Hello, Habr!
Continuing our series of publications on SAP Business One – ERP for small and medium-sized businesses. This time, we will look at the new version of the product.
According to , along with quarterly updates for the current version, SAP releases a new version of SAP Business One every 1.5 years.
Before the launch of SAP Business One 9.3, SAP Business One partners initiated pilot projects of the version with a limited number of clients. During these pilots, clients had the opportunity to use the new features and provide feedback on the product's quality. At that time, more than 240 customers around the world participated in this program, 108 of whom were launched into productive operation. One of the first clients in the world was a company from Russia – 'Telecom-Birja'. The video with comments from the managing director can .
In March 2018, the first public release. To date, any existing and potential SAP Business One clients can migrate and use this version.
Let’s take a look at what has changed. The new version of the product pays special attention to usability and enhancing existing functionality. New business processes have been implemented through core expansion: simple production routing and materials return management. Significant changes have affected project management functionality, and customer relationship management (CRM) processes have been simplified and optimized, with new capabilities added for regulating access permissions, etc.
Utilizing the capabilities of the SAP HANA platform and semantic layers, new templates for the control panel (user workspace) have been implemented. With the new analytical portal, end users can plan and use reports without logging into SAP Business One, using real-time ERP data.
It's no secret that software add-ons play a key role for clients. Therefore, in the new version, the development of add-ons for partners has been simplified, and support for XML methods for user tables and Visual Studio 2017 has been added. For extreme applications (Extreme Applications or SAP HANA XS applications), a SSO login algorithm is used, which eliminates the need for user re-authentication.
To simplify the deployment and management of the SAP Business One landscape, a centralized approach has been implemented using a single console for both on-premise and cloud options.
Management of Personal Data Protection (GDPR)
To comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), SAP Business One 9.3 features personal data protection management functionality.
Data protection tools are located in a new menu under 'Administration' – 'Utilities'. Access to personal data is governed by user permissions, and any changes to personal data are recorded in a change log.
The 'Data Management' window is used for defining and classifying personal data.
The new 'Personal Data Management Assistant' allows for identifying users, employees, business partners, and contacts as natural persons. This assistant can generate a personal data report, which companies are obligated to provide upon request. It is also used for blocking, clearing (upon request from a natural person or after the data retention period), and unblocking personal data.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM Menu
A 'CRM' item has been added to the main menu for quick access to all business objects related to customer relationship management: business partner directory, campaign generation assistant, 'Sales Opportunity' documents, 'CRM Reports', etc.
Working with the centralized CRM module increases program usability and enhances employee productivity.
Assignment of Activities
Now, activities can be assigned to multiple users or employees by adding a list of recipients. The activity overview screen will indicate the recipients (one or several).
Project Management
The 'Project Management' module has been significantly enhanced in SAP Business One 9.3 to improve transparency, work efficiency, and user convenience.
- A new 'Project Overview' function has been added, allowing users to filter and view all project or sub-project data and hierarchical structure on a single screen.
- A new project visualization feature has been developed in the form of a Gantt chart.
- A field for 'Stage ID' has been added to optimize the connection between projects and marketing documents as well as employee timesheets.
- On the 'Stages' tab, a new column 'Completion Date' is available, allowing users to define the actual completion date of each stage for comparison with the planned date.
- In the 'Documents' section and production orders, a new checkbox 'Paid' indicates whether the related document item is chargeable to the client.
- The 'Activity' form has been updated with additional project-related information. Users can now specify project activities relevant for the 'Billing Assistant'.
- The new 'Billing Assistant' collects data from open documents related to the project and generates sales documents.
- 8. The new timesheet report displays the connection between the project and the time spent by the employee on the project.
Sales management and procurement management.
Contract
Contract management capabilities have been expanded. You can now define a fixed exchange rate in the contract if the business partner uses foreign currency. This fixed exchange rate overrides the exchange rate used in the document for a specific date.
It is now possible to update the parameters of the contract (amounts, quantities, prices) after the contract has been assigned in a marketing document. The initial contract date can also be updated when there are no linked documents.
To enhance contract control, all deviations from the planned amount and planned quantity specified in the contract can now be tracked in the document settings. Additionally, you can set up an operation block or a warning when the quantity/amount exceeds the planned value of these parameters in the documents. An approval procedure is also available for contracts.
Return Request
SAP Business One 9.3 now supports the ability to log the intent to return.
Before the actual return of materials, the user can agree on the return conditions (quantities, prices, reasons).
Two new options have been added for this purpose: 'Return Request' in the 'Sales' business process and 'Return Request' in the 'Purchasing' business process. The 'Return Request' is also available in the 'Service' business process.
The following capabilities are available for new documents:
- Creating a return request based on the original operation of the sales business process ('Shipment' or 'Sale') or the purchasing business process ('Receipt' or 'Purchase')
- Specifying the reason for return and the return operation
- Changing the ordered (sales) and confirmed (purchases) quantities of goods in stock before the actual return of the products
- Creating a return request from a service request
- Managing serial numbers and batch numbers in documents
- Additional reporting and analytics capabilities
New documents provide more flexible management of the return process and additional control.
Price with VAT
In practice, both methods of price calculation are used depending on industry specifics: gross price (including VAT) and net price (excluding VAT).
As a rule, companies engaged in wholesale trade use the net price as they interact with large clients. At the same time, companies involved in retail trade use the gross price, as they interact with individuals and need to specify prices more accurately (especially decimal values).
In SAP Business One 9.3, a completely new mechanism for calculating the gross price has been implemented. The processing of gross price values in marketing documents has been revised to address existing issues:
- lack of separation between net and gross price modes
- modeling gross price calculations for specific scenarios
The application of either gross price or net price also affects the calculation of discounts in marketing documents:
Managing the assembly process
Assembly routing
A new routing feature simplifies the processing of production orders through a defined sequence of assembly steps. It also enhances the management of items requiring assembly and resource components. The "Specification" and "Production Order" documents now allow for the definition of multiple assembly steps. A feature for managing the start and end dates of steps has been implemented to determine the dates for component and resource needs.
Using the new "Routing Date Calculation" field, you can control the start and end dates of steps by specifying values such as "On Start Date", "On End Date", "From Start Date Forward", or "From End Date Backward". This allows for the automatic calculation of date dependencies between steps in the production order.
The "Assembly Time", "Additional Time", and "Execution Time" fields in the "Route Step" row display the longest execution time from all resources assigned to that step. The resource that is utilized for the longest time determines the duration of the route step.
A new "Status" column has been added to the "Production Order", allowing for the assignment of values "Planned", "In progress", or "Completed" for the route step, position, or resource. The "Status" column is editable for all rows of the production order. Meanwhile, the status of all components of the step is updated in accordance with the status of the "Route Step". When the status changes to "Completed", a check is performed across all positions, and a system message appears suggesting to reduce the planned quantity to match the delivered amount. This response will be valid for all components.
Assistance with packaging, shipping, and assembly
The Assistant for packing and packaging has been renamed to "Assistant for packing, packaging, and assembly." New fields in the sections "Open," "Released," and "Packed" allow the assistant to be used as a simple console for production management controlling parameters such as "Route Stage," "Route Sequence," "Product Number," and "Assembly Priority." Criteria for selecting a production order can be set based on various attributes, including: start date, route stage, route sequence, and assembly priority.
Improvements in the assembly management process will benefit all companies with a simple manufacturing process. The standard features of SAP Business One 9.3 include planning and executing production with simple routing, estimating the possible time of component need. These changes provide the capabilities for management and enhanced control over production-related components and resources.
Business Analytics (version for SAP HANA)
Dashboard Template
The dashboard or user workspace allows for organized access to necessary information by placing links to documents, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPIs) on the main screen of SAP Business One.
In version 9.3, the dashboard includes new pre-configured templates for finance, sales, procurement, and inventory. With the appropriate permissions, users can create their own dashboard templates and publish them for use, including by other company employees. For example, user workspaces can be created by themes: finance, procurement, sales, warehouse, and others. Dashboard templates can be assigned to a group of users.
Switching between templates in the interface can be done using the "Select Template" button.
Analytical Portal
With the new version release, the ability to publish and share MS Excel and Crystal Reports reports via the analytics portal has become available. Reports can be downloaded from the portal in various formats or configured to be generated and sent by email on a schedule. For MS Excel, the formats available are PDF, Excel, or HTML, while for Crystal Reports, it's PDF.
The portal does not require the installation of SAP Business One or MS Excel on the user's computer; reports can be accessed on various devices, such as in a web client or on a mobile device. The analytics portal is available for both on-premise and cloud installations of SAP Business One version 9.3 for SAP HANA.
Platform, system administration, and lifecycle management
Data import from MS Excel
The data import assistant from MS Excel has been enhanced and can now import documents into SAP Business One from the 'Accounting Transaction', 'Incoming Balance Serial Numbers', and 'Lots' sections.
Workflow
The workflow service in SAP Business One allows for the automation of document movement processes and the assignment of responsible users and tasks.
In addition to improving the stability and capabilities of the workflow service, support for 64-bit DI API has been implemented, and the configuration of the workflow service and management of workflow templates is now carried out in the 'Administration' web console.
System Landscape Directory (SLD) Control Center
Now, SAP Business One components can be installed via the SLD Control Center on remote computers.
For the registration of remote computers and the installation of SAP Business One components, a new 'Logical Machines' tab has been added. The SLD automatically installs SLD agent components on remote computers. The SLD agent can perform installation and version upgrade tasks for SAP Business One and DI API.
An overview of all installed SAP Business One components in the SAP Business One landscape (the component must support SLD registration) is available on the 'Components' tab.
Built-in incident reporting
This new feature allows you to instantly log an issue in the SAP Business One client, document all steps with screenshots and descriptions, system information, and report the problem (as a single ZIP file) to colleagues or partners.
SAP Business One Service app (version for SAP HANA)
SAP continues to enhance information access capabilities for mobile employees. In June 2018, a new mobile application for iOS was released. The SAP Business One Service app streamlines the processing of service requests for field service employees.
The functionality of the mobile application includes access to customer information, a barcode scanner, voice-to-text conversion, and allows processing assigned service requests. From the app, a service employee can issue a purchase order, close a service request with the customer's signature, and print a confirmation document on a Bluetooth printer.
The app allows working with data both in real-time and when there is no connection to the company's server.
Conclusion
This article does not cover all the innovations in SAP Business One 9.3. The company plans to implement very interesting scenarios involving the Internet of Things and machine learning within this version. Meanwhile, as you read this article, developers are already testing the new version of SAP Business One 9.4... Or maybe not 9.4. Next year will show!
Videos showcasing the capabilities of SAP Business One 9.3 are available on .
You can explore examples of SAP Business One implementations on the website
Comment, share your impressions, and ask questions.
Thank you all for reading and for your feedback!
Source: habr.com
