SMEs, or small to medium enterprises, typically comprises around 250 employees and have become the backbone of the post COVID economy since the worldwide quarantine of 2020. The definition of SMEs does not change globally, but there are some variations noted around the world in the size of these organizations. For example, the EU considers an SME to have 50 or fewer employees, while in the United States, that number can be considered as high as 500 employees to qualify.
In 2019, it was estimated that 30.7 Million SMEs were operating domestically in the United States, and accounted for 64% of domestic job creation annually. Large suppliers and corporations took a huge hit with the pause on global commerce, but they are slowly beginning to recover.
Even though SMEs initially took a hard hit due to the pandemic in the US, with 31% of them slowing or ceasing operations, they are recovering quickly in true entrepreneurial fashion. Because of their smaller structure and decreased cost of operations, the pandemic was the time for highly adaptable SMEs to really shine: and they learned from the mistakes and successful practices of big business as they did so. One of the most common ways SMEs are scaling their businesses quickly is through adopting the usage of ERP software to manage their daily operational monitoring.
Recommended read: ‘ERP Statistics That Are Critical To Know For Your Business’
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has been transforming the manufacturing sector since its creation by the Gartner group in the early 1990s. ERP was the term coined by the company to describe how the single platform approach to managing every step of a project assists the manufacturer with controlling costs at the minutely specific level.
Over time, ERP applications progressed from solely managing the back-office functions (financial planning, accounting, payroll, work orders, etc.) to include CRM (customer relationship management) functionality in the form of online transactions, email newsletter campaigns, online governance, and telecommunications. Recently many ERP programs have added SRM (supplier relationship management) to their suite of functions, which further expands their powerful organizational capabilities to include supply chain monitoring, vendor networks, and market trends analysis in real-time.
ERP programs have the option of being locally installed on the company’s network or operate through a Cloud-based server platform, which has become the preferred method for data storage and utilization.
ERPs are utilized by every type of organization at this time, not solely manufacturers. Governments, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and other types of privatized industries all have seen the benefits an ERP can provide their company’s bottom line. This has led to the ERP software category earning a whopping estimated $39B global revenue annually. As you can imagine, that has created a boom in the development of new ERP companies to meet this demand.
This is why SAP offer the marketplace a tried and time-tested option, SAP Business One.
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The high-quality program SAP B1 is written in common programming languages C+, C++, and ABAP/4 for easy integration to your network. The users benefit from total support of their Operations needs in the form of Sales and Distribution tracking, Materials Management, Production Planning through all phases of the project lifecycle, Logistics, and Execution monitoring, and Quality Analysis data tracking. These vital areas ensure that your projects stay on track and utilize your components and suppliers in the most efficient manner possible.
Shareholders and stakeholders benefit from SAP Business One being so completely and thoroughly transparent in the monitoring of corporate finances. The Financial oversight suite of functionalities includes Accounting at all levels of the organization (Financial, Managerial, and Supply Chain), as well as Human Resource Management (called Human Capital in the suite) overseeing training programs, payroll distribution, and online recruiting of new prospective employees.
The organizations that use SAP Business One also enjoy the efficiently and scrupulously organized suite of Corporate Services, which allows their companies to monitor in real-time travel services, real estate, and environmental markers, and organizational health and safety protocols and statistics.
Depending on the size and scope of the organization, SAP Business 1 can be customized with Enhancement Packages to best suit your needs.
Available enhancement modules include STMS Transportation Management, to oversee a fleet of shipping vehicles and cargo tracking. It is important to note that SAP’s software does already include a basic version of this functionality with a similar name (simply Transportation Management), so when you request your consultation with one of our experienced installation analysts, be sure to clarify exactly how your business transportation needs are being met currently.
As with the scope of the functions your software is required to perform, the cost varies simultaneously. A mid-sized company of less than 1000 employees can expect to achieve full integration of an ERP package at between $10M to $20M over the lifetime of the purchase. Larger conglomerates and major corporations operating on a global scale have invested as much as $100M to implement a comprehensive ERP launch.
When weighing the risks and benefits of purchasing an SAP Business 1 package, the IT consultants will help you purchase exactly what you need to get started, and as you become familiar with how the applications and functions operate, provide you the opportunity to add Enhancements at regular intervals. SAP software operates at either level: with local installation on your corporate network or over the Cloud, which we are finding more and more organizations prefer to permit seamless launch of enhancements and rollout of updates.
