Imagine your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system as a motorbike that gets your business to its goal. You would want it to get there as fast as possible, and yet be customised to your needs.
To build the bike, you could assemble it part by part, which would take considerable time and effort, delaying your journey. An easier and faster solution would be to get an already assembled motorbike from a dealer, change out what you need, and be on your way.
In the same way, SAP Business ByDesign, is that easier solution. It is a cloud-based ERP solution that comes with customer relationship management (CRM), production and project management solutions specifically tailored for SMEs.
SAP Business ByDesign can handle not only your current business needs, but to scale with your business as it grows as well, no matter the size of your business outfit.
SAP used to be known for offering comprehensive applications for huge multinational corporations. The product portfolio has long since expanded. Via SAP Business ByDesign, the enterprise software giant aims to bridge this gap and offer a cost-effective solution to SMEs, with pricing plans that start from $450 per user per month, with a minimum of five users.
In its effort to help SMEs ease their cash flow, SAP Business ByDesign charges a monthly subscription fee based on the number of users, instead of the transaction volume. By doing so, users can keep their operations lean, yet transact with as many clients or partners as needed to grow.
Furthermore, SAP Business ByDesign, being a cloud-based platform, does not require capital outlay or any IT investment. SAP takes care of all the hardware, support, disaster recovery and data protection. This also means that clients save on infrastructure costs, IT costs, as well as space for servers and the related hardware.
It also offers a range of configurations, extensions, adaptations and integrations that gives the flexibility to adapt and extend the solution to fit what’s needed now, while adhering strictly to service level agreements (SLA).
SAP Business ByDesign ensures that it keeps up with new technology. It will consistently deliver new features and processes by publishing their development roadmap and delivering quarterly product updates. That way, users can get the latest SAP innovation in their hands as quickly as possible and put it to work to remain at the forefront of their industries.
“SAP Business ByDesign is designed to allow you to concentrate on your core business operations, without having to ‘sweat the small stuff’,” says May Ng, Head of SAP Business One & Business ByDesign.
“If you are a restaurant, concentrate on making the best dishes for your customers. If you are an engineering company, concentrate on the solutions that you provide to your clients, and leave the rest to SAP Business ByDesign,” she adds.
Being cloud-based also means that the solutions needed by users can be accessible everywhere, whether it be closing a sales agreement at the customers’ office overseas, or updating finance spreadsheets at the office, SAP Business ByDesign allows users to get their business done, as and when needed.
Every part of the web-based solution is responsive—adapting to whatever mobile devices employees use to get their work done—and SAP Business ByDesign offers targeted apps designed specifically for day-to-day tasks like time and expense reporting, project management and analytics.
Being fully customisable to business needs also means that no matter what pre-existing software is being used, SAP Business ByDesign is able to connect the users to the systems in use today and what may be needed next, featuring APIs that allow quick connections to existing custom solutions as well as pre-built integrations with other popular software suites such as Office 365, Concur and SAP SuccessFactors. Data can be managed easily even as the users’ organisations grow.
But what is data, if there is no one to make sense of it?
This is where SAP Business ByDesign Analytics come in. Analytics is built into every process, allowing users to view and share data across functions and departments, so that everyone can enjoy more accurate, timely and complete insights to make better, more informed in-the-moment decisions. Easy analytical tools in SAP Business ByDesign also allows users to perform self-service analytical reports, or to publish the reports to share with their team members.
With SAP Business ByDesign, users also get the power of SAP to your businesses, delivering 99.5% uptime as well as the quality, performance and functionality as expected from the global ERP leader— all in a package that fits most business needs, budget and the way the organisations function.
SAP is also no stranger to ERP systems, having a total of almost 50 years of experience helping SMEs and large enterprises to automate their business processes.
With SAP Business ByDesign, written from scratch by SAP, it provides a solid platform for SMEs to run their business, and users can be confident that they are tapping on a stable solution with a proven track record of delivering for their organisations.
“SAP is a long-term partner who is here for the long term and will support them for the next few decades as their business grows,” says Ng.
Furthermore, SAP Business ByDesign is not the be-all and end-all. Eventually, SMEs of today will become the MNCs of tomorrow. And it will be time to move on to other offerings from SAP.
Going back to the analogy of the motorbike, you can now go to the dealer, tell them that you now need a car, and SAP will be happy to upgrade your system, scale and grow with you for the long run.
[Click here to find out more about SAP Business ByDesign]
