SAP Business One v9.1 – Bugs!
Update to Blog dated 9th March 2016:
After many difficult conversations with both SAP and our Reseller Partner we upgraded to PL11 on 3rd March 2016 and (touch wood, fingers crossed etc.) this issue has been fixed and we are now able to use SAP without it crashing daily! 3 months after upgrading to v9.1 it now seems stable.
Lessons to be learned: I won’t ever upgrade to a new version until the Patch Level is in double figures!
I’m writing this blog out of desperation and to inform any other SAPB1 customers thinking of moving to v9.1 of a known Bug with a VERY serious impact on the use of the software.
We are running v9.1 PL09 (32Bit) on SQL and ever since we moved from 9.0 we have had problems. Major issues involving client machines crashing the B1 application and the user having to restart their machine to get back in. For some users this happens several times per day and has been happening since we upgraded at the end of 2015. More recently we have staff on the sales team unable to respond to inquiries as their systems crashed several hours ago and they have still not re gained access, obviously this is going to be costing us money in lost opportunities!
So what’s happening? We have reported the crashes to our VAR who, after a lot of time and effort explained it was due to a known bug with SAP Note: 2079526 and also more recently SAP Note: 2247727 which is all to do with the SAP Business One Suggest. This function is a bit like predictive text and we, like many users, have become reliant on it when adding marketing docs to sap or posting transactions etc. This function was working in v9.0 so why oh why is it causing so many issues in 9.1?
I’ve been in contact with some senior people at SAP who said the issue is with the “Critical Solution Desk which is the point of highest visibility for any issues. Please rest assured that the issue is being investigated thoroughly.” The problem for me is I have a team of people getting very angry as they can’t do their jobs properly and I’m potentially losing business as we’re not able to respond to request for quotations quickly due to SAP crashes.
We pay a lot of maintenance to SAP, I thought it was to fund future functionality and develop better and more productive software however it seems v9.1 is actually a downgrade of v9.0!
We are in the process of sending Dump Files form client machines to SAP each time this occurs but, as I’m sure any small business will tell you, this is time consuming not always possible.
So, SAP have been working very hard getting 9.2 into Ramp Up, personally I wished I had waited for this as 9.1 has been a disaster for my business and I’ve lost a lot of faith in SAP and their ability to deliver market leading software.
🙁
What about removing the check box?
If this is the matter of your problem, just uncheck it.
Personally I don't like this feature.
Yes, we tried that and it does stop the crashes but leaves us open to mistakes in processing orders and takes the team a lot more time. We pay for the feature, it should work! We've been advised by SAP to leave it ticked so they can investigate the crashes.
Hi Tim,
Only to contribute with your point.
Here we are running SAP B1 on version 9.1 PL 8 on SQL Server and SAP B1 Version 9.0 PL 14 on Hana.
We are facing issues that B1 clients disconnecting from B1 9.1 on SQL Server. However, not on B1 9.0 on Hana. It seems your observations make sense.
I will monitor the environment closely.
Maybe I can help with a more consistent information.
Are SAP still supporting v9.0 on HANA? Maybe that is an option for us if they really can't get v9.1 to work on SQL.
Just to reply to your question about support for SBO 9.0 on HANA. The maintenance for version 9.0 on HAHA expired at the same time as for the SQL version (31.05.2015).
I think this typo falls well within Freudian parameters 😉
And it took my 5 re-reads to spot my mistake!! 😆 Will leave it as is, I'm sure that Tim can figure out what I'm trying to say!!
The answer is obviously hana.
Ahem.
James - I have heard there are "even more" problems with B1 on HANA. I wish it was possible to downgrade and go back to a time when SAP made software that worked but alas we're screwed on that front.
Hi James,
It is not so obviously and require test and know the version deeply. Business and addon Partners must help to evaluate and determine if it is or not an option.
As you described, it is a Business issue related to the B1 on version 9.0 and is seems to not depend on the database platform.
There are pitfalls on Hana versions. Many of them justified by SAP that it works as designed for and it is not so fast as described on some presentations. It gives more options and power functionalities to the end users, but in the other hand, you get more complexity and administration efforts.
Tim, have you already deployed a B1 9.2 lab to test this new version? I am testing it for now on Hana and SQL Server, but on a technical perspective. Maybe your best way is use this new version. Unfortunately, I still do not have the complete experience over this version to share or help you to decide.
As hints: take a look over the product compatible matrix to avoid issues with addons that does not work with B1 9.2. And if you want to start using B1 on browsers, take a close look with files integration.
Maybe I am being redundant. But the main goal is to avoid jeopardize your users and the business itself.
hello TimGuest
have you Discussed on SCN your problems ...every software has Bugs ,Don't Lose faith on SAP ...
--Ramudu
Hi Tim,
We are running 9.1 PL 07 on SQL with 32 bit clients and have been doing so since the end of July 2015. We do have the B1 Suggest option ticked and are not having the issues you are.
Did you go straight in with PL 09?
Cheers
Andy
Doh! We were advised to go on to 9.1 PL09 straight from v9.0, I wonder if we can go back to PL07? It's worth asking!
Hopefully I'll see you at SAP HQ in March Andy
That was what I was wondering!
In view of your experience I don't we will be looking to move PL until this is resolved.
Not sure if I will make the March SUG but no final decision made yet.
We have customers on Version 9.1 PL6. some on PL9 and a couple of PL10 maybe even PL7 and are not having this issue. My presumption is that when you upgraded you will have completed the staged upgrade through the installation patch and then upgrade to PL9 so unable to assist. Have you escalated the call with SAP?? Again I presume so if this is causing so many issues. Just really wanted to advise that there ARE sites around that are stable and running this patch. What I don't know is the rest of your environment but it sounds like both your partner and SAP are working together on that.
Hi Tim,
Back in the day we started with version 6.2, when there wasn't even such a concept as Patch Level yet.Inside about 5 years, we upgraded to every new version (and later patch level) that became available. We were paying for it, right?
We learned the hard way, as unfortunately you now, that for each new nifty piece of functionality in a new version, about two bugs were introduced as well. Some insignificant, some major, some returned that were fixed in earlier versions.
Believe it or not, SAP's new-version policy has improved dramatically over the years. It used to be that bugs persevered over several versions and/or patch levels, because most of the development effort went into new functionality, and only a minor part into bug fixing. Up to this day, the running joke at our company is SAP Support's standard answer (back then) to each bug we reported: "It's not a bug, its by design."
Anyway, my advice to you for the future is:
Regards,
Johan
Hi Tim,
Have you experienced any other problems besides the bug described in note 2247727 with this version? We are planning to upgrade to this version and it would be useful if your company has detected any other issues.
As a workaround for this bug, we are planning to use wildcards on the search (e.g. *tv*55*) and pressing Tab will display all items that have the words tv & 55 on the description.
Regards,
Hugo
Hi - Other than the 2 SAP Notes detailed above the software works ok. Given what I've heard from Add on partners and VARs Version 9.1 is not a good version at all up to PL09. With any luck PL10 and onward will be better!
Dear Tim:
According to the patch release notes of PL11 released yesterday (Feb 26), these bugs were fixed. If possible I suggest you upgrade at your earliest convenience in order to get rid of this bug.
You can refer to the central patch release note: http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2270040
Best regards,
Joerg.