SAP Business One

SAP Business One is business management software (ERP) designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, sold by the German company SAP SE. As an ERP solution, it aims to automate key business functions in financials, operations, and human resources.

SAP Business One
Developer(s)SAP SE
Initial releaseApril 2002
Stable release
10.0 / May 2020
Operating system
PlatformSAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server
Available in43 localizations and 27 languages
TypeEnterprise resource planning
Websitesap.com/products/business-one.html

History

SAP Business One was initially launched in Israel in 1996 under the name "Menahel" ("manager") or "TopManage", for countries out of Israel. The company was founded by Reuven Agassi (CEO) and Gadi Shamia (VP of sales, marketing and product). The product was designed by Gadi Shamia and the head developer was Hilla Mazinter.

In its first years, TopManage was sold in the Israeli market only, and was the first Windows/Mac business management product to be offered in the Israeli market. In 2000 TopManage started its global expansion into markets in Europe and Latin America.

In March 2002, SAP purchased TopManage Financial Systems and branded their system as SAP Business One. TopManage founders Reuven Agassi and Gadi Shamia were given executive positions at SAP following the acquisition. A year earlier, TopManage's sister company, TopTier, had also been acquired by SAP. TopTier was founded by Reuven Agassi's son Shai Agassi.[1]

The acquisition allowed SAP to reach out to the small market through its partners and also to gain additional business from the smaller subsidiaries of its enterprise customers.[1]

Releases

The history of SAP Business One:[2]

Year Version Notable new features
2020 SAP Business One 10.0 Web Client enhancements (based on SAP Fiori), Enhancements in Document Printing, Reference Documents Enhancements, Enhancements in Approval Process, Interactive Gantt Chart (Project Management), Enhanced User Interface, Microsoft Office 365 Integration, New Skin Style (HANA Only), New UK (Brexit) Localization, Platform enhancements, Service Layer Configuration UI (HANA only), Support SLES 15 (HANA only)
2017 SAP Business One 9.3 Production enhancements, project management enhancements, RMA features, usability enhancements (CRM menu + user-preference unification)
2016 SAP Business One 9.2 Project management, browser access, MRP – intelligent forecasts (HANA only), item recommendation (HANA only), Customer 360 (HANA only), mobile sales app (HANA only)
2014 SAP Business One 9.1 Resources module, branches
2013 SAP Business One 9.0 Single sign-on, bin locations, 64 bit client
2012 SAP Business One 8.82 Usability enhancements, SAP HANA support
2011 SAP Business One 8.81 Multiple cost centers, Cockpit
2010 SAP Business One 8.8 Crystal Reports integration, unified codebase
2008 SAP Business One 2007 New reconciliation engine
2006 SAP Business One 2005 Enhanced usability and reporting, enhanced SDK
2004 SAP Business One 2004 Global release, SAP Business One SDK
2000 TopManage
1995 First Version

Prior to SAP Business One 2004, specific country versions called 6.x existed until the first global release in 2004.

Features (modules)

SAP Business One is arranged into 15 functional modules, covering the typical functions in a business organization. The most widely used modules are Financials, Sales Opportunities, Sales – A/R, Purchasing A/P, Business Partners, Banking and Inventory.[3]

  • Administration, where setup of the various core settings in the application are done
  • CRM, where common sales employee tasks link to the other modules (NB: The module is purely here for usability and offer no new features of its own) (only SAP 9.3 and higher)
  • Financials, where definition of Chart of Account are set up and the core Journal Entries can be created
  • Opportunities, where Lead generation are used to keep track of potential Sales and Purchases
  • Sales - A/R, where the sales flow (Quotation > Order > Delivery > AR Invoice) are managed
  • Purchasing - A/P, where the purchase flow (Quotation > Order > GRPO > AP Invoice) are managed
  • Business Partners, where master data of Leads, Customer and Supplier are maintained
  • Banking, where payment of Incoming (sales) and Outgoing (purchase) payments are created
  • Inventory, where master data of goods to be sold/purchased are maintained and their quantity/value in warehouses are tracked
  • Resources, where master data of resources (machines and people) to be used in production are defined (capacity and planning) (only SAP 9.1 and higher)
  • Production, where Bill of Materials master data are maintained and Production orders are created
  • Project Management, where you define projects (what you do when) (only SAP 9.2 and higher)
  • Material Requirements Planning (MRP), where forecasts of needed items in sales/production are defined in order to make purchase order recommendations
  • Service, where management of service contracts are maintained and service calls are created
  • Human Resources, where employee master data (names, contract information, roles, etc.) are maintained

Each module handled specific business tasks on its own, but is linked to the other modules where applicable. For instance, an invoice from the billing transaction of Sales & Distribution would pass through to accounting, where it will appear in accounts receivable and cost of goods sold.

Architecture

SAP Business One is a typical Client–server model software product.

  • Client software is primarily the SAP Business One client that is a Microsoft Windows-based product that connects to a back-end server. SAP also offer clients for phones and tablets (iOS and Android) that contain a subset of the full features aimed at sales employees.
  • Server software is run on either a Microsoft SQL Server database (Windows) or SAP HANA database (Linux).

Partners and community

SAP Business One is delivered through its global partner network (SAP PartnerEdge) consisting of the following partner types:

  • Value Added Resellers (VAR) is an SAP partner that sells, implements and supports the product to end customers.
  • Software Solution Partners (SSP) is an SAP partner that creates horizontal or vertical standard solutions on top of the SAP Business One platform with the SAP Business One SDK and sells them via the VAR partners.
  • Open Ecosystem Once you join you will be able to sell, service, and market SAP-approved products available through its distributor channel. It's free and easy to join, with only a small amount of required training to complete before you begin..

Extensibility

Custom development (called add-ons) are done using the SAP Business One SDK.[4] It is COM-based development done in Microsoft Visual Studio with C# or VB.NET.

SAP Business One SDK consist of:

  • Data Interface API (DI-API), where you can create new business object around the normal SAP Business One client but still adhere to the core business rules[5]
  • User interface API (UI-API), where you can modify existing SAP Business One client screens, create new screens and change/block the normal event flow[6]
  • SAP Business One Integration Technology (B1i), where you can visually create Business flows using XML/XSLT[7]
  • Service Layer for SAP HANA, where you can, using OData, create business objects[8]
  • Service Layer for Microsoft SQL Server, where you can, using OData, create business objects[8]

See also

References
  1. SAP buys Israel accounting software company TopManage, Globes, 13 March 2002
  2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/history-sap-business-one-ilan-tal
  3. SAP Business One Application
  4. SAP Business One SDK
  5. SAP Business One SDK - DI-API
  6. SAP Business One SDK - UI-API
  7. SAP Business One SDK - B1i
  8. Service Layer for SAP HANA
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