SMEs categorize ERP either as a Luxury, Trend, or Necessity. With the world becoming a global village and business operations become increasingly complex, SMEs have been struggling to grow businesses and get hold of all siloed information across departments. Would an ERP then qualify as just a luxury or a trend?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a modular business tool that an organization can use for managing business operations across multiple departments like supply chain, payment management, invoicing, purchase, customer relationship, human resources, etc. These different workflows are integrated under a unified system in an ERP and managed through a centralized Database.

Traditionally ERP systems were priced astronomically and were best suited for large enterprises. It was becoming increasingly unmanageable for enterprises to manage decentralized, disparate systems and processes. Today, however, there is an awareness about the need for customized, smaller-scale ERP systems to help SMEs save more and improve operations.

Enter SAP Business One. With more than 60,000 SME customers across the globe and from a trusted provider like SAP, the Business One system (SAP Business One) sees more than a million end users from over 170 countries transforming the way SMEs work each year.

An ERP system that grows with your business

Typically, in an SME, various applications are used for accounts, purchases, CRM, project management, etc. Once you adopt SAP Business One as your ERP, you can integrate all disparate applications into a single product based on their business criticalities and priority metrics defined by your organization. The system provides seamless integration of all functional modules with easy-to-use workflows and user interfaces. It has extensive analytical and reporting capabilities that can provide a single customer/vendor/organization view to users across the organization. In short, with its scalability, flexibility, and advanced features, you can harness the power of a single core system to grow your business with confidence.

Why should you adopt SAP Business One (SAP B1) as your ERP System?

SAP Business One is the fastest-growing ERP software adopted by SMEs to transform their business. If you are still wondering why it would be a good fit for your organization, we bring below some of the key differentiators:

• Simple and affordable.
• Capture business information in a single scalable system and helps scale up the existing business.
• Manage business functions across sales, finances, distribution, manufacturing, and CRM from a single integrated system.
• Access to real-time reporting and analytics giving complete transparency over your business.
• Be connected to the head office, associates, and subsidiaries. It allows serving the clients more efficiently. Also helps the inflow of information and achieves greater harmony in business.
• Quick access reports and interactive dashboard reports.
• Business Intelligence & SAP Business One can improve operational efficiency and productivity.
• Track inventory spread across different geographic locations.
• Deploy SAP B1 on the cloud or on-premises.
• User-friendly interface and serves as your central access point. Access to the system is possible using mobile devices and browsers.
• Analytics that allows you to access massive amounts of data in today’s digital economy.
• Use the cloud or on-premises model to run your business and allow your team to connect via mobile devices no matter where they are.
• Incorporate the data from external sensors and other sources and use innovative technologies to meet several business challenges.
• It is also a flexible system that is customizable and tailored to your own business and industry needs.
• SAP designed and built the product from the ground up, specifically for the small and mid-size businesses, so you can leverage the best experiences and practices that SAP has to offer.
• SAP Business One runs on in-memory technology when you use the HANA database as the underlying platform. You can run it on Microsoft SQL as well. Either way, you have flexible deployment options.
The core of SAP Business One is the end-to-end business processes.

What are the functionalities/modules covered in SAP Business One?

SAP Business One is a modular application catering to all your business and workflow requirements. Its key modules include the following:

Why is SAP Business One better than other SME ERP systems?

SAP Business One is one of the undisputed leaders in the SME ERP market due to its extensive functionalities, apt pricing, and scalable models aligned to your company’s growth. As an ERP, SAP Business One can be the central core in integrating multiple functions across your company and providing a single view across all processes, data, and systems. A few of the differentiating parameters are as listed below:

• Superior technology architecture and Enhanced Security
• A single view of processes and systems across the organization
• Data Validations and Substitution
• Data Handling Capacity
• A multi-level document approval system
• Low Cost of Ownership, Implementation, and Maintenance
• Concurrent Multilingual Capability
• Data Synchronization
• Consolidation of Multiple LOBs, Companies
• Enhanced Performance & Stability
• Short response time
• Data ownership
• Control functions keep a watch on errors

Going Forward with SAP Business One

Knowledge of the existing ecosystem, having an experienced partner, and opting for the right solution are factors that define the success of any ERP software implementation. For implementation, you have the option to choose between (a) On-premise (purchase licenses one time and pay annual maintenance fees) and (b) cloud-based subscription type. The actual pricing depends on the licensing type, infrastructure, data migration requirements, choice of DB, etc. At CCS, we work with growing SME’s to architect & build the right business and functional specification to fit their vision and budget. Read more about our SAP Business One practice and how we have implemented SAP Business One for leading SMEs across the globe.