Right-sizing of ERP: Selecting from SAP Products for Your Business

Every scale of business requires a specific scale of erp software services to better suit the specific needs. This article breaks down all the SAP products and their relevancy.

Introduction:

“How does an enterprise resource planning software benefit a company” and “which enterprise resource planning software solution is best for my business” are probably some of the first questions that visit one’s thought process; as indicated by the top 100 queries on search engines. Organizations of medium to large scale don’t want to put their ongoing operation at risk with an unsuitable enterprise resource planning system and neither don’t want to invest in overkill software.

SAP and Current ERP Landscape:

In the current industrial environment, SAP has established itself as a reliable and pioneering firm that offers various software solutions designed to execute enterprise resource planning for every business scale out there. These software solutions come in different versions designed for particular business scales and anyone new to this industry can be easily overwhelmed. To make this simple, this article states below the current offerings of SAP products designed for every business scale.

1.SAP ERP

This is SAP’s flagship software solution for enterprise resource planning. It also happens to be recognized throughout the world as an industry standard and offers a complete feature set for the operations of an organization. It is suitable for larger businesses that are forecasting regular scaling of their business with the installation of more hardware during their operations.

This specific version runs on relational databases and offers a high level of customization and flexibility. The software comes with industry-specific solutions and functionalities through add-on modules or customizations which are tailored to be suitable for different industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and utilities.

2. SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP:

Built on the SAP HANA in-memory database platform and accessible through cloud technology, this product is more easily scalable, and adaptable as compared to the aforementioned SAP software solutions. Designed for medium to large enterprises inclined to cloud systems, this product has real-time analytics and reporting capabilities all with native cloud support.

The new version of this software also comes with intelligent automation features powered by machine learning and AI algorithms which function to bring significant efficiency in human resources, finances, supply chains, and customer relation management. It also comes with advanced embedded analytics and predictive capabilities, an integration Hub for seamless integration with third-party and SAP’s own provided services. Moreover, the company’s SAP Fiori design principles can be observed in the modern yet intuitive interface of the software suite.

4. SAP Business ByDesign SME Cloud ERP

Designed for medium-scale firms with complex business processes, this cloud-enabled software solution is great for businesses running on multiple locations and is bound to scale in their operation time as a mid-size enterprise. Deployed and accessed entirely over the internet, this suite offers management of core business processes including managing various business processes, including procurement, finance, sales, human resources, CRM, supply chain, manufacturing, and project management. Its entire design is focused on the growth of midsize enterprises and offers area and industry security operational solutions.

5. SAP Business One:

Designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with less complex business processes, this is an affordable solution from SAP that curates most of the needs. This software suite performs best for simpler business processes with fewer resources compared to large enterprises. It is also much less complicated as compared to the first two and offers a near plug-and-play solution for users.

SAP Business One features industry-specific templates of predefined processes that curate the needs of most businesses on a small scale. The analytics is not that rich as compared to other versions designed for larger businesses but it does cover all core functionalities a firm might need. This includes finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, and CRM services.

Wrapping Up:

In the world of enterprise resource planning, the selection of an erp is inevitable, and with the rise of technologies like AI and machine learning. Such software solutions are now more highly relevant to one’s business belonging to any scale and region. SAP’s current catalog of software is time-tested and is taken as industry standards. Selecting the right version will greatly impact a firm’s efficiency and progress toward certain goals.