The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

(more…)

 By improving the metrics in the entire order-to-cash cycle across the subsidiaries, organizations can free up valuable cash that can be used to fund growth.

Large enterprises need to increase the velocity and efficiency of their order-to-cash cycle within their subsidiary network, which can each reach a count in excess of 1,000 subsidiaries for Fortune 500 companies. (more…)

Reporting live from Bangalore TechEd

SAP Business One has historically been tagged as the ERP solution for small companies i.e. those outgrowing their QuickBooks or Microsoft Excel-based accounting and tracking. Even though it has well over 32,000 customers globally and remains the largest solution by customer count in the entire SAP portfolio, it has remained a bit of a hidden gem thriving in the shadows of its better known cousin SAP Business ByDesign. Until now. I had the opportunity to attend a couple of events in Bangalore this week and both of them clearly highlighted what appear to be the shifting strategic fortunes of SAP Business One.

(more…)

Though the Nation Bureau of Economic Research declared the recession over in 2009, many SMEs would beg to differ. Since the crash of 2007, SMEs have been struggling to recover due to their inability to obtain bank financiing and their typical lack of pricing power in the markets in which they compete prevent them from passing their costs on to customers.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “For Small Businesses, Recession Isn’t Over” drives home that point. In the US, SMEs are treading water: they’re not hiring, few are making capital investments and their business sentiment has been “flat lined” for the 4^th year in a row. In spite of official pronouncements, many believe we’re still in a recession—regardless of what government statistics say about positive GDP.  The data presented in the article underscores the point, the only industries that are in expansion mode are Educational Services and Health Care. This isn’t just confined to the US. In Germany, the  Mittelstand (the small business sector that dominates their economy) enjoys fairly decent economic conditions but a recent reading of the Euro Zone manufacturing index is flashing caution signs.

(more…)