Author Archives: Natalie

SAP Business One Support – what should I expect from my SAP Business One Support Partner?

Comprehensive SAP Business One support is critical for any successful implementation of SAP Business One or any other ERP / business management solution. The question that I am often asked is “I am going to implement SAP Business One – how do I choose the right SAP partner for my business?”. The good news is that in Australia there are a number of SAP-certified partners. This provides SAP Business One customers with the choice – you can choose the SAP Business One support partner that best suits your business. Here are some things to consider:

Geographical location – with great remote support platforms this is becoming less of an issue but it still makes sense to choose a partner who has a support office in your capital city.

Required investment – what is the ongoing cost associated with SAP Business One support? SAP Business One partners offer different support plans. Ask what is included in your annual maintenance and support plan and what additional costs you should expect each year so that you can get an expectation of the total annual cost of ownership. Updates/upgrades – how often will upgrades and updates be performed on your SAP Business One solution and what costs are expected – training, conversion, testing and final migration?

Support desk – does your SAP Business One support partner offer comprehensive helpdesk support? Not just a call logging service – what you want is real-time access to SAP Business One and technical experts when you have a support query. Is the cost of the support desk calls and support desk logging into your system to review support queries included in your annual maintenance and support plan? Do you have a service level agreement in place?

Training – as your business grows you will employ additional people. These new team members will require SAP Business One support and training. What are the costs of on-going training and what are the training options provided – on-line, computer-based, classroom etc.? Value add – what value add does my SAP Business One partner bring to my SAP Business One implementation? Some examples of great value add include user group meetings, free on-line training, monthly newsletters, support bulletins and account management services.

Resource – when you require on-site resource can your SAP Business One support partner offer you the right person with the correct skillset? SAP Business One offers more functionality year on year as new versions of SAP are offered to new and existing customers. You will want to make sure that your SAP Business One support partner has the right skill level, availability and is up to date on the latest versions and offerings from SAP.

Industry expertise – of great assistance during the implementation and post-implementation support is having an implementation and support team with previous experience in your industry. This can reduce the time taken to implement SAP Business One and can streamline support.

There is a lot to consider when choosing a partner for your SAP Business One implementation and support. The good news is that SAP Business One is widely supported across Australia (and the world).

SAP Business One Services module – a complete solution for equipment and services management

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The SAP Business One services module is great for companies wanting to track warranty and contract based repairs for equipment and services. The team at Leverage Technologies support customers who service medical, electronic, IT and other related equipment using the SAP Business One services module.

So let’s describe some of the available functions and features:

Equipment cards– can be created automatically in SAP Business One when the item is sold. The equipment card holds relevant serial number, location, customer and related information associated with the equipment under contract or warranty.

Service contracts– keep information associated with which customers have specific service contracts, what equipment is covered by contract, what coverage is associated with the contract and repairs.

Service calls– create service calls based on warranty and non-warranty calls (included in contract or out of contract). Allocate the service call to a technician or a queue (next available technician). Create attachments with relevant information. Service calls can be created by entering the customer name and choosing the item or entering the item serial number which will then default the customer and item details (assuming serial number tracking has been used). Service calls can be added to a technician’s calendar in SAP Business One.

Solutions knowledge database– create a database of symptoms and solutions in SAP Business One. This will help your technicians by recommending potential solutions.

Service Reports – multiple standard reports are available in the SAP Business One Services Module. o Service calls o Service calls by queue o Response times o Average closure times o Service call monitor and a lot more….

As with other standard SAP Business One reports the user can select from multiple criteria – report by date range, by technician, by customer etc. Let’s not forget that the SAP Business One mobility (iPad and iPhone app) includes access to the services module with the ability to create and complete service calls from your iPhone or iPad – true mobility for your technicians.

The team at Leverage Technologies has created a demonstration of the SAP Business One Service Module on the Leverage YouTube channel.

SAP Business One Opportunity Management – Sales Management Made Easy

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SAP Business One Sales opportunities forms part of the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution. Sales Opportunity Management is best used for managing strategic sales cycles for high value items and services. SAP Business One Opportunity Management allows the sales team to set up, track, manage and report on sales opportunities – for existing customer sales cycles or leads (not yet a customer).

Keep relevant data like – how many days, weeks or months until this opportunity closes, what is the value and gross profit of the opportunity, who are we competing against and did we win or lose the opportunity. The stages tab is used to keep user defined information on the various stages of the sales cycle and percentage completion (first meeting, demonstration, proposal, contract negotiation etc.). This will define the percentage chance of closing the opportunity – an opportunity at “contract negotiation” stage has a higher weighting than an opportunity at “first meeting” stage.

Sales managers will love the Sales Opportunity reports in SAP Business One.

Imagine sitting in a sales meeting with access to reports on sales opportunities sorted by salesperson, stage of the sales cycle, likelihood of closing the opportunity or what opportunities are likely to close this month. There are multiple selection criteria available for reporting – by salesperson, partner, date range, industry, competitors and stage.

As with the set-up and configuration of any CRM applications it is best to start with a basic configuration of Sales Opportunities and then build on that configuration as the sales team starts to notice the benefits of using this functionality.

The team at Leverage Technologies has posted a demonstration video of Sales Opportunity Management on our YouTube Channel.

SAP Business One for the Professional Services Industry

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If you work in the professional services industry you probably keep asking yourself – why can’t I find a business management solution that fits my business requirements? Why do I have three systems which are not integrated?

The team at Leverage might have the answer that you are looking for – SAP Business One and Maringo Project Management – offering a total solution for professional services companies looking to automate timesheets, project accounting, work in progress and project based reporting. There are a number of professional services companies in Australia who are looking for similar functionality from their business management / ERP solution. Having worked in a professional services organisation for most of my career I can personally vouch for some of the challengers associated with implementing software into this business sector. Commonly requested functionality includes:

Timesheet capture – fast, remote capture of timesheets with approval process
Job management – the ability to manage the job from an operational and financial perspective
Scheduling – making the most of your resources
Document management – ensuring that all project notes are accessible
Project reporting – forecast cost to complete, budget Vs actual, profit and loss by project and more
Workflow and approvals – the more complex the project the more workflow and approvals becomes a necessity
Different bill types on projects – time and materials billing, fixed price, milestone based billing…the list goes on.

The good news is that SAP Business One and Maringo Project Management has this level of functionality and a whole lot more. We all know the challenges – has this project been billed, how much is sitting in WIP, what’s our forecast cost to complete and will we make our required margin from this job? Maringo Project Management and SAP Business One can answer these questions.

SAP Business One Reporting – pivot tables with drill down to source transaction

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SAP Business One offers multiple reporting options. Our previous blog which SAP Business One Reporting options are right for my business spoke about SAP Business One Crystal Reports, SAP Business One Query Manager and Excel Pivot Tables for SAP reporting.

A cost effective way of displaying data from SAP Business One is to present information in the form of an Excel pivot table or data table.

This method has been used many times over, both by Leverage consultants and internal customer teams. The downside though of providing the data in Excel is that the information is now divorced from the SAP Business One client – there has been no easy way of getting back to the source data.

Leverage have recently developed an add-in for Excel which will allow a user to automatically open the source journal transaction of a row of data from where you can then access any other related document. With the add-in loaded, you can right click on a document number from a data table and select “Show in SAP”. The add-in will take you directly to the Business One company that you’re currently logged into and will display the appropriate journal for you in the SAP Business One client, bringing the SAP client window to the front. Access to source data displayed in a pivot table can be accessed from a shortcut key as opposed to a right-click and again will take you directly to the relevant journal in SAP Business One.

A small development from the team at Leverage Technologies that demonstrates once again the flexibility provided by a multitude of reporting options for SAP Business One.

SAP Business One 8.82 Stock Turnover Analysis Report

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SAP has delivered a new stock turnover analysis report in SAP Business One 8.82. You can access this SAP Crystal Report from the Inventory, Inventory Reports section of SAP Business One.

Choose your date range, items and warehouses and run the report to get your SAP Business One Stock Turnover Analysis.

The report provides access to Item Group, Item, Units of Measure, Opening and closing stock, Goods issued during the reporting period, turnover rate, min stock levels, lead times, next re-order point and last receipt date.

Another great standard SAP Business One report delivered by the team at SAP.

SAP Business One Bank Reconciliation Report

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SAP Business One 8.81 and 8.82 includes a new Bank Reconciliation Report. This report, written by SAP is based on SAP Crystal Reports. The report can be found on the banking menu under banking reports, external reconciliation.

Once you select your account code and bank reconciliation number SAP Business One will produce a Bank Reconciliation Report with drill down to source transaction.