SAP Business One Flexible and Customizable Small Business ERP

Traditionally when we are thinking about customization we expect programming and software development.  At least it is fair to say that traditional accounting packages of late 1990th were not too friendly to be modified without programmer.  Let’s take a look at Great Plains Dynamics as an example.

Here you had to either deploy user defined field already reserved in the tables or create second table and link it by primary key in order to add custom fields.  When new table is created in Dexterity you have to program trigger in order to enable its user interface and this interface itself should be designed in the new form.  Well new concepts expect that not only regular data such as customer invoice but also metadata or in other words table description could be stored directly in SQL database.  If user decides to create new table why don’t we program automatic interface creation at least for data entry and editing?  If we are thinking that way then new user defined table could be created directly in settings and plus existing tables could be expanded with user defined fields.  And this is what was done in SAP B1:

1. Version Update.  This was also considered traditionally as a surgery or something that requires substantial amount of consulting time.  But think about the fact that table structure is now stored in the metadata and these databases are separate for each company.  Here we have the opportunity to make this accounting package version upgrade neutral and the upgrade process itself stable and reliable

2. What we are getting with that kind of flexibility?  You have the power to modify the database structure including adding fields to existing tables and creating new ones.  These objects could participate in data storage, integration and reporting without the need to do programming.  We recommend you to consider Crystal Reports as the designing tool of choice considering the fact that SAP at this time owns Business Objects and is on the way to streamline CR for SAP ERP products

3. Are there any limitations?  Well in real world let’s think about software development.  Of course you can get modification visual design tools.  But the need to program is still there where you expect business logic with ‘what if’ requirements

4. Custom Programming.  Recommended tool is Microsoft Visual Studio where you can code in VB or C# and enjoy code samples in these languages.  Both user interface modification and integration goals could be achieved.  We would rather recommend integration vision as interface modification might be a problem in version update or patch application.  In any case SDK programming project needs to be recompiled when you are updating to new patch or version

5. Some thoughts about SAP BO on the United States Small Business ERP market.  As you might be aware this ERP application was initially architected in Israel with the goal to conquer international accounting software market.  International expansion was successful especially in such regions as Continental Europe, Brazil and South America.  In the USA situation is more complex as here we are facing strong competition from web based ERP packages such as NetSuite and at the same time Microsoft Dynamics is enjoying historical large number of installations.  The attrition is slow process and clients are resisting to replace legacy accounting with something new

6. Brazil or SAP BO success story.  Here we have consulting presence and we are watching the development.  Enterprises are embracing the idea to implement MRP and ERP systems and in the past they had none.  In the Small Business ERP market the offer from brand names such as Microsoft, SAP, Sage and Oracle is limited and Business One is very popular in such context

7. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representative pick up the phone in St. Joseph, MI call center). help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan and Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. We feature our expertise is in International Business.  We provide second opinion in SB1 data migration, customization and reporting