SAP B1 is good option for small organization, where you would like to have some advanced Corporate ERP and MRP features as discrete manufacturing, service management (including warranty support), CRM functionality, Sales Order and Purchas Order processing, picking and packing
SAP Business One is also good in international implementation scenarios,
as it supports most of the World alphabets and localized in wide range of countries, especially consider SB1 if you are multinational corporation and you are selecting ERP application for your foreign subsidiary. In this small publication we will try to give you highlights on out of the box Integration options: Data Transfer Workbench and SAP Business One Software Development Kit (SDK). We are not pretending to say that you have to use these tools versus often more advanced integration instruments, available from SAP Business One ISV partner and software development firms, however it is always good idea to analyze free options, prior to purchasing additional software for your new Corporate ERP
1. SAP Business One Data Transfer Workbench. We are expecting some skepticism, as DTW is usually associated with initial data import from your legacy accounting in CSV (often referred as Excel Templates). We agree, DTW does initial import and data migration job, however it is capable to do a way more. Please, think about Advanced ODBC queries in DTW - these queries could be based on whatever fits to ODBC standard: MS SQL Server Views are good subject for speculations (SQL View could be heterogeneous, where you are joining or querying tables from MS SQL Server and non MS SQL Server platforms, such as Oracle, MySQL/PHP/Linux, Lotus Notes/Domino, Pervasive SQL, Ctree, EDI text files, etc.). There is technical secret and we would like to share it with you - in your SQL View you will have to imitate exactly CSV template file structure (including header - simply add names of the oFiles headers as the top line of the query results). If you exactly replicate CSV templates in your SQL View - data bounding in DTW will be done automatically. We would like to share one dismay, however. Current version of SB1 2007 (A and B) doesn't support integration scheduling, if the sources are Advanced ODBC queries. We hope that in the future versions this problem will be addressed
2. SAP Business One SDK. This tool is friendly to Microsoft Visual Studio C#, or VB.Net programmer, assuming that you have working knowledge of SQL scripting and XML - then you should think about SDK as set of libraries with code samples. It is perfect solution, if you are integration moderate level of ecommerce transactions to SB1 Customer Invoices. If transaction volume is high, please consider purchasing DI Server license (where you add documents in XML form, especially good idea if you are planning to integrate POS or Point Of Sale transactions for mid-size store). As SDK could be part of ecommerce web application or any other custom programmed project, it could enable real time integration to SB1 (comparing to Data Transfer Workbench, which could only do on-demand or scheduled integration for text files)
3. SAP Business One Tables Structure. It could be analyzed from two places: SDK and from SB1 client (if you select in menu View -> System Information, then open form and see table and field name in the lower left corner). Here we would like to make a comment - please use direct access to SAP BO SQL tables for reporting purposes only (Crystal Reports, SSRS, etc). Do not enter data via SQL Insert or Update statements - SB1 has Early Watch service, which will report your direct data altering back to SAP, plus these techniques are really open doors for Data integrity compromising problems
4. SAP Business One as ERP for foreign subsidiary. If in your Headquarters you deploy nice Corporate ERP, and it does wonderful job - this doesn't automatically mean that this application is translated into foreign language or is localized for foreign legislation and tax requirements. If you are on Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains, please think about the facts, that this Corporate ERP platform is available in English speaking countries, Canada (French Canadian for Quebec) and Spanish Speaking Latin America and Caribbean. Great Plains doesn't support Unicode or UTF-8 standards, if your foreign subsidiary is located in the country where language is base on hieroglyphs - GP is not the best way to go. You can do certain things with GP (placing graphical images on the forms, where you should hieroglyphs, or having custom Crystal Reports pulling data for Sales Invoices in Chinese from linked Unicode supporting custom tables), but we recommend you to consider Corporate ERP solution which addresses these questions naturally - SAP Business One
5. How to get help? Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK and Microsoft CRM programming gurus. We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs. Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants. If you prefer skype: albaspectrum
