Europe's biggest software maker SAP ditches annual reviews

By Harro Ten Wolde and Ilona Wissenbach FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's SAP , maker of software used to grade the performance of millions of employees worldwide, is ditching its own annual performance reviews as too expensive, time-consuming and often demotivating. Once championed by business leaders as the key to better productivity, annual appraisals are falling out of fashion with companies including IBM , Gap and even General Electric , whose long-time Chief Executive Jack Welch is credited