Hasso Plattner

Enterprise resource planning. Plattner and four colleagues left IBM in 1972 to found SAP in Germany, writing standard software that let companies run accounting, purchasing and stock control in one system updated in real time, rather than commissioning custom programs. R/3 in 1992 brought it to client-server computers and made SAP the default back office for large firms. Painful, expensive implementations are part of the legend too.