What is SAP Business One?

You may be considering ways to automate processes and have more control over your entire business’s operations. Integrating a process automation software like SAP Business One is a perfect idea – but just what exactly is SAP Business One and how does it help your business?

SAP Business One is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software application designed for small to mid-size businesses.

An ERP system houses all company data in a centralized database. Having the data stored centrally allows for all departments to share and access the same data and all data is updated instantly. This greatly increases the speed and efficiency by which the various departments communicate.

Additionally, it helps eliminate errors caused by repetitive, manual entry.

What is the Difference Between SAP Business One and SAP for Large Enterprises?

If you are familiar with ERP systems, you are probably aware that many of the largest and most successful companies around the world use SAP.

Your immediate thought maybe that SAP is only designed for these types of companies. It is true that SAP has a product designed for these large enterprises.

However, it may surprise you that the best selling and most widely-installed SAP ERP system is Business One.

SAP Business One is used by over 70,000 small and midsize companies.

What is Included in SAP Business One?

The SAP Business One modules include:

Management and Administration
Accounting and Financials
Purchasing and Operations
CRM, Sales and Service
Inventory and Distribution
Production and MRP
Project Management
Analytics

Business One software can be easily customized to fit almost any type of business.

All modules are included but do not need to be utilized if not immediately needed. Frequently, when the business grows and becomes more familiar with the considerable power within the system, the modules are activated and can be used immediately.

How Easy is SAP Business One to Integrate with Other Applications?

SAP Business One is also very easily integrated with 3^rd party applications. Many businesses will need integration into applications such as:

eCommerce
Amazon
CRM
3PL
EDI
Barcode scanning
Shipping and logistics
And more

These integrations have all been pre-configured, additional applications can be easily integrated using industry-standard API connections.

How is SAP Business One Deployed?

SAP Business One can be deployed as either an on-premise or cloud-based solution.

With this said, cloud-based deployments are quickly becoming the more popular of the two. There are several good reasons a cloud-based solution makes more business sense these days and on into the future.

The top five factors contributing to this shift are:

Easier Application Accessibility
Increased Data Security
Faster Deployment
Easier Integrations
Lower Cost

How Long is the Implementation for SAP Business One?

The implementation time for an ERP system depends on several factors.

One of the biggest factors is the size of the company in terms of the number of users and locations.

The most critical decision is selecting the correct partner.

This decision is as important as the system selection itself. The traditional approach some ERP companies will propose is installing the entire solution before going live. These types of ERP implementations can take 6 months or more if everything goes smoothly. Any hiccups can cause the process to drag on for months or over a year.

A more modern and efficient approach is to get the basic accounting and financials going and to address one or two immediate processes that are really impacting the business’s operation.

This type of implementation will get the business operating on the new system very rapidly. Team members will begin using the system, familiarizing themselves with the user interface and reporting capabilities. Additional functionality can then be introduced, and more business processes can be automated.

Over the course of the first year or two, the company will continuously work on creating efficiencies in other processes throughout the business.

These may include adding various integrations to further enhance the system. This method allows the system’s users to become familiar with the interface and capabilities much earlier in the implementation project. And more importantly, management and owners will begin seeing a return on their investment much sooner.

How Much Does SAP Business One Cost?

As with the above section on implementation, the cost of the system depends on numerous factors. And, as noted above the implementation costs can grow depending on how long the implementation takes.

For a cloud-based implementation, software and hosting cost will depend on the number of users and integrations. Most ERP systems are licensed on a per-named user basis and can offer various levels of system accessibility. Hosting the system on the cloud will also offer either a single or multi-tenant environment. And there are the integrations to consider.

It is very important to define your project’s scope and have written documentation on exactly what is included in the price and what is not. There have been numerous cases where the customer has agreed to a proposal only to find out partway through the implementation that some aspect of the project, that they thought was included, was left out of the proposal. And now there will be an additional cost to add that functionality.

SAP Business One makes this less risky with well-defined, transparent pricing as well as fixed price implementations.

As you can see, there are a lot of variables, but your ERP partner should be able to provide a detailed breakdown of all costs.

What is the ROI of An SAP Business One System?

The return on investment on these systems can be realized in the first year and sometimes earlier.

Points to consider when calculating your ROI are:

Time Savings
Error Reduction
Improved Customer Service
Reduce Potential Theft and Fraud
Increases the Value of your Company

Your SAP B1 partner will be able to help work through all these areas with you and determine if an SAP Business One system is the right choice for your company.

For a more detailed exploration of all the above modules and benefits, here’s how you can get started.

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