Setting the stage for the book—how does your business "tick"
This chapter introduces the core idea of looking at SAP Business ONE as a business engine. This business engine is designed to help you collect information about your business, where having the information versus not having the information can make the difference between success and failure. Let's say that a multitude of decisions are made on a daily basis, which can benefit from better information. Look at your own business, for example. I am certain that you have a system that manages your finances and is potentially a lead management solution. Maybe you also have some production that is industry-specific and handled by an industry solution. In this simple example, there are already many potential areas for improvement.
To make the point, I will ask you some questions about your business. You may call this the Observer Effect in Business. The questions range from sales to inventory and service. Basically, I am focusing on the entire value chain. This is a key idea in an integrated software package such as SAP. The added value of having an integrated process versus disparate systems that require synchronization.
Sales leads and follow-up
Do you have a sales process, and is it organized in stages?
Can you run a report and get information about the stages, and thereby forecast the expected sales?
What happens if one of your best sales people leaves? Can you continue the sales and manage the customers?
Are you using Act!, salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM, and need to synchronize with your finance back-end?
Delivery
Can you provide tracking information for customers?
Do customers need to call you to get tracking information, or do they get an updated email once the order leaves your warehouse?
Will you get a notification about a successful delivery that can be opened from the sales order?
Inventory
Do you have excess inventory?
Do you also run into situations where there is not enough inventory for an important order?
Do you manage inventory shortages by overstocking?
Are you using an Excel spreadsheet to manage your inventory reorder times and quantities?
Warehouse
Do you have a method to verify the deliveries before they leave and enter the warehouse?
Service and support
Can you relate a large sales opportunity to incoming service calls? For example, can you manage a service call for a customer with large proposals on the table differently than for a customer who has not ordered in a long time and is behind in payments?
Can customers check the tracking numbers via a web portal?
Can customers review past orders and re-order easily?
Is it possible to place service calls via the Web?
Are sales people aware of the current sales calls for large opportunities?
Manufacturing
Can you easily replace a component in a BOM (Bill of Material) with a new one?
Can you trace any item from the sales to the initial purchase of parts, assembly, and delivery?
E-commerce
Does your e-commerce provider charge an extra fee for taking credit card orders?
Do you have to synchronize your web orders with your accounting system?
Can you track customer activities on the Web?
Can you send customized newsletters to customers based on their buying behavior?
Do you receive an alert once a new web order is placed?
Do you have newsletter tracking information for customers that you can evaluate during the sales process?
Can you contact customers based on their newsletter reading activity and past purchase history?
Is your web intelligence integrated with your customer management system? For example, it would be good if a customer calls and you could see his or her open quotes, open service calls, newsletter activity, and order history.
How long does it take you to start a web site with e-commerce? Just think about it for a second. This should be an automated process. You should be able to have dozens of sites up and running, send out newsletters, track feedback, and measure success. In a later chapter, I will introduce you to the concept that is based on the SAP Business ONE Engine.
Industry
Are you using form fields in your system for different purposes because it does not provide the right naming based on your industry?
Are you using an industry solution for one part of your business and have a standard finance package that does not quite integrate?
ROI and budget for your own system
All of the above questions address common business issues, which result in additional time and money spent. Essentially, by automating the processes and providing the right information where it is needed, you can save money and make better decisions. Therefore, for your own business, you can ask yourself the questions above and assign a monetary value to each one. The monetary value is either a plain number, or a calculation based on the time you spent to get the information. For example, if you indeed manage your inventory re-order quantities in an Excel spreadsheet, imagine this could be done automatically without your manual intervention. Once you add up all the numbers, you have your budget for a potential new system that overcomes these issues.