If you were able to find this publication through internet search then you are probably surprised by discovering that accounting system that you might be using in the United States is not localized in the country where your organization opened production facility
Good example would be Microsoft Dynamics GP formerly known as Great Plains is not available in such regions as China, Brazil or Russia. Let’s review internationalized ERP system in general and talk about SAP B1 and its worldwide availability. This paper is not technical as it is rather intended as orientation session for management team:
1. Localizing domestic ERP by your internal IT team. Let’s assume that you are using Dynamics GP in the headquarters here in the USA and now you are moving into Brazil Campinas area near Sao Paulo where we have huge automaker’ business park. It is easy enough to call Microsoft office in Sao Paulo and realize from them that GP is not offered here and instead you should consider Dynamics AX or formerly known as Axapta. Well you may say, AX is for large companies and it seems to have similar user interface but it is different application in its code and database structure. Let’s probably instead consider the option to translate several Great Plains forms into Brazilian Portuguese and change default database collation to support Portuguese alphabet. This is not a big deal and the job could be accomplished via Modifier where you simply locate the strings and translate them one by one. Similar results could be achieved in Dexterity by translating string resources but we would rather recommend Modifier. This is great! But how about VAT tax rates or required invoice enumeration just to open the list of requirements in Brazil? Large countries and regional powers usually exercise their sovereign right to impose and enforce complex regulations in tax code and business practice
2. Should we implement Axapta instead? You have to think about budget first. It is common trend in modern business when midsize company in the US has to outsource manufacturing or organize distribution channel in South East Asia, Eastern Europe or South America. The company itself might be small and deploy midmarket ERP application in the headquarters or something like Great Plains, Peach Tree Enterprise or another popular package. If this is your case then Axapta would be too expensive from licenses standpoint and complex to implement. However definitely you should see its demo and talk to Microsoft Business Solutions here in Sao Paulo as well as in the United States
3. SAP BO. Let’s now think about this one. It is localized in Brazil and most of the countries probably except Arabic speaking world. It supports Unicode and by doing so languages based on hieroglyphs. In the United States Business One is recommended for small businesses. However in Brazil it is marketed as the solution for small and midsize companies. But how do we integrate SB1 with our accounting in the US? There are two popular solutions. First one is on the level of consolidated financial reporting. Just export GL trial balance to Excel and use it in consolidated Balance Sheet or P&L in FRx, Microsoft Management Reporter or the package available for your ERP solution. Second method is GL transaction migration from Business One to your domestic General Ledger. Each software has its own tool and in the case of Dynamics GP it is Integration Manager
4. Where should we host the server? This is perfect question if you asking it from your side. You are multinational company and your primary goal is control over your foreign subsidiaries. Control could be achieved via centralized reporting and templates used in each country. This is how we would do it. We would purchase software in the US and host it on SQL Server in our headquarters. Then enable it for international users via Citrix, Microsoft Terminal Server or alternative remote access technologies
5. What if we are moving into the country other than Brazil? We used hypothetical scenario where you are opening branch in Campinas in the state of Sao Paulo. However similar scenarios could happen if you are opening office in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Siberia or you name it
6. Let’s now focus on Brazil. We have the following situation. We just acquired production plant and it has Microsiga ERP which is popular Brazilian made software. We would like to integrate it with NetWeaver which is implemented in our Headquarters in Canada. Is Business One a good fit? We think that it is as there is integration available from SAP directly
7. Now we are in China People Republic. Multinationals are moving here trying to take advantage of Chinese manufacturing cost. Does SAP B1 have manufacturing functionality? The answer is Yes it has discrete manufacturing with simplified business logic. But how we do control our Chinese accountants and office workers as we do not understand or speak decent Cantonese? What you do is switch user interface to American or British English and go ahead with internal audit
8. Now let’s move to Russian Federation or former USSR territories such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine or Belarus. In earlier 1990th multinational companies were opening offices in Moscow, Kazan, St Petersburg or Volgograd with the goal just to monitor the situation and later to coordinate food and merchandise distribution. Modern situation is different and companies are acquiring mineral resources mining facilities in Siberia, Sakha/Yakutia, Kamchatka and Far East. Business One is localized in RF. Local competition is lead by 1S Bukhgalteria
9. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. These are promising stars in oil and gas drilling especially with opening the pipeline through Azerbaijan and Republic of Georgia. We would like to generalize the answers from Eugene Chicvarkin about Kazakhstan business climate. He indicated in his video interview that if you are in the business not related to oil and gas then Kazakh government treats you as a welcomed guest and doesn’t bother you with unnecessary inspections
10. Moving to Persian Gulf into Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Emirates or Northern Africa. In these countries you likely have to respect Arabic language. BO was initially launched by Israeli software guru and that probably explains the question why SAP Business 1 is not available in Arabic. We would like however to make a comment or recommendation. Dynamics GP is traditionally popular since 1990th in Arabic World and there are several localized blends. We would recommend the one where translation to Arabic is done in Modifier available from ISV in Jordan
11. 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
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