SAP Business One Automation
SAP Business One automation is a topic that is often discussed between partners and end-users alike. Having a clear understanding of all areas of business operations and managing customer expectations is fast becoming a necessity that companies need to achieve to stay cost competitive and one step ahead of the competition.
Understanding the day-to-day business processes and putting in place a business process automation strategy helps organisations to explore new ways to strengthen supplier and customer relationships. It helps businesses of all sizes to introduce a new customer base to its products and services, whilst assisting with streamlining labour-intensive business processes to reduce operational costs and drive company revenue.
When asked to perform a specific task or process, independent business systems, applications and employees achieve what is asked of them; the only downside is that they all work in isolation. This means that organisations are turning towards business software solutions that can provide them with dynamic synchronisation of data between multiple systems and applications to automate any number of business processes.
Common areas of SAP Business One automation often sought by decision makers include:
- Automated data entry of repetitive bi-directional data entry
- Automatic creation and delivery of reports and documentation, e.g. finance reports, sales reports, stock reports, welcome packs etc. automatically created and sent via email, FTP, attached to a CRM record or placed on a network location
- Multilevel workflow approvals, e.g. credit limit increase, sales discount, purchase orders etc.
- External alerts and notifications to suppliers via email / SMS
To achieve a streamlined business through business process automation it is essential to plan the BPA project in advance by identifying the key business processes that you would like to automate. This includes identifying individual business systems that run alongside SAP Business One and where data is held, to departmental objectives and manual administration tasks. To help you start your SAP Business One automation journey, download the BPA Project Management Workbook below.
SAP Business One automation can be achieved through business process automation (BPA) software, such as SAP Certified, BPA Platform which enables organisations to streamline business systems through the automation of processes and communications across multiple systems, databases, and people. This leads to the improvement in process efficiency throughout the business.
Incorporating workflow technology that enables human interaction at critical stages of a business process, BPA software can become one of the most valuable investments in IT that a company can make.
Empowering SAP Business One Functionality
Including siloed business systems and applications in an environment where they are empowered with added functionality to seamlessly integrate and synchronise company data can ensure that business software and applications are used to their maximum capabilities, whilst improving day to day processes, performance and cash flow.
SAP Business One has been designed to provide a flexible and easy-to-use platform with clear functionality for integration with third-party solutions. The well-designed platform provides business process automation solutions, such as SAP Certified BPA Platform, with the opportunity to offer a user-friendly interface that enables the flexible mapping of data to SAP Business One objects that can be adapted or configured as and when business requirements dictate.
This ensures data synchronisation between SAP Business One and other third-party systems is consistent. Its SAP Business One integration tool pack provides a secure solution to automate the management of your SAP Business One company data without having to use multiple integration plug-ins that provide a rigid, point-to-point solution, which can cause operational difficulties further down the line.
Features of the SAP Business One Integration Tool Pack includes:
- Support for on-premises and OnDemand installations
- Support for user-defined tables and fields within objects and subobjects
- Ability to maintain the synchronisation of data between one SAP company database and another. For example, if a record changes in one company it will be reflected in the other
- Allows for data to be synchronised between SAP Business One and third-party systems
- Dynamic provision of API metadata enabling changes to objects and operations to be rolled out independently of the tool pack
- Memory support for ODBC, OLEDB, Call Store Procedure, and internal repositories
SAP Business One system therefore allows BPA Platform with the opportunity to provide data integration and synchronisation across practically any database store, such as sales and marketing solutions, finance and accounting software, warehouse management systems and eCommerce platforms to increase company performance and productivity.
- SAP-certified integration with SAP Business One® 10.0 for SQL databases
- SAP-certified integration with SAP Business One 10.0 for SAP HANA®
- SAP certification with SAP Business One® Cloud
- SAP Business One Service Layer (SL) Integration to communicate over the Service Layer via REST APIs
At time of writing (October 2020), the following versions of SAP Business One are compatible with the BPA Platform SAP Business One Integration Tool Pack:
Image: BPA Platform SAP Business One Version Compatibility
For more information on SAP Business One integration and to learn about the commercial and technical benefits of BPA Platform download the technical datasheet below.
SAP Business One Integration Allows Your Company to Grow
Growing a business can bring a multitude of questions and associated challenges. For example, do your business systems do what you want them to do? Do they provide you with visible business processes? How easy is it to configure changes as and when business requirements change? Can they provide you with a 100% audit trail of activities? These questions, and many more, need to be answered. In fact, ensuring that your business systems and applications meet your exact business requirements presents a clear goal to achieving business potential.
SAP Business One provides clear functionality that enable organisations to explore the possibilities of having detailed business processes that are a 100% fit all the time, without compromise. This added flexibility means that organisations can reach their strategic goals quicker, without the need to recruit additional employees or invest heavily in its products or services or marketing budget.
BPA Platform running alongside SAP Business One allows businesses to focus on increasing profitability in a more efficient manner. For example, wholesale distribution companies can reduce operational costs and increase revenues from existing product lines by selling the same level of products and simply automating repetitive employee administration tasks and improving access to critical information.
As your organisation grows, business processes will evolve over time. Having the ability to automate data entry and administration tasks, and receive pseudo real-time information when it’s needed the most, can play a major part in improving your bottom line. If your organisation is planning to grow, BPA Platform can assist in helping you to achieve your strategic goals by acting as a virtual employee across practically any number of business processes, departments, and systems; in addition, providing you with the tools to reduce operational costs and drive company revenues.
Achieving More Through SAP Business One Integration
Undertaking a new SAP Business One integration project to streamline business processes can be a daunting task for some organisations. Development time frames can eat into everyday activities, and projects, on occasion, can be outsourced to ease workload. Unfortunately, as the project grows, modifications often require the same software development team to make the necessary changes. This means that both development time and cost can add an unnecessary burden on the business.
This is especially true when considering other hidden factors, such as delays due to holidays or illness, or compromises on a solution or ‘quick fix’, or automated data queries caused by ‘fault lines’ between integrated systems. Each separate development bottleneck will have an impact in one way or another.
Delaying a bespoke development timeframe due to a variety of reasons will not only influence the IT department, but will also have a knock-on effect to other areas of the business. It will not allow you to reduce operational costs as quickly and as efficiently as you had first envisioned.
As mentioned previously, SAP Business One has been designed to provide users with a flexible and easy-to-use platform, with clear functionality for integration with third-party software. Due to its flexibility, BPA Platform can be used to sit in the middle of your business systems to dynamically push and pull company data. It removes the need to develop bespoke integration and automation by providing a set of tools that enables anyone with a basic understanding of their database structures to build, adapt and configure integrations and automate practically any number of business processes, no matter how complex the business requirement.
BPA Platform enables you to build automated processes quickly and easily for SAP Business One that are unique to your organisation, through an intuitive drag and drop graphical user interface it helps you adhere to system integration best practices, thus reducing the complexity of business processes. By using BPA Platform to remove the complexity from business process automation, organisations can add an unrivalled level of agility to their operations. As business processes change, automated processes can be adapted or completely rewritten to meet new conditions. Primarily, BPA Platform provides you with the following capabilities:
- Data integration and synchronisation with practically any data source via ODBC, OLEDB, Web Services or an extensive range of 3rd party APIs through connectors e.g. eCommerce platforms, warehouse management systems, EDI solutions, communication platforms, courier services, payment systems etc.
- Document and reports automation to automatically create and send reports and documents via email, FTP, attached to a CRM record or placed on a network location e.g. Compliance documents, stock reports, renewal documents, credit control letters, pick lists, budget reports etc.
- Workflow tools e.g. purchase order approvals, commission sign off, review processes, credit note approvals, credit limit reviews etc.
- Monitoring and alerting tools e.g. Order status updates, appointment confirmations, service data reminders, delivery notifications, contract renewal reminders etc.
For more information on how you can utilise BPA Platform for your SAP Business One automation project, download the brochure below.
Download 200+ Automation Examples
SAP Business One Automation Project Next Steps
BPA Platform is a unique system integration tool and business process automation software solution that enables organisations to build powerful automated processes whilst leveraging the power of existing systems. BPA Platform offers a scalable, cost-effective automation solution for organisations, ranging from the small and medium-sized enterprise to the larger corporation.
Its extensible process modelling capabilities enable the automation of complex manual tasks, therefore driving improvements in operational efficiency throughout the business. It also provides a common automation structure across the entire information chain, providing developers with quick and easy access to make changes to business processes as and when required.
The solution is built around the central concepts of “tasks” and “steps” to provide the ability to build flexible automation processes with logical building blocks. These processes integrate seamlessly with existing information sources, applications, infrastructure, and communications without the need for complex programming, helping you to streamline day-to-day business operations and drive company revenue.
Start planning your SAP Business One automation journey by downloading the BPA Project Management Workbook below. For more information, and to learn about the commercial and technical benefits of SAP Certified integration with BPA Platform download the technical datasheet below, or alternatively, call us on +44 (0)330 99 88 700.
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Are you a SAP Business One Partner?
Codeless Platforms is an accredited partner with SAP and other leading ISVs with industry-specific applications and systems in a large number of economic countries. Through collaboration with the SAP channel, specialist features have been built into BPA Platform. This provides organisations with the ability to create a solution that is completely personalised to their internal applications and business operations. For more information on BPA Platforms’ SAP Certification visit here.
Codeless Platforms is built upon a global network of accredited partners within the SAP channel that provide access to local knowledge, technical expertise and a stable platform for unrestricted growth.
Each partner, whether Consulting, Distribution, OEM or Referral, has experience within a specific vertical market or with a dedicated application system. They also have expertise in the installation, implementation and customisation of our platforms and solutions. In addition to an Accredited Partner programme, our partners work closely with every customer to ensure that their business needs are met, and that Codeless Platforms’ solutions help organisations improve efficiencies, reduce costs and facilitate growth.
If you would like to find out more about how our platforms are benefitting our existing partners, visit our Partner Focus section. Alternatively, take a more detailed look at the partner scheme you are interested in by learning more about the various Codeless Platforms partner programmes available and the benefits a partnership can bring by visiting here – Partner Programmes or call us on +44 (0)330 99 88 700.
