When implementing SAP Business One or any other business management solution the question I often get asked is “what resource is required to ensure a successful implementation?”.

These are the key areas of implementation that customers should focus on to ensure implementation success:

• Internal project management – your SAP Business One partner will provide project management resource to guide you through the project. Do not underestimate the importance of having your own internal project manager to manage budget, expectations, co-ordinate training and user feedback, track and follow up on user acceptance testing and report on progress to senior management.
• Super users – make sure that you appoint super users to each functional area of your SAP Business One implementation (finance, sales, logistics etc.). Super users will take responsibility for co-ordinating training, user testing and feedback in their department.
• Admin super user – SAP Business One has been designed for small to medium sized businesses. The total cost of ownership is relatively low when compared to other mid-market business management solutions. You can ensure a low cost of ownership by training one of your more technical users as a systems administrator. The systems administrator will take responsibility for day to day SAP Business One administrative tasks – setting up new users, basic support for user queries, user authorisations and reporting.
• Senior management participation – all good implementation methodologies refer to the fact that buy-in from senior management is required for a successful implementation of business management solutions. I would argue that you need more than senior management buy-in – you need senior management input into some key design phases of the implementation. The amount of senior management participation required will depend on the size of your organisation. In smaller companies where the senior management are actively involved in several day to day business activities you will definitely want to make sure that the senior team is involved in the more strategic design workshops. If you do not involve senior management you might spend time configuring your solution only to find out that the end result is not what management want.
• Get organised – a basic requirement that cannot be overlooked. SAP provides an implementation methodology for SAP Business One which includes templates for project plans, project minutes and step by step guides to assist with your implementation.
• Scope of works – make sure that you and your SAP Business One implementation partner put together a comprehensive scope of works. The scope of works should include data conversion, reporting requirements, functional footprint and integration / development requirements. Once again the SAP Business One implementation methodology provides some good scope of works templates which can be very useful.
• Phased implementation approach – depending on your timeframes and resource availability you might want to consider a phased implementation approach. Implement your critical business processes in phase one and include some of the nice to have aspects in a second stage implementation.
• Set realistic goals – make sure that your go live date and implementation plans are realistic. Give yourself time for user acceptance testing and training.

The team at Leverage Technologies have successfully implemented more than 140 SAP Business One sites across Australia – if you want any additional implementation advice feel free to call us on 1300 045 046.