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reviewer1540719 - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Head, Emergys India at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
High availability, helpful support, and increased operation transparency
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is the price and reputation of the vendor. The solution is widely accepted around the world."
  • "The analytics data capabilities could improve which will provide businesses with much more insight into how their companies are performing."

What is our primary use case?

SAP Business One is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that enables businesses to oversee various domains, including financial management, inventory control, equipment tracking, supply chain management, and sales operations.

The solution can be deployed on-premise and on the cloud. There is no limitation on what cloud provider can be used.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is the price and reputation of the vendor. The solution is widely accepted around the world.

What needs improvement?

The analytics data capabilities could improve which will provide businesses with much more insight into how their companies are performing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP Business One for approximately 14 years.

Buyer's Guide
SAP Business One
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about SAP Business One. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SAP Business One is a reliable solution.

I rate the stability of SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution can be used for multinational and small-sized companies.

We have customers with 10 to 300 people using the solution.

The solution can scale well.

I rate the scalability of SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The support from SAP Business One is helpful.

I rate the support of SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used a similar solution to SAP Business One.

How was the initial setup?

The installation process requires time to complete and it is complex. It is an enterprise-grade solution. The solution could take approximately two to three months to implement.

What about the implementation team?

There is an expert needed to implement the solution. We do the implementation of the solution for our customers.

What was our ROI?

Based on our past collaborations with other clients, we've found that they benefit from increased transparency in their supply chain, order management, payment collections, and financial operations. This is precisely why the solutions are highly favored across diverse use cases.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the solution is reasonable. 

The licensing cost of the solution depends on the geography, but SAP provides discounts. There are implementation cost 

What other advice do I have?

Two consultants are sufficient for the maintenance of this solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Vice President at Ayurvet Limited
Real User
Top 20
Good ERP software for overall company management
Pros and Cons
  • "SAP Business One consolidates various functions, including production, sales, inventory, and purchase management."
  • "There are issues with inventory management and quality management."

How has it helped my organization?

Our organization has been using SAP Business One as an ERP software for overall company management, which includes production, sales, inventory management, and purchase management.

What needs improvement?

We have continued to use SAP Business ONE due to its add-ons and customization options, but there are still some areas that could use improvement. Otherwise, there are issues with inventory management and quality management, as well as the software not providing detailed information for production.

We managed to continue using SAP Business One with the help of add-ons.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP Business One for the past eleven years. The current version we are using is 9.2.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. I would rate it a seven out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I would give technical support a six out of ten. There is room for improvement, particularly in areas such as quality management, production operations, and store inventory management. We faced some constraints but managed to overcome them by using add-ons.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

We deployed the solution on the premises, on our own servers. The whole process took almost a year.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate the cost of licensing SAP Business One a six out of ten, with one being low-priced and ten being very expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP Business One
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about SAP Business One. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1765542 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO/GM at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Great financials and general ledgers with flexible licensing options
Pros and Cons
  • "We like it as it's easy to use, cost-effective, easy to deploy, and easy to get support for."
  • "They have a web client now. It primarily does sales. They just added purchasing. It'll be far more effective when I have inventory and financials as well into the web client version."

What is our primary use case?

It's an enterprise resource printing system. I use it for all accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger management, inventory management, services, HR, et cetera.

How has it helped my organization?

We moved from QuickBooks to the SAP product due to the fact that it's more feature-rich, has more integrated capabilities, and SAP is just a giant company that puts billions of dollars into its R&D. You get enhancements coming out every year.

What is most valuable?

We heavily use the accounting, sales and AR, purchasing, and AP modules more than any of the other modules. We like it as it's easy to use, cost-effective, easy to deploy, and easy to get support for.

For us, the financials and general ledger are the most valuable features. It supports fixed assets, cost accounting, and other more complex capabilities out of the box, and I don't have to buy third-party solutions. It's made it easy as we get more complex in our business.

What needs improvement?

They have a web client now. It primarily does sales. They just added purchasing. It'll be far more effective when I have inventory and financials as well into the web client version. That way, I can deploy it to users through the web instead of a remote desktop connection. That's probably the biggest competitive weakness that I run into at the moment.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for a decade, give or take a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

On-premises, the solution is very stable. We use the Microsoft SQL Server database version. They have another version. It runs on the HANA database, which is an SAP proprietary database. We used SQL Server just as we had in-house expertise and we already had a license for it, so it is easy for us to maintain. 

The system tends to run pretty well. It's not a whole lot of support, so I don't have to have a dedicated IT team managing it. I just have one person really part-time that makes sure it continues to run. That's about it from a stability standpoint.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I've seen reference customers that can do up to two million transactions a month. I'm not at all worried about scalability. If we hit that level, I will long be retired.

From what I've seen, unless I do one hundred times my current business, I don't see any scalability issues.

We have 12 concurrent users on it. Salespeople, purchasing people, accounting. We also have operations who are doing work for customers that use the service module quite a bit. It's kind of a mixed bag of capabilities that are using the system. Every person has a login. They use a named user license approach. Everyone has their unique ID tied to their unique authorizations of what they can and can't do.

We're using just about every module. We also have a couple of extensions for things that we do outside the system that will automatically update. Any enhancements that we tend to do now are usually web apps that are using a web service connector - for example, collaborative project management through the web. I then update the project details inside the system automatically. Those are really the primary drivers that we tend to run into. I'm using probably 75% of what you get in the box.

How are customer service and support?

The first level of support is really through your value-added resale partner and then they have escalation to SAP and we have the ability to log in with SAP and check their website for support tickets and also documentation updates and training materials since we signed on and bought the solution. 

It's usually pretty good support from that standpoint. It really comes down to whatever partner you've decided to work with. If you work well with that partner, you'll get really good support. If that partner tries to sell you something and then runs away, well, you'll get not as good support. Luckily, we made sure to partner with people that have dedicated support staff available to help as needed.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did use QuickBooks.

QuickBooks is great if you're a three-person shop and don't have to scale very quickly. You will outgrow it very quickly, especially if you have inventory or if you have services or other functions that are not inside the QuickBooks application. If you want all of that integrated, you're going to have to go to something bigger. It also doesn't have as many regulatory compliance functions built-in. For example, you can do a non-balanced journal entry in QuickBooks, if you really want to, whereas you can't do that in the SAP product due to the fact that it has to be U.S. GAAP compliant out of the box so it can pass audits. 

Usually, once you start having to deal with inventory or more complex operations integrations or things like fixed assets or cost accounting, you're going to upgrade out of QuickBooks into something more robust - and that's what we did.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. We did a migration from QuickBooks, so we worked with a value-added reseller who provided expertise to do the migration. We were able to carry the data over with no major hiccups and it went very fast.

For us, deployment took three months as we really don't have a lot of products. We're primary services, and therefore the migration of master data was limited to financials, customers, vendors, things like that.

Our implementation strategy was to migrate all the QuickBooks functionality as quickly as possible so we could start doing transactions in the new system. We generally followed a provided implementation methodology that was provided by the partner, and that was pretty much it. We just followed the steps.

We don't have any 100% dedicated staff on deployment or maintenance of this. We have an internal IT team. It's really one and a half persons, however, they also maintain all of our IT including emails, websites, and other things. Therefore, no one is full-time just maintaining the ERP system. It's pretty bulletproof and if I need to bring in extra people to help when we're making any major changes, my consulting partner that I did the implementation with can provide resources for things like customizations, special reports, or anything that I don't have the capability to do in-house.

What about the implementation team?

SAP does not sell Business One directly. They always go through a valuated resale partner and those partners provide you with consultants who know how to set it up and how to train you.

What was our ROI?

It's hard to come up with the exact return on investment due to the fact that you have to have an accounting system to operate a company of our size. I'm generating five million-plus in revenue a year, so I've got to have a decent accounting system. 

It's hard to say what would I measure my return on investment against. That being said, I haven't had to hire more IT staff or more accounting staff to do this in a more manual way. I probably have saved money on my staff expansion and my overhead costs. I didn't have to buy a whole bunch of new software support so I was able to put it on my same servers, versus having to buy additional servers, which also is usually built into the cost of your software as a service monthly fee, which makes that a little higher.

I probably see some savings there. Also, it is an easy to manage and effectively bulletproof solution once it's up and running, I didn't have to have a dedicated IT staff, so I didn't have to augment my current staff on that. However, it's hard to figure out what your exact return on investment is other than the fact that I'm able to do more business with the same amount of people.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing is flexible. If you buy the license in the CapEx model, then you have an 18% to 20% maintenance fee that covers you for bug support and access to upgrade patches and releases. 

If you do the software as a service model, dollars are effectively built into the monthly fee. Therefore, you're not having to pay that on top of it. You're just paying a monthly fee and that's usually it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at all the major small to mid-size ERP packages available. We went with SAP due to the fact that they are the 800-pound gorilla in the ERP marketplace. 

They have about a 65% global market share in ERP systems, so they're not going to go away anytime. Plus, they take what they learn in their big products that cost millions of dollars and put it into the Business One allocation so that you have a lot of pre-designed capabilities out of the box that you just can't get in a smaller solution. Those were our primary decisions on why we went the way we did.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a customer and an end-user.

It's competitive with anything else in its space. We checked that out. No one likes to pay for licenses, so we all complain about the pricing, however, everything costs roughly the same. I know that in newer versions when I was asking about hosted options, they're starting to offer software as a service. That way, instead of doing a CapEx investment, you can do OPEX and just pay a monthly fee per user. We've done some evaluations on that. For us, it was cheaper to do the CapEx and buy the license and not do the software as a service due to the fact that, after two and a half years, you basically paid for your license if you'd bought it, and the other way you're still paying a monthly fee. After three years, you're actually in worse financial investment shape than you were if you've just done the CapEx upfront.

It's just a game of where you want to put the money and either way you're going to buy licenses. All solutions in this space fall within a percentage of each other. None of them are giant. You have to be competitive to get the business, so they all price it pretty close.

I'd advise new users to make sure you got a partner you can work with as it's not going to be a one-time deal. It's a relationship that you're going to want to keep intact, in place, going forward. Every year a new version and new capabilities are going to be available. You'll need additional training. Every time you hire new people, you'll need someone to help get them up to speed and make sure it's working. Therefore, it becomes a relationship, and regardless of what ERP system you go with, the partner you work with, especially in the small to mid-size space, makes all the difference in the world. A good partner makes your life easy. A bad partner makes you hate everything about the ERP system.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. I would probably take it up to a nine, however, they're not there yet. It's coming. It's in their roadmap. However, I wish I could get it earlier.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head of Information Technology at Biogenomics Limited
Real User
Useful modules, full featured, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is all the functionality of the modules together. It is a full-featured solution."
  • "The price could improve for SAP Business One."

What is our primary use case?

SAP Business One is used for many business tasks, such as purchase requisition, PO creation, vendor management, and virtual management.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is all the functionality of the modules together. It is a full-featured solution.

What needs improvement?

The price could improve for SAP Business One.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP Business One for approximately eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the scalability of SAP Business One an eight out of ten

How are customer service and support?

We use support from a third-party company. We do not use the vendor's support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used SAP S4HANA prior to SAP Business One. SAP Business One uses Microsoft Windows as the operating system while SAP S4HANA uses Linux.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of SAP Business One is not complex. The implementation can take approximately two weeks to complete.

I rate the initial setup of SAP Business One an eight out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third party for the deployment of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the price of SAP Business One a seven out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vice President at ITOSS Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Reseller
Cheap and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "Business One's best feature is that all the modules are integrated."
  • "Business One would be improved with a customization option."

What is most valuable?

Business One's best feature is that all the modules are integrated. It's also a very simple solution.

What needs improvement?

Business One would be improved with a customization option.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Business One for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Business One is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Business One is very scalable and can be used in multiple locations with a global license.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate Business One's pricing five out of five.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle NetSuite. The Microsoft solution costs more, and they have add-ons instead of customization.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Business One because it's cheap and user-friendly, and I would give it an overall rating of eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner and Reseller
PeerSpot user
Christodoulos Panagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Accountant at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Simple data entries, one click financial statements, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of SAP Business One are that it has plenty of features and an easy general ledger entry. Additionally, we have an internal team that supports the solution and they provide is good. The solution is easy for us to support."
  • "SAP Business One could improve by automatically inputting exchange rates in the software. We currently have to enter them manually to find the appropriate exchange rates from a website. If it could be done with one click it would be helpful and more straightforward."

What is our primary use case?

SAP Business One has been used in my organization to make life easier for us accountants to implement our financial statements, create our AR invoices, and our general ledgers.

How has it helped my organization?

SAP Business One has improved the way we work because we used to have to enter manually, such as filling in invoices. Using SAP Business One has made our accountant's work a lot easier. All the accountants worldwide use the SAP software because they can create financial statements with a click of a button. It's amazing.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of SAP Business One are that it has plenty of features and an easy general ledger entry. Additionally, we have an internal team that supports the solution and they provide is good. The solution is easy for us to support.

What needs improvement?

SAP Business One could improve by automatically inputting exchange rates in the software. We currently have to enter them manually to find the appropriate exchange rates from a website. If it could be done with one click it would be helpful and more straightforward.

We have one person in our IT department that does the maintenance and support of this solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP Business One for approximately eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have SAP Business One on a hybrid server which is very stable and it doesn't lag. We do not have issues with the login, it is fast.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SAP Business One is scalable.

I use the SAP Business One daily. We have over 20 accountants and our reconciliation department is using the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used another solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of SAP Business One was straightforward. The 

I rate the initial setup of SAP Business One a five out of five.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third-party consultant to do the implementation of SAP Business One.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment from SAP Business One is great.

I rate the return of investment from SAP Business One a five out of five.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of SAP Business One is not expensive for the features and the benefits it provides.

I have not found there to be any additional fees other than the standard license.

I rate the price of SAP Business One a five out of five.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate any other solutions because SAP Business One is the best.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is SAP Business One is one of the best accounting software in the market right now. Using it has made my life much easier.

I rate SAP Business One a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1089996 - PeerSpot reviewer
ERP Auditor at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides for operational efficiency, but should have a simpler reporting tool
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is user-friendly in comparison with Oracle."
  • "Something which would be helpful to management and, from our vantage point as a user, would be to see a simple reporting tool."

What is our primary use case?

We recently acquired the license, so we are using the latest version.

We use SAP Business one as a basic solution for purposes of finance. We have done integration with property management, the system and HR.

We use another system and integrate with the solution. The property, real estate management, is an additional requirement for our business.

What is most valuable?

The solution is user-friendly in comparison with Oracle.

What needs improvement?

When it comes to HR B1, there should be a standard solution for SAP itself. This issue is why we contemplated going with a different solution.

In respect of HR, we are talking about something basic. Systems should have all the functionality required for SAP functioning and this should be part of the standard module. The localization should be addressed. As we are in the Middle East, they should be familiar with our needs. We found this to be lacking.

While the setup and masters is fine, we occasionally find the templates to be confusing. I cannot say that the problem lies with SAP, but with how things are approached by them from the mandate side. So far so good. They study us and provide us with the details we need concerning how to set up the master.

Much staff is needed for deployment and maintenance. More manpower is required in a more proper manner.

Something which would be helpful to management and, from our vantage point as a user, would be to see a simple reporting tool.

An issue could arise for one who is not technically capable and capable of independently creating and developing certain reports, accompanied by many graphs, as seen with a dashboard framework.

At present, I don't feel we have the tools at our disposal which are available to the user himself, or the access for their creation.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using SAP Business One for more than a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As we have yet to make full use of the solution's functionality, I am not in a positioin to comment on its stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution addresses most of our needs.

We plan to use it extensively.

How are customer service and support?

Something which would be helpful to management and, from our vantage point as a user, would be to see a simple reporting tool.

An issue could arise for one who is not technically capable and can independently create and develop certain reports, accompanied by many graphs, as seen with a dashboard framework.

At present, I don't feel we have the tools at our disposal which are available to the user himself, or the access for their creation.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are currently using JD Edwards Oracle and are in the process of trying to shift from that to SAP.

How was the initial setup?

While the setup and masters is fine, we occasionally find the templates to be confusing. I cannot say that the problem lies with SAP, but with how things are approached by them from the mandate side. So far so good. They study us and provide us with the details we need concerning how to set up the master.

What about the implementation team?

We made use of integrators or consultants for the deployment, but preparations were made based on the requirements of the SAP.

Much staff is needed for deployment and maintenance. More manpower is required in a more proper manner.

What was our ROI?

Getting a returnt on our investment is our goal. We are expecting, at present, to see operational efficiency, something which cannot be qualified.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We recently acquired the license, so we are using the latest version.

I do not have the information in my possession concerning the licensing costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The solution is user-friendly in comparison with Oracle.

What other advice do I have?

We are both users and integrators of the solution.

While the solution is not meant for such a number, we currently have 11 users who are making use of it. For the moment, we are in a trial phase with a company that is running tests. Based on these findings, we will consider moving into multiple companies.

The solution is straightforward and I don't see any issues in this regard.

I would advise others to do thorough testing before implementing the solution.

I rate SAP Business One as a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director of Strategic Projects at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
User-friendly, easy to implement, and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "All parts for inventory control, project budget, accounting, and business information are valuable. It is very friendly to obtain information. It is also very easy to make the changes that we need. We have a developer with us, and he can make the required changes or rules."
  • "There should be a portal so that our providers can give us their invoices. This is something that it is missing currently. SAP provides such a portal with SAP ERP, but it is not available with SAP Business One."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for finance, warehouse, and sales.

What is most valuable?

All parts for inventory control, project budget, accounting, and business information are valuable.

It is very friendly to obtain information. It is also very easy to make the changes that we need. We have a developer with us, and he can make the required changes or rules.

What needs improvement?

There should be a portal so that our providers can give us their invoices. This is something that it is missing currently. SAP provides such a portal with SAP ERP, but it is not available with SAP Business One.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years. We implemented it in 2019.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. When you're using a public cloud, it can be a little slow, which depends on your cloud provider. In the beginning, it was very slow. We then switched to Amazon, and since then, we haven't had any problems.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't used their technical support. We have a developer for any help.

How was the initial setup?

Its implementation is really easy. The hardest part is to change the process flow of the company.

What other advice do I have?

We evaluate every solution very closely before purchase. It gives us what we need, and we are using all the features that we need. We haven't had any problems.

It is very important to go for a contract that doesn't include paying your public cloud provider's company for development. It will give you the possibility to make your own changes without having to pay your public cloud vendor. You need to check the contracts to ensure that you can make changes without requesting the support of the public cloud vendor.

I would rate SAP Business One a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP Business One Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
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ERP
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP Business One Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.