Vantaggi
Culturally diverse, global, strong ethics and integrity of senior management, long-range thinking and planning, attention to detail, foundational strength of the core business. It is #1 in its market space (business applications). It has a very strong community of developers (http://sdn.sap.com) and business process experts. It has a welcoming and engaged approach to its partners. SAP participates actively with its many country-based independent customer user groups. SAP listens intently to its customers in order to serve them better with more than a profit motive in mind.
Svantaggi
Really long hours due to global timezones, hard to balance work / life, sometimes the cultures clash a bit when the "go slow and do it perfectly" doesn't mix with the "go fast and be early to market" groups don't mix well. There's a German Workers Council (like unions in the U.S.) which is a hold-over from the long-ago days of craftsmen's guilds that is outdated (but required by German law) which can slow and complicate things.