What Coca-Cola taught me about scaling enterprise software
Working on global supply chains at one of the world's biggest brands changed how I think about software. Here's what surprised me.
Before Coca-Cola, I thought enterprise software was bloated, slow, and stupid. After 18 months supporting their SAP S/4HANA + Ariba integration, I have a different view.
Enterprise software is hard for reasons consumer apps don't appreciate:
1. Scale isn't users — it's transactions. A consumer app celebrates 1M users. Coca-Cola's SAP system processes that many records every few hours.
2. Failure modes are existential. If Instagram is down, people complain. If Coca-Cola's ASN system is down, trucks don't move, retailers don't stock, and shareholders lose billions in a day.
3. Legacy isn't lazy — it's load-bearing. That "ancient" SAP module everyone wants to rewrite? It's been running for 25 years because it works. Replacing it is not a refactor — it's open-heart surgery on a moving body.
4. The business never stops. No "maintenance window." No "v2 next quarter." You change things while the engine runs.
5. Politics is half the engineering. A change to procurement workflow can affect 200 people in 14 countries. Getting buy-in is harder than writing the code.
This is why "AI will eat enterprise" doesn't quite work the way Twitter thinks. The companies that win in enterprise AI won't be the ones who ship fastest — they'll be the ones who understand the constraints, work *with* legacy, and earn trust slowly.
It's not a sprint. It's siege warfare.