The team at Leverage Technologies gets asked this question on a daily basis – “I am implementing SAP Business One – how long should it take”.

Over the last 10 years, I have heard companies quote 2 weeks to 12 months (and everything in between) for an SAP Business One implementation. The truth is that there is no one single right or wrong answer to the implementation timeframes for SAP Business One. Most standard (mid-range) SAP Business One implementation take three months to complete and require 30-50 consultancy days – including reporting.

Let’s take a quick look at some influencing factors:

• The number of SAP Business One entities to be implemented – are you implementing a single entity / ABN or multiple different companies?
• Data conversion? How much data needs to be converted into the new SAP Business One system and is this data in a suitable format where it can be easily exported from your current legacy solution into SAP Business One?
• Reporting? Does your business require user-specific reporting or will your business be able to use the standard SAP Business One reporting?
• Development? Does your business require any industry or site-specific development?
• Add-on solutions – is your SAP Business One implementation partner recommending any specific third-party integrated solutions?
• Functional requirements – what broad category of functional requirements does your business have – finance, CRM, manufacturing, distribution?
• The number of users and the location of these users (distributed across multiple offices or in a single location)?
• The current skill set of users? Are the users skilled at using an ERP / Business Management Solution like SAP Business One?
• Project management – will you have access to an internal project manager to help streamline the implementation of SAP Business One?
• Cloud Vs on-premise SAP Business One implementation?
• The depth of functional requirements – is your business looking to implement a broad level of simple functionality or a very deep functional footprint utilizing all of the modules and configurations available in SAP Business One?

As you can see there are multiple factors which need to be considered before finalizing timeframes and implementation days for an SAP Business One implementation.

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It’s a good idea to scope out your SAP Business One implementation and timeframes as a part of your assessment process. This will give you, the customer, a clear understanding of the timeframes and associated investment required to implement SAP Business One. The SAP Business One scope of work will also provide your SAP Business One partner with a clear understanding of the functionality and consultancy days required to implement SAP Business One for your business.