Minimizing SAP Business One Implementation Costs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tustin, California, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) June 18, 2011 -- SAP has a reputation of being a very costly business solution to implement. Anyone who has done their homework has heard the stories of large companies spending millions of dollars to implement SAP.

Those rumors pertain to the big SAP product often called R3, MySAP or ALL in One. SAP Business One is a small and midsize solution in a class all its own. SAP Business One is a different technology, different mindset, and actually very inexpensive to implement.

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Minimizing SAP Business One Implementation Costs

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For the example of this article, there are two sides to the implementation i.e. Partners (your SAP Business One Partner) and the Client (you).

There are many things you can do to protect yourself from additional costs, and even reduce the costs of an implementation.

Keep in mind, any time spent by the Partner will most often be billable, whether onsite or remote, time is time and time cost money.

Step 1 Project Planning

Partner

Your SAP Business One Partner will prepare by conducting a Sales to Service turnover meeting. This is an internal meeting whereas knowledge is transferred from the Partners sales team to the Consulting team, and often the last non-billable event of the implementation.

The Partner will place the order with SAP, and begin scheduling resources to kick off the project. This will include preparing a PowerPoint, Project Plan, and arranging for the software installation.

Customer

As an SAP Business One customer, you are entitled to an S number. The S number is your key to the SAP Business One Customer Portal. The Customer Portal contains everything from e-learning maps to How-To documents, administration guides and more.

Tip

When you place an order for SAP Business One, request your S numbers from your partner. If you purchased 10 users, request 10 S numbers. Stay on top of this, and begin your learning process. Other online SAP Business One e-learning resources offer material not found in the SAP Business One Customer Portal like ESAP Online University, which is also a good resource for learning your new SAP Business One Solution. The more you can learn on your own, the less training you will require during the implementation. Training cost you money, and time. Using the online learning resources after hours, at lunch, before work or over the course of several weekends can save you a lot of time and money.

Step 2 Business Blueprint

Partner

During this phase of the project, your SAP Partner will document and flow chart your business. This enables them to map your business flow to SAP Business One, and collaboratively determine gaps and solutions to fill those gaps.

Your partner will also play a role in data migration, maybe requesting your data extracts from the legacy system. Often times, master data training for key users begins at this point.

The Chart of Accounts will be the first thing imported, followed by other tables. The partner will most likely do the data imports for you.

Customer

The Customer now has to be prepared to explain the business processes and reasons for doing things the way they are doing them. There is a saying in the software industry, “Putting square wheels on a new car”. Many times the customer realizes were doing it this way because we have always done it this way!

The customer must dedicate an internal resource or small team to the project. Not that the implementation will take 100% of their time, but there needs to be an internal project team committed to the effort.

Tip

Document and flowchart your business, making this available to the Partner. Extract and cleanse your legacy data into Excel Spreadsheets. Ask your Partner for the DTW (Data Transfer Workbench) templates, and populate them yourself. These are used to import data into SAP Business One. Minimize your data import to Items, Customers, Leads, Suppliers, Chart of Accounts and that’s it. Leave your legacy system available on the network for historical inquiry or reporting. Trying to import historical transactions can extend the implementation time by months, and the cost by thousands. At go live, you can enter opening balances etc. Unnecessary Data Migration can double implementation costs!

Step 3 Project Realization

Partner

Many of the SAP Business One partners will want to do all the setups, configuration and fine tuning of the solution, based on your needs. This is great if you can afford it. Partners will also schedule and conduct a testing or pilot test. This will include the testing of any data imported to ensure it’s accuracy, testing of the configuration, tailoring of the forms (A/R Invoice, Sales Order etc.) etc.

Customer

As the customer, you will be setting up a “War room”, or room with several PC’s all connected to SAP Business One. You will be inviting in key users to test the solution. Your goal is to break the solution. Find any holes and help to eliminate risks. Identify missing reports, fields, alerts and form changes needed. Your SAP Partner will be working with you hand in hand to manage and eliminate any issues.

Tip

Request from your partner, or download from ESAP Online University, the “How to Implement SAP Business One 8.X” document, and do the initial setups yourself. Involve your partner when needed, getting clarification and needed direction. This process not only helps you learn more of the capabilities, but will eliminate hours and hours of billable implementation time.

Ensure that ALL users have completed their e-learning from the SAP Business One Customer portal prior to testing the configured solution. This will make for a shorter, more concise pilot test.

Learn Crystal Reports and the Print Layout Designer and take a stab at doing your own form changes.

Step 4 Final Preparation

Partner

You partner will prepare a Go-Live strategy, and provide end user training. Typically, end users are not trained until the last step. This way they won’t forget what they have learned.

The partner will also orchestrate the final data import. Latest, most current information will be imported into a new database often times called “Live” or “Production”. Tested setups and configurations from the test database will also be copied over into the live database.

Customer

You will be providing your SAP Partner with the most recent data extracts from your legacy system. You will be ensuring all users are scheduled for training, and have had some hands on testing. From a business perspective, you will be arranging for some overtime, a clear cutoff from legacy solution to SAP Business One, IT resources required for any network changes, internal support, etc. Often times, the customer will schedule and perform a Physical Inventory as part of the go-live process. Therefore, this needs to be scheduled in alignment with the go-live. Coordination is the main there here for the customer!

Tip

If you paid attention to the first data imports back in the Business Blueprint step, you can do the final data imports into the live database yourself.

Using the “Train the Trainer” approach for end users can have a dramatic reduction of implementation costs. Have one or several key users leverage e-learning and the Partner consultant for training, will enable you to train your own team (end users) internally. Additionally, the nature of this process will create power users thus making you more self sufficient and less dependent on your SAP Partner.

Summary of Tips for Implementation Cost Reduction


-- Request and use your S numbers for e-learning and documents from the SAP Business One Customer Portal.
-- Form an internal implementation team dedicated to the project.
-- Leverage additional online resources like ESAP Online University for SAP Business One knowledge and know how.
-- Minimize your data migration plan, export your own data, cleanse your own data, and import your own data via the DTW (Data Transfer Workbench).

-- Learn Crystal Reports and the PLD (Print Layout Designer) to tailor your own forms.
-- Leverage the “Train the Trainer” approach for end user education.
-- Be open to business processes re-engineering helping to streamline your business processes avoiding costly add-ons or customization.
-- Don’t try to do it all at once. Take a phased approach. Phase I, core SAP Business One solution.
-- Have fun, reward your employees for going the extra mile and participating in the implementation

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