Many partners are also reporting implementation times of as little as 2 days with the average currently sitting at around 3.5 to 4 days of expended time.

The good news is that now, many of our Software Solution Partners are making starter package ready versions of their solutions available.

Heres just a few to consider!

BoyumIT – Boyum Starter Package

Coresystems – Country Packages for SAP Business One Starter Package

Citixsys – Lite Versions of Citixsys Solutions

Niefert Certified Solutions – N2ONE Portal for SAP Business One Starter Package

Do you have a solution that extends the starter package?

Let me know so I can add your solution to a new directory I am building.

The SAP Business One starter package

A common question that I get asked is, whats the difference between the full SAP Business One solution and the starter package?

And the answer is pretty  simple.

We recognised that there were a whole group of smaller businesses out there that would love to take advantage of the SAP Business One solution but they didn’t necessarily need some of the functionality such as service, MRP, cost accounting but they wanted the integrated accounting, CRM,mobility and reporting capability that SAP Business One offered and they only needed a small number of users – in some cases just a single user.

So we created the starter package, which is the same core SAP Business One application code with a limited scope of functionality and a 5 user limit on the solution as well as a simplified licensing model ie just a single license type – starter package user as opposed to the different license types such as the professional user, indirect access user or limited CRM, limited logistics or limited finance user.

Put together with a very simple and prescriptive implementation approach that can be delivered at a fixed price in many cases and you have the ideal solution for companies looking to get a great start with a solution that can grow with them….not require replacing as the business grows.

To make it even clearer I have attached this functional comparison grid between the starter package and the SAP Business One Professional User – click on the thumbnail to view the full size document.

Got more questions? Dont forget to check out our frequently asked questions document here or ask us a question on the LinkedIn community page here or via Facebook at www.facebook.com/getagreatstart

As a result the need to give employees immediate and real time access to the conversations happening via social media is become more and more immediate.

Plus the ability to track and trace those conversations whilst transacting with customers and suppliers is critical as well.

That why the ability of the SAP Business One starter package and the bigger SAP Business One to integrate with social media tools such as HootSuite, Facebook without leaving the solution are critical. Simply by utilising the cockpit and the browser widget you can embed any of your faourite social media tools inside the SAP Business One application and then utilise the CRM capabilities inside SAP Busienss One to manage and monitor those social interactions.

You can even capture the details of those interactions by utilising the activity feature of SAP Business One as shown in this short demo video that shows how this functionality works (as well using embedded Business Analytics and Microsoft Sharepoint).

What do I mean by that?

Well, many of these solutions hit a ceiling where they can no longer handle the volume of transactions that you are pushing through them  – some even have a maximum database size – or they just don’t have the functionality you need to manage the more complex business scenarios that a growing business has to handle, that your customers expect or that you need to remain competitive.

So what happens? You have to retire them in favour of another solution that can handle your requirements and you start all over again…importing data, cleaning it up, learning a new software package and so on…as well as writing off the investment you already made to implement and learn the old solution in the first place.

When you decide to build your business on the SAP Business One starter package, you no longer have to deal with these growing pains because once you need to grow beyond the 5 users that the starter package supports or you need the additional functionality in the full SAP Business One solution – all you need to do is upgrade your hardware (if you need to), purchase the license upgrade, enter your new license codes and you are ready to go.

Graphing growth with the SAP Business One starter package

You can then continue to grow, uninterrupted by software upgrades, data conversions, retraining and all the things that go hand in hand with changing software.

Plus you can access the more than 400+ solutions for SAP Business One by our global Software Solution Partners who have built complimentary solutions for manufacturing, warehouse management, project management and more.

To see how easy it is to move from the starter package to the full SAP Business One application, check out this video on the SAP Business One You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/getagreatstart

So what’s so special about that I hear you ask?

There are lots of applications available on the market that address the needs of smaller businesses such as Quickbooks, MYOB or Peachtree not to mention the many different applications that are available in specific countries around the world such as Lexware in Germany, MYOB in Australia , Ufida in China or Tally in India.
So does the market really need one more solution?
Our customers and partners have told us loud and clear, that when it comes from SAP, the answer is an emphatic yes!
So what makes the SAP Business One starter package so different to all the other solutions on the market today?

Well it really comes down to 3 things…well, 4 actually.
1. Functionality
2. Scalability
3. Implementation
4. Support

So let me address the first of these issues in this post…but over the next few posts I’ll cover each of the three other topics in detail.
If you look at most of the solutions on the market today designed for small businesses or SOHO (small office, home office) businesses they traditionally focus on delivering the core capabilities to enable you to do basic customer and supplier management, invoicing, purchasing, record basic stock codes and produce a profit and loss statement and balance sheet.
They also run on smaller back end databases and have limited options for growth usually requiring a complete replacement once you grow out of them. And the majority f the solutions on the market today assume that you’ll run different software if you need CRM or marketing functionality and they assume that you’ll be happy to buy additional software if you want mobile access to your data via iPad or iPhone.

Or worse, they assume that you don’t need it at all and close their solutions to this kind of access.

So that’s where the starter package of SAP Business One fits in.
The software offers all of the above basic functionality of course but goes many steps further.

With SAP Business One, you’ll be using Microsoft SQL Server as the back end database – in fact you can start with the Express Edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 which is free and supports you if you have a database of up to x gigabytes and once you grow beyond that, you can migrate seamlessly to the Standard Edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 by purchasing the necessary licenses….your data is ready to go with no upgrade required.
Secondly, the functionality in the SAP Business One starter package delivers integrated sales order processing, delivery and invoicing capabilities – rich inventory management as well as the ability to manage your purchasing and the suppliers you purchase from.
In fact, with the SAP Business One starter package, you have access to customer relationship management and supplier relationship management with the ability to track all your interactions with your customers, manage your sales opportunities and track and manage all your interactions with your suppliers with integration to Microsoft Office 2010 via Outlook, Word and Excel if that’s your productivity solution of choice.
Plus every user of the SAP Business One starter package will be able to access their core data via iPhone, iPad or even via WiFi connected iPod touch via the SAP Business One mobile application which can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple App Store.
And finally, taking the whole solution to the next level is the ability to create and access rich reports via the included SAP Crystal Reports solution as well as being able to access and manage the business against key performance indicators from within the SAP Business One cockpit via SAP Crystal Dashboard Design driven dashboards.

So if this has you thinking…I’d like to see more and learn more about the SAP Business One starter package and whether or not it will fit my business, I would invite you to join me at the dedicated web site for the starter package at www.getagreatstart.com where you’ll be able to experience the solution for yourself as I will take you through demonstrations of each of the key areas in the starter package.
In my next post we’ll talk about scalability and how the SAP Business One starter package can grow to the full SAP Business One solution as your business does.

Maybe you’ve heard about the great things SAP® software can do to help companies run better, leaner, and smarter.
Not just big companies, but companies of all sizes. In fact, over 77% of SAP’s customers are small to midsize businesses like yours.

Now, with the introduction of the starter package for the SAP Business One application, SAP has brought comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) software within reach to a broader range of companies.

The starter package provides a limited-scope version of the industry-proven SAP Business One application, offered at a reduced price.

The software is for companies that need more than standard accounting software but for whom the full SAP Business One is just too powerful.

Offered by SAP channel partners, the SAP Business One starter package is ideal for companies with up to five software users that want to achieve greater efficiency, visibility, and control without the worry of having to switch software later as business needs evolve.
You want to grow over time? No problem.

You can upgrade to the full version of SAP Business One whenever you are ready.