Adopting SAP Business One? Follow These Steps for Success.

Moving from a legacy system to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application like SAP Business One provides small to midsized enterprises (SMEs) with the ability to better manage all business processes. Additionally, supporting your business with an ERP application can contribute to an overall business strategy; providing a competitive advantage in a given market. However because ERP applications touch all aspects of your business, it is important to take several steps to plan ahead. After all, SAP Business One acts as a foundation for future business growth, so it is important to think about how it will be used to ensure that your business maximizes the benefits of the application.

1) Outline Project Definition

Project planning is a critical step in adopting an ERP solution since it provides businesses with the ability to outline what areas of their legacy system will be impacted by the implementation of EPR solution; a poorly planned project definition will likely only touch a limited number of functional areas of the business. As discussed in a previous article, establishing business objectives for the implementation up-front can circumvent many challenges that may arise later in the project which is why business objectives must be established early in the ERP adoption process.

2) Choose the right ERP Solution

Some companies make the mistake of not adequately researching their alternatives for an ERP application. ERP touches every part of a business so it is important that the chosen solution has the scalability to grow with your business and scale of operations. Unlike other applications on the market, SAP Business One has been designed specifically with scalability  in mind. As a business grows, the application has the ability to support more customers, provide more processes and maintain the same level of system performance without slowing down.

3) Prepare for the Implementation Process

Vision33 provides each client with a dedicated project team and project manager for the duration of the implementation phase of SAP Business One. However it is recommended that the client also plan for and appoint internal resources to a corresponding project team for the duration of the project. Through collaboration, SMEs can benefit from a train the trainer approach so the team can learn how to effectively use the application and delineate to the rest of the employees in the company.

Of course, there are many more steps that businesses should take before adopting an ERP solution, including assessing your business’ ERP readiness however the point remains the same - early planning before the adopting an ERP application will increase the success rate and the reach of the ERP benefits across your company.