Small Business ERP market is experiencing stiff competition between such brand names as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and Sage. As Business One is relatively new player on this market it often is considered when you have to replace outdated DOS based accounting application with something more contemporary.
Traditionally mid and small business ERP market is divided between Dynamics GP formerly known as Great Plains and Sage products such as MASXXX. Plus competition from the small accounting packages includes QuickBooks, Peach Tree and similar brands. We see some evidence that SB1 is very popular in such regions as Brazil and Spanish speaking Latin America. Plus it is localized in such important regions as Russian Federation and China and this fact makes it popular in hub-and-spokes ERP architecture where you have to implement something simple in foreign subsidiary with consolidation to Corporate ERP in the Headquarters. Let’s take a look at its functionality and technology:
1. Three Tiers Architecture. It could be described as having Database, Application Server and Client Interface layers. In such configuration custom software developers are barred from doing direct data feed or update via SQL Insert or Update statements and similar constructions. Everything should be done through application server which has reliable mechanisms to roll back failed database access. If you would like to program custom integration we recommend you either to do it via Software Development Kit or in Data Transfer Workbench. There are integration third party tools as well but outside of the scope in our publication
2. Batch Posting mode versus document posting to General Ledger upon its saving. If you are familiar with mid-market accounting packages such as Dynamics GP for example you might be curious what happens when I save something like AR Invoice in Business One. The answer is it is recorded in the module as well in GL as permanent record with recognized revenue and cost of goods sold. This was designed as small business ERP package with reasonably simple functionality. In order to give you the idea on what you are really making in cash based accounting method (opposite to accrual method as it is required for larger companies) SB1 allows you to restate financial statements from accrual into cash base
3. MRP. There is MRP wizard intended to automate your inventory replenishment by optimal quantity level or directly on sales or production order. In version 8.8X we see substantial improvement with the introduction of Purchasing Quote which could be used in requisition management and all sort of tenders where you have to document suppliers bids and decision making on the best deal selection
4. Discrete Manufacturing. It is pretty simple but it has such cool features as disassembly bill of material allowing you to disassemble returned finished product and place its components back on the shelves
5. Customization directly in settings. If you were working in ERP consulting firm back in late 1990th you probably remember how difficult it was to add custom field to existing entity or create new custom table and associate it with user interface. We think that SB1 architects were familiar with this challenge and created user defined fields and tables adding feature which automatically creates user interface to access and edit these newly created objects
6. Crystal Reports. This tool is recommended for managerial reporting, such as custom sales commission, customer statement or project profitability. There should be long term commitment to Crystal as SAP acquired Business Objects or former owner of CR
7. Competition. There might be several to consider especially Sage MAS 90 and Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Ready. Popular migration path to SAP B1 is from Great Plains Accounting for DOS as well as QuickBooks and Peach Tree. If you are thinking about abandoning GPA for DOS we would like to note that there is migration tool to Dynamics GP and if you choose this route you are skipping data conversion to SB1. It is possible to extract Great Plains Accounting master records via ODBC connection in Pervasive SQL Control Center. We do not recommend deep historical data export, cleansing and migration from GPA to SAP BO
8. Second Opinion. Accounting system implementation projects have reasonably good success rate however there are failed cases. Normal procedure to the way out of crisis is via second opinion. Consulting firms have their specializations and of course strong and weak points. If your original reseller was good in sales presentation, software sales and generic implementation it might be not an obvious fact to expect these people to be equally good in SDK coding or complex integrations with external databases
9. Selecting Consulting Firm. We recommend you to consider the following criteria: local versus nationwide, technology expertise versus generic functional consulting and user training and such additional criteria as expertise in your industry niche. If you are facing complex customization project consider somebody who runs so-called Software Development Factory
10. Multinational Corporation. Even if you have something like SAP R3, Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft or Dynamics AX implemented in your USA based headquarters it might be not feasible budget wise to implement it for small location somewhere in Brazil, Russia, China or Africa where Business One is localized and is probably better fit considering the operations magnitude
11. Industries and Business Niches. In our opinion it is good for generic wholesale, services, light manufacturing and distribution companies. There are add-ons to automate B1 in Retail, Warehouse Management, SCM, Recruiting, Food Processing, Mining, International Business and even consulting sectors
12. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representatives pick up the phone in Naperville and St. Joseph, MI call centers). help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Southern California, South West Michigan, 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. One of our experiences is international Corporate ERP and Consolidated Financial reporting
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