SAP Business One Customization how to Find Developer and Second Opinion

There might be numerous reasons and we will try to review them and how to find the way out of crisis.  This is not technical paper as it is rather oriented to decision makers.  Let’s begin:

1. Probability to get somebody who is in learning curve.  We have to express our opinion that SAP B1 is in expansion mode here in the United States and the number of installations might be catching up but it is lower comparing to long time players such as Microsoft Dynamics GP.  VAR from whom you just purchased licenses and got system implemented might have it as second product offer meaning that they only have one or two functional consultants.  At the same time Business One is open for being modified in Microsoft Visual Studio.  Software Development Kit has code snippets in VB and C# and it might seem friendly to generic VS programmers.  This fact might lead to temptation from your consulting firm to use your project as learning curve for one of its technical consultants.  It reminds us the situation with Great Plains Dynamics back in late 1990th where it was in rapid expansion mode and resellers were jumping into Dexterity custom projects train

2. From International Market to the United States.  Initially SAP B1 predecessor was introduced in Israel with the aim to get international Small Business ERP market through such features as multicurrency, restating financial reporting from accrual to cash basis and user interface switch from one language to another without the need to exit application.  Business One was introduced in such markets as Brazil or China in time when other brand name ERP vendors were not ready to offer Small Business ERP solution localized in these world regions.  However in the USA the situation is very competitive and virtually every small company has accounting solution from brand name including Sage, Peach Tree, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and other brands.  Here small business accounting market is already divided and SAP BO has to find its way through new companies being opened or through customer attrition from old accounting packages.  The message of this paragraph is coming from the international software development market being very advanced for SAP B1.  With United States based project management and international Software Development Factory backing we believe that it is the way to choose

3. General Observations about Custom Software Development in ERP scenarios.  Good idea is to consider all the possible ways to avoid it.  Try to organize brain storm sessions on getting maximum from SAP B1 flexibility and see if you can do the job through procedural way.  If ERP application in consideration doesn’t provide required functionality try to sniff it in executive and technical demos and have your suspicious addressed prior to acquiring software licenses.  If application doesn’t cover eighty or better even ninety percent of required logic try to keep shopping and be sure that you have seen demos from the competition

4. When custom programming is required?  It is common in ongoing integration scenarios from external database to Business One

5. Second Opinion.  Here you have to follow your intuition in finding alternative consulting firm.  Our recommendations are to search on Google, Yahoo or MSN.  As we already mentioned above local consulting firms might be short of customization experience, but who knows it all depends on your location and industry niche

6. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904, help@efaru.com.  We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan, Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA and Canada nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed)