage the cultural change.
- Lidl and the 500 Million Obsession: A classic. Lidl pulled 500 million to the trash. They wanted to value their inventory at purchase price against the logic of SAP Retail. By not giving in to an accounting process, they built an unmaintainable system.
The Dilemma: How do I customize without breaking the «Clean Core»?
This is where you come in. Many System Managers see these disasters and panic. They become orthodox to the standard and give the operation unusable screens, forgetting the Digital Ergonomics in SAP.
The secret - and this is what I seek to apply to my management - is a intelligent disobedience:
- In the Back-Office, Be a Standard Dictator: No one makes money by paying bills in a «unique» way. There, copy to Nestléstandardizes, migrates to the cloud and closes data centers. They managed to move 1,200 Terabytes with 99.97% of availability because they didn't touch what they shouldn't have.
- In the Core, Be an Ergonomics Obsessive: If your competitive advantage is the speed of your production line, there you invest. But not by modifying the SAP core (that's suicide), but by building usability layers on top (Mobile Apps, Fiori, or integration with smart glasses).
The «1 Click > 20 Clicks» Challenge»
The goal of a modern CIO is not to «implement SAP». The goal is to simplifying complexity.
If the standard process requires 20 steps, my job is to hide 19. The system must swallow the complexity so that the user only sees the simplicity. That is true Digital Ergonomics in SAP.
Organizations that invest in planning and adopt standard processes obtain measurable benefits. Cases such as Vital Capital o Acro Engineering demonstrate that when technology delivers real-time data and mobile access, the business gains speed.
The Courage to Simplify
Let's return to the premise of courage.
- Di NO to customize processes that do not add value.
- But have the courage to say NO to the standard when it hinders the flow of your core business.
True innovation is not installing the most expensive software. Innovation is that your team can do in one click what it used to do in twenty, while the SAP «monster» works quietly in the background.
Don't sacrifice power for usability, or usability for power. As technology leaders, we get paid to solve that paradox.
