SAP Business One Customization Market - Review

SAP Business One has about 4 years of implementation history and very robust presence in the USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, plus it has strong positions internationally. Considering the fact of relatively young age – the design of the system, including object model enable advanced customization, integration with both legacy and new technologies. We see certain stake on Microsoft technologies, such as MS SQL Server and COM object model. Integrated CRM module allows you to deploy Microsoft Outlook client for messaging, just to name a few. In addition to the customizability – SAP Business One has transaction integration to high end SAP, which allows this product to consolidate mid-size and small subsidiaries across the USA or internationally to your SAP corporate ERP system – franchisees network, dealerships, manufacturing facilities, etc. In this small article we will give customization scenarios to IT managers, who are planning to deploy SAP Business One integration, customization, reporting, etc.

• SAP Business One SDK. SAP Business One Software Development Kit has User Interface API, Data Interface API, Java Connector. The recommended way of customization design is XML web services, which allows you integrate custom web portals with SAP Business One objects: Sales Orders, Inventory Items, Customers. Ecommerce or Web-based Extranet (collaboration with your permanent vendors and customers) would be a good example.

• Implementation Partners. SAP Business One has several licensing & certifications criteria. One path allows the SAP partner to provide installations and so-called functional consulting. This means that these companies are experts of tying your business processes to SAP Business One standard set of modules and standard features/functionality. In our opinion – SAP BO is not only for relatively small to midsize businesses, but also for mid-size to large and even corporate business (subsidiaries and branches). Large companies have combination of multiple systems, including legacy – often they combine several platforms: Windows, Unix/Linux, Lotus Notes Domino, Siebel CRM, Salelogix, IBM DB2 to name a few. In this situation you need partnership with technically-savvy and experienced partner

• Customization Partners. SAP Business One SDK is not an open technology and in order to get access to it SAP Partner should get SDK development training and pass certification exam. At the same time, SAP SDK uses open tools, such as Microsoft Visual Studio, for example for coding itself. This leads to the common practice when Customization partners do not provide implementation and functional consulting services, but rather concentrate on development – offshore business location is also common. Some risk, however might be attributed to the fact that one organization does business processes specification and another one realizes them in custom coding.

• Technology Partners. The best result in the custom solution in our opinion could be achieved with SAP Business One Partner, who does both sides: Implementation/Functional and Customization/Development. Considering less then 10,000 SAP Business One implementations worldwide – it might be difficult to find local technology partner in your area, in this case – the compromise is to use remote partner with the network of local independent contractors.

Happy implementing, customizing and modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – SAP Business One, Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Comparisons of SAP and Peoplesoft ERP Software

Can one software maker do it all well? There are many software development companies in the industry that are still striving to release a single, complete, successful product of outstanding quality and usability. With their modular approach to decision support software, ERP vendors are on the right track; because attempting to cover all of the separate functions of the modules would be unthinkably large and complex--not to mention costly--for one vendor.

However, Compare SAP and Peoplesoft ERP software, if each individual module has a unique function, then each module can be a different product developed by a different vendor dedicated principally to the success of a single product.

Of course, if an ERP vendor can manage to avoid the "not-invented-here" syndrome, it could integrate some of the best existing tools from the various niche software makers. For example, rather than writing a finite capacity scheduler from scratch, an ERP vendor could purchase the rights to license a scheduling tool from an existing best-in-class tool provider, and integrate it with its other offerings. Indeed, the drive to integrate best-in-class software tools from different functions may be the dominant wave of the future for the ERP industry.

Another important strategic issue facing Compare SAP and Peoplesoft ERP software ERP is whether the enterprise decision support market is essentially homogeneous or heterogeneous. While every company's specific problems are different, many problems are variations of themes. Are the similarities strong enough to support a "mass market" approach to software? Or are the differences going to keep the manufacturing software market a wide-open arena of niche specialists, systems integrators, and solutions consultants?

The point may be moot, as this issue will likely be decided by cost. Integrated packages from single vendors are going to require a major up-front investment, but buying different modules from multiple vendors will probably require a lot of effort to get them to work together, and maintenance costs will be higher in the long term if we compare SAP and Peoplesoft ERP software. If the issue comes down to pay me now or pay me later, is it possible that these technology decisions could be decided by each company's financial situation, rather than by what the best solution is? We hope not.

For some industrial managers, ERP is the nightmare that keeps them awake at nights thinking "Is the MIS department going to take over my manufacturing floor?" Much of the force pushing software makers to develop better, more useful software has been coming from practitioners: IEs and OR types who know exactly what they need from a software package. Often these experts end up actually writing the best software, as well. However, several of the ERP vendors, notably giants SAPAG and Peoplesoft come from the information systems world, and traditionally focus on the MIS piece of organizations.

For engineers who have spent months locating and purchasing software that they know and like, being forced to adopt "corporate's package" may seem like one giant step backwards. Yet, the potential strategic advantages of enterprise integration are undeniable. One thing is certain: if you want to have control over the tools you are going to be using, you're going to have to utilize your engineering training and expertise to exert positive influence on the selection process. If you sit passively on the sidelines, don't be surprised if no one hears you.

Clearly, there are more questions than answers regarding the young ERP movement. That said, we are left with one final question: will all of this change result in ever increasing consulting bills? The answer: almost certainly.

Reggie loves the ERP movement. Check out: http://www.erpsap.com ERP SAP.

SAP Business One in Ecommerce: Integration highlights

SAP BO is moving to ecommerce with the acquisition of NetPoint ecommerce and web CRM modules, however if you already have functioning ecommerce website the idea of redeployment might be not very attractive. Let’s take a look at simple ecommerce functionality

• Ecommerce Business Logic. When new customer decides to place the order, ecommerce should create new customer record with delivery address, then create web order, plus typically charge customer credit card. All this logic is standard functionality of out of shelf or custom made ecommerce application.

• Excel CSV Templates and Integration Workbench. First what could come to your mind is deploying user-friendly SAP Integration bench by putting customer and sales order information into Excel or csv templates. This might work, however it might be exposed to human errors and probably you should consider, that these csv templates were intended to help you with initial data integration and conversion from legacy ERP to SAP BO.

• Light SAP B1 SDK programming. This customization option is not as difficult as you could think of. You need Visual Studio .Net developer, familiar with C# or VB.Net programming. In SAP BO we recommend you do not import ecommerce orders as invoices, but instead place them as Sales Orders. The reason – SAP BO Invoices are not stored in the batch but immediately posted when you add them – in our opinion you should review customer orders prior to post them all the way through to General Ledger

• SAP Business One as ERP Backend. Besides its integration capabilities, SAP BO has light manufacturing, bill of materials, assembly, robust inventory control module, plus it has integrated CRM, which could help you in generating customer leads via telemarketing campaigns, etc. SAP B1 has integration module, which allows you to consolidate SAP BO company to high-end SAP application, such as mySAP or SAP All-in-One – this option should be considered by large companies, opening subsidiaries overseas

If you need help, please give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, in Brazil: +55-11-3444-4949. Or email: help@albaspectrum.com skype skype: albaspectrum

Author is SAP Business One consultant and developer at Alba Spectrum Group ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.enterlogix.com.br ), serving SAP BO in Brazil and international environment. In USA we serve Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains and recommend SAP BO as entry level solution for American companies in Brazil.

Integrating XML into SAP Business Connector

Corporations are always in search of the most effective mechanism for both acquiring and selling goods as well as services at very minimum total cost over the Internet. The Business Process Connectors for SAP systems supports for the dynamic integration between the application processes and server systems thus it facilitates in faster and efficient functioning of SAP R/3, SAP Portals and MySAP solutions. In the current model, SAP Business Connector Framework uses XML schemas for generating a JSP that can be assessed from any of the web browsers dynamically, so that one can test and deploy integration tools between the application server environment and SAP systems immediately. For the purpose of adding flexibility, convergence of XML schema approach to the SA Business Connector facilitates to all the SAP standards. Thereby the customers can leverage the power and flexibility of XML into their business documents with an improved efficiency and improved cost-effectiveness as well.

Integrating Business Connectors with XML

SAP BC combines both the RFC server and the client. Additionally it supplies an XML layer over R/3 functionality and also comes with XML automation since it has the ability in converting SAP’s RFC format into XML. There is no requirement of SAP R/3 automation at the receiving end since it supports both synchronous RFC and asynchronous RFC protocols.

Benefits of XML Integration:

End-to-End Web Business Processes

Internet bridges the gap between different businesses, systems and users and facilitates them to do business via web. SAP BC makes communication easier by its XML conversions. By means of integration with XML, it enables the exchange of structured business documents over the Internet by providing common standard for various applications together with IT systems for communing with each other and for exchanging business data. Open Business Document Exchange over the Internet

SAP Business Connector uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) for exchanging XML-based documents over the Internet. Without the need of developing tool, it guarantees the security in replacing of documents in accordance with the help of its SSL (Security Socket Layer) technology. Additionally, SAP BC offers openness and flexibility for complying with emerging semantics of business that keep on changing frequently.

XML Solutions for SAP services

SAP BC makes all solutions to be accessible by means of XML based business documents and with the support of XML-based interface Repository (IFR) and empowers SAP customers to benefit from SAP functionality over the Internet, it helps all major existing interfaces that are being offered by SAP. This particular IFR gives the choice of downloading XML schemas and tenders a uniform XML interface representation despite different implementation technologies such as RFC, IDOC and BAPI. XML messages are easily translated into equivalent SAP internal call whenever you need and it gets converted back into XML format when received from SAP system thereby enhancing the existing programming model for distributed applications formed by ALE along with SAP BC.

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SAP Business One Ecommerce Integration Highlights

In this small article we would like to give you SAP Business One SDK integration options, if you already own and operate e-commerce business. Legacy ecommerce website might be substantial historical investment and the idea to slash it and re-implement SAP Business One ecommerce module might be theoretically logical, but very expensive step, which will undermine your legacy ecommerce investment,, at least large portion of it. You can stay in SAP B1 realm and deploy different tool – SAP Business One SDK – you will need SAP BO technical consultant or programmer to code your plan

• Connector approach. Yes, this good old-days approach is still feasible. Try to design the connector – you ecommerce should send data into staging table, from where connector should pick data and mark it as processed/integrated or delete.

• Integration Simplicity. Try to make it really primitive and very simple – in this case SAP BO SDK programming should be very light, quick and simple and will not require tons of SAP B1 SDK programming experience

• Sales Orders. SAP B1 architecture suggests you use Sales Order, rather than invoice as integration object. We discourage you to integrate on invoice level, because invoice should be “added” or in accounting terms “posted”. In ERP you probably would like your operator to review customer orders, prior to be posted

• Programming Language. C# and VB.Net – this is very good news for you – these programmers are available on the job market, plus a lot of consulting companies practice these services. Tool of choice is Microsoft Visual Studio (.Net)

• SAP B1 Ecommerce module. We recommend you to review this module seriously and if you can afford to re-deploy your ecommerce website – this might be another good option, which should work in long term, assuming that you have enough time and resource for redesign

If you need help with ecommerce integration programming, please give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com , skype: albaspectrum

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, serving SAP Business One from our offices in Chicago and Houston, in Brazil from our office in Sao Paulo, and centralized call center and software development factory in Manila, Philippines: http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.enterlogix.com.br

Customization Of SAP ERP

Sap faces enormous changes in turnover of this period. More innovations have been done in the process of SAP. Tremendous growth has been faced due to the improvement of technologies. In many business sector, SAP becomes the most important, essential and day-to-day applications. To retain their strategy position in marketing, SAP applications have been used for their processing. Most of the companies tend to install SAP in their organization for company development. For product appraisal and business out processing, SAP has been used by most of the business sectors. SAP is a software tool used to build the business process strongly.

Customization of SAP has been started by most of the business people. Nowadays, most of the SAP ERP has been customized by all businesses. The cost of customizing SAP ERP is quite costlier and it is a manual implementation applications. The designing of SAP ERP enables to carry the customization in a most effective and preserved manner. It also helps to generate the designing from one version to another. Customization of ERP becomes mandatory in every part of the technology and because of this technology development most of the people tend to customize their software. Customization of ERP estimates the implementation of software in programming and consulting services of the organization.

SAP ERP has been designed to customize the ERP in optimal level. Customizing the SAP ERP makes the software a unique set and allows flexible customization. This flexible customization of SAP allows the business people to make new up gradation and enhancement. Generally, customization will be made in the form of tables to have easy reference and review in future. The entire process of customization can be easily carried out and it contains the necessary development tools. This process also allows additional flexibility of customization.

This technology allows customizing the modification to the customer and stores all customized components in the retrieved form. When the required functionality is not found, using customization this functionality can be got backed. When entire customization is done on the site, it is easy way to achieve fast and competent out processing. Therefore while installing or exercising ERP, the technician should be very careful. Customization should be made correctly and adequately, too much of anything will fit for nothing. So, the technician should be careful while customizing the ERP. Customization should be made moderately.

Most of the companies spend more money in customizing SAP ERP for their enterprise. To bring the project in a great success, this customization is done by this business sectors. Companies making customization finds difficult to up gradate and they finds difficult to support. Up gradation and changes is the important and essential one to improve the development of business sector. When customization is done moderately, the customization or up gradation can be done, but too much of customization makes difficult for the technician to up grade. The customized functionality can be easily up graded when a new version is released and installed. Customization is a straight forward and acute way to make the management tool efficient.

Ron Victor is a SEO copywriter for http://www.simplysap.com
He written many articles in various topics.For more information visit http://www.simplysap.com
Contact him at ron.seocopywriter@gmail.com