SAP Business One
SAP Business One is business management software 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.
History
SAP Business One was initially launched in Israel in 1996 under the name "Menahel" or "TopManage", for countries out of Israel. The company was founded by Reuven Agassi and Gadi Shamia. 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.
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.
Releases
The history of SAP Business One:| Year | Version | Notable new features |
| 2020 | SAP Business One 10.0 | Web Client enhancements, Enhancements in Document Printing, Reference Documents Enhancements, Enhancements in Approval Process, Interactive Gantt Chart, Enhanced User Interface, Microsoft Office 365 Integration, New Skin Style, New UK Localization, Platform enhancements, Service Layer Configuration UI, Support SLES 15 |
| 2017 | SAP Business One 9.3 | Production enhancements, project management enhancements, RMA features, usability enhancements |
| 2016 | SAP Business One 9.2 | Project management, browser access, MRP – intelligent forecasts, item recommendation, Customer 360, mobile sales app |
| 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.- Administration, where setup of the various core settings in the application are done
- CRM, where common sales employee tasks link to the other modules
- 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 are managed
- Purchasing - A/P, where the purchase flow are managed
- Business Partners, where master data of Leads, Customer and Supplier are maintained
- Banking, where payment of Incoming and Outgoing 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 to be used in production are defined
- Production, where Bill of Materials master data are maintained and Production orders are created
- Project Management, where you define projects
- Material Requirements Planning , 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 are maintained
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 that contain a subset of the full features aimed at sales employees.
- Server software is run on either a Microsoft SQL Server database or SAP HANA database.
Partners and community
- Value Added Resellers is an SAP partner that sells, implements and supports the product to end customers.
- Software Solution Partners 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
SAP Business One SDK consist of:
- Data Interface API , where you can create new business object around the normal SAP Business One client but still adhere to the core business rules
- User interface API , where you can modify existing SAP Business One client screens, create new screens and change/block the normal event flow
- SAP Business One Integration Technology , where you can visually create Business flows using XML/XSLT
- Service Layer for SAP HANA, where you can, using OData, create business objects
- Service Layer for Microsoft SQL Server, where you can, using OData, create business objects