SAP Update Targets Manufacturers

SAP Business One 2004, like its predecessor, handles functions designed to be used by nearly everyone inside an organization. This new version also inserts material resource planning (MRP) functions in the middle of end-to-end business processes. As a result, light manufacturers can base production demand on their CRM reports, service engineers can view lot batches to pinpoint problems, and salespeople can see the production status of a customer's order.

"SAP Business One is a fresh way to approach solving business issues for the small-business client," said Mike Cassano, vice president of the business solutions division of Ram Computer Technologies, a Parsippany, N.J.-based solution provider.

"Three-user, $3 million customers love it, and companies with 100 users and $150 million in revenue love it, too," Cassanos said. "This new version will be a perfect play for a lot of smaller manufacturers that need to plan labor, materials and demand but don't want to deal with software complexities."

Besides its new MRP capabilities, Business One 2004 boasts a new collaboration calendar, an enhanced SDK for adding customized functions and improved CRM that can, for example, give competitive intelligence by showing to which rivals, and under what circumstances, the manufacturer has lost certain deals.

Moreover, new integration with Microsoft Outlook allows users to place e-mails inside their workflow. "We've found that 90 percent of small businesses use Outlook as their information hub," said Gadi Shamia, vice president of Solutions Management for SAP Business One. "Now they can save messages to Business One and initiate a workflow for customer service or production."

Priced at $3,750 per named user, version 2004 is available to existing SAP Business One customers as part of the maintenance agreement.