Digitization is the conversion of analog (paper-based processes) into business processes that leverage cloud technology innovation.

Digital Transformation is the use of new, fast and frequently changing digital technology to solve problems. It is the driving force of modern businesses. It encourages paperless transactions, informed decisions and real-time working.

Technologies such as Block chain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud, etc. are all contributing to the digital transformation process. These are the services that enable Industry 4.0 and encourage real-time, error-free and streamlined work.

Transformative technologies are drastically changing the way businesses interact, innovate and gain valuable insights. They give organizations the agility to sustain and embrace state-of-the-art technologies which can drive innovation.

The January 2020 survey, “Streamlining Financial Processes in the Cloud,” found that almost 60% of finance professional survey respondents identified manual processes as their top pain point, and view ERP as the most relevant infrastructure for managing and automating financial processes.

Extensive range of features that add value to many embedded business process. SAP Business One drives new kinds of business value.

SAP Partner evaluation is a step-by-step process. Once you shortlist the partners based on certain criteria such as your business needs.

SAP Partner evaluation is a step-by-step process. Once you shortlist the partners based on certain criteria such as your business needs, controls, etc., you can evaluate them in a lot of different ways. You can gather information from outside sources like the clients that partner is currently serving, or has served in the past. Once you are sure about the partner, you can invite him for a demo session, where you can assess him on different parameters such as industry and technical expertise, functional knowledge, expertise in project management, background check, ability to deliver the implementation on time, keeping the budget, having required tools and resources to fulfill the needs of the implementation, long-term support post implementation, future development roadmap, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), including, license fees (including third party), implementation fees (training and consulting), support, hardware/software and maintenance fees, so on and so forth.

Any growing business that hasn’t been using an ERP system or using ERP for Accounting only, operates on standalone IT tools to manage different processes. But there comes a time when it outgrows those systems and starts feeling the need to move to a single, integrated ERP system to manage all the processes. There are a few signs that indicate its time the business moves to an ERP. The prominent of those signs include spending more time on daily activities like book keeping, lack of access to key metrics and KPIs, duplication of data, reporting taking longer than usual, far too many errors in key business data, longer response time, etc. These signs tell the companies that the technology and the systems they are operating on are outdated, and inadequate in the current scenario. The moment this realization happens is the best time for a company to start looking for an SAP ERP software.

We all do not like when our ERP doesn’t work effectively. Right? It becomes even more essential when you are a player who is trying to gain a competitive edge. The SAP B1 ERP is feature rich and adds a great value to the growth of your business. Though, SAP B1 helps you organize your company better, most of you might not be using the ERP system to its full potentiality. So, we have attempted to find ways to make your SAP B1 effective. Firstly, let us take a look at the things you have been doing wrong with your ERP.

Things you are not doing right with your ERP

• Not understanding the requirement
Most of you might have chosen your SAP B1 ERP system for better organization efficiency. But, many of you might not even have a fair understanding of what purpose your SAP B1 is going to serve. A study states that “21% of ERP implementations fail to deliver significant business benefits.” The underlying question as to why it is happening has a simple answer. Most of the companies have no fair understanding of what their business requirement. Having no clear understanding of what you want from your ERP system hinders the business advantages.

• No maintenance plan
Implementing an ERP is not as easy. If you are successful in implementing ERP for your organization, then you are halfway on the road to success. But, it doesn’t stop there. The maintenance strategy is as important as the implementation. If you don’t update your SAP ERP, firstly, there are risks of security issues. Secondly, there are possibilities of disruptions in the business processes. Improving SAP ERP at regular intervals ensures you are not obsolete or outdated. Maintained ERP system runs smoothly and is up-to-date with the latest applications.

• Wrong estimation of the resources
Another common mistake you might be doing is the wrong estimate of resources. You need to have a precise calculation of the internal and external resources you need for the project. You need to consider the time commitment from business users for internal resources. For external resources, having an agreement up-front with your consultants and contractors about the specific duration, skills, and quantity of resources needed is critical.

• Understand why
Gaining an understanding of why you need SAP for your business and the purpose it is going to fulfill for you is essential. Any ERP is typically designed to handle the management of materials, inventory control, supply chain, purchasing, finance, and accounting. So, you must be able to clearly define the way you are using SAP ERP system. The answers will facilitate the growth of your business and help you beat competition using SAP. Make it mandatory to derive the goals you can achieve with SAP ERP.

• Optimize your SAP
In order to transform your business using ERP, you must make time to streamline and change the processes it supports. Look at how you can handle each of the aspects handled by the ERP. For instance, understanding how you can optimize your inventory with an endless aisle can help. Optimize your SAP based on the needs of different departments to maintain a free flow of the process across the organization. Work towards achieving a common ground with all the departments to organize the workflows. Organized workflows reduce the turnaround time for many business processes.

• Improvise continuously
Continuously updating and adjusting the ERP in alignment with the business goals can be useful. It is not a stagnant process and needs updates on a regular basis. Have an annual budget and review plan in place. By updating your ERP software on regular basis, you can gain insights into the business processes. You can leverage the ERP to its full potential with little improvisations.

• Maximize value with a custom dashboard
Customize your SAP based on the users in different functional areas. Make an analysis of which tools will cater to which teams. This will enable you to provide only those features and tools to those respective teams. For example, the production team will need a different set of tools when compared to the accounting team. Create custom dashboards to address the needs of individual teams. All the teams can use the same system but should have interface personalized to serve them. If the SAP interface is customized for users, providing the most relevant information, the right information reaches the right people. Now, align it with custom reports and you can leverage this data to set actionable business goals.

• Integration for automation
Lastly, you can make your SAP ERP effective by integrating it with your e-commerce platform, Machines, Websites, Mobile Apps. There are many challenges SAP B1 integration can address for you. Integration helps in the seamless mapping of data across systems. You can address the following aspects for your e-store with the help of integration

If you think making the decision to implement an ERP system is hard, you are perhaps unaware that tougher problems lie ahead in terms of selecting the best ERP for your business from among the plenty of available options. Shortlisting, comparing, evaluating, and finally selecting an ERP system is a tricky process which can be made easier by following a few simple steps. To begin with, the businesses must determine & define their requirements and expectations from the ERP very clearly.

Once this is done, the businesses can create a yardstick for shortlisting and evaluating the potential ERP vendors. It can have criteria such as support to functional requirements, integration with existing systems, industry and technical knowledge, total cost of ownership (TCO), expertise in project management, ability to deliver the implementation within set time & budget, long-term support post implementation, scalability, etc. The vendors can be shortlisted for demo sessions, and analyzed on these parameters post which the final decision can be made only after a thorough background check as well as taking external references.

In last century, ERP has evolved a lot to accommodate latest technological trends as well as advanced tools to solve critical business problems. The ERP vendors continue to evolve in order to make their offering more powerful, flexible and affordable, all at the same time. Some of the contemporary trends that will define the future of ERP include Cloud Technology, Big data analytics, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, mobility integration with e-Commerce and move towards public cloud. These trends will continue to make the businesses simpler.

And in all these years, the unprecedented response it has received and the faith which the clients across the globe have reposed in it tells that ERP is here to stay for many more years to come.

The small manufacturing businesses have a lot to worry about, right from dealing with intense competition, time-consuming as well as error-prone manual data processing, ever-changing market trends, inaccurate scheduling, poor customer service, meeting quality and statutory guidelines, to the day-to-day operations that keep the business going.

To deal with these challenges, small businesses need an ERP solution that’s tailor-fit to their specific needs; one which can give them visibility into different aspects of their business, real-time access to critical business data, and reduce their operational risks as well as the total cost of ownership, in addition to addressing the challenges mentioned above.

There are a number of ERP solutions available in the market for small businesses. They must pick one that aligns with their business needs, and importantly budget. Preferably, a Cloud ERP is best fit for small businesses, taking everything into account.

Every business is dynamic and so are its needs. May be that’s why most companies are looking for an ERP that’s dynamic too. SAP Business One is your place then. SAP Business One offers a range of spectacular ERP solutions built for all types of Business.

Any business, be it large-scale, small-scale or medium-sized, ranging from manufacturing to catering and whether discrete or process manufacturing, needs an ERP solution. This is because challenges of small/medium businesses are no different from large industries. They need to follow the same guidelines, abide by regulations, maintain reports & documents, meet quality parameters, manage resources, cut costs, thrive on thin profit margins et al, just like the big daddies of business. So, to standardize their processes, streamline operations, cut losses and wastage, stay audit-ready, exploit resources and improve profits, even macro, start-ups, small and medium industries are looking for an ERP partner.

An ERP software helps your business ensure numerous benefits, the first being automation. Check out the other advantages, apart from it, below:

Streamlined processes: An ERP system integrates all the processes across departments from beginning to end and meets the specific needs of each individual business.

Improved productivity & efficiency: An ERP system saves time and resources by automating manual business tasks and processes to promote productivity and improve efficiency. 82 percent* companies that implemented an ERP solution improved either key or all business processes post implementation.

Enhanced business visibility: With the integration of all the business processes, ERP gives management comprehensive and real-time visibility into performance of each department and access to key business data.

Quality analysis & reporting: An ERP software allows business managers to use interconnected dashboards to quickly analyse & report, thus facilitating informed and accurate decision making.

Reduced costs & risks: Uniform and streamlined business processes reduce the operational and management costs while improved data integrity and financial control reduce risks.

Industry & regulatory compliance: An ERP solution facilitates control over reporting processes and thus ensures compliance with regulatory requirements, meeting data integrity and enabling complete traceability, thereby keeping away hefty fines and image damage.

Studies reveal that 54 percent of the organizations that got the ERP implementation done were very satisfied with the overall ERP vendor experience. Further, 57 percent of the companies who got the ERP implementation done viewed it as a success. This should give you a clear picture as to how beneficial ERP is to the success of businesses.

Leaders at small and midsize manufacturing businesses may be hands-on managers, but they are also responsible for envisioning the future, identifying opportunities, and anticipating what’s next in a competitive marketplace.

When seeking a technology solution, like enterprise resource planning (ERP), executive leaders are less focused on what ERP will do, but they are keenly interested in how ERP will help them grow the business and create long term value.

ERP fulfills leaders’ expectations by delivering the data they need to make informed decisions, improve business performance, and chart the course for future growth.

Cloud ERP drives value creation with its speed, scalability, and superior user experience. At the heart of competitive strategy in the digital age, cloud ERP is the fastest and most sustainable way to inject insight and smarter practices into the manufacturing business.

With cloud ERP, you can see the breakdown of costs. If your dollar cost is going in the wrong direction, you can look deeper to see why, for example, you’re using more power, why preventative maintenance is up, why you’re using more lubricants, and so on.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
– John F. Kennedy