Technology has become the heart and soul of modern-day businesses. Especially for most small and medium enterprises, having an ERP system to manage their backend core operations is not a choice but a necessity. Amidst many ERP solutions, SAP Business One stands out as a beacon of innovation and reliability, providing small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with the tools to adapt, thrive, and outpace the competition. And at the recent SAP Partner Summit for SMEs 2024, exciting updates, and a bold roadmap for the future of SAP Business One were unveiled, promising a decade of transformative advancements.
As one of the leading SAP integration platforms and a Solution Services Partner Sponsor at the SAP Partner Summit 2024, APPSeCONNECT was also present at the event to learn about recent developments and the future of SAP Business One. We also interacted and networked with the overall SAP Business One community, including many reputed implementation partners within the ecosystem.
We have put together a concise but comprehensive coverage of what went down at the summit, the revelation of new features, what’s in store for the next decade of SAP Business One upgrades, as well as our take on how the entire SAP ecosystem is changing and evolving for the better!
So join us as we explore the enhancements and strategic visions presented at the summit, while also discovering how APPSeCONNECT can open up new possibilities for your business to enhance your ERP systems further with our powerful SAP integrations.
Recent Innovations in SAP Business One
This year, many new features and upgrades to SAP Business One were unveiled at the Summit, representing significant advancements in functionality and user experience. Here’s a quick recap of the recent innovations for SAP Business One:
Enhanced Web Client:
Improving the user experience has been one of the main priorities for SAP, so they have made major upgrades to their web client, such as:
- Revamped web client design and interface based on SAP Fiori
- Built-in analytics capabilities and reporting within the web client, including object-centered analytics, contextual analytics, and user-defined queries (UDQs).
- Customized build screens to simplify and automate specific micro-business-processes
Advanced Security and Authentication:
SAP has made further improvements to its security and authentication system. The improved identity and authentication management (IAM) service in SAP Business One enhances security by allowing users to sign in with their identity provider, offering multi-factor authentication, and reducing the risk of attacks.
It also reduces password fatigue and supports single sign-on with leading identity providers like Azure AD and Okta. This new functionality enables central user management, optimal license allocation, seamless integration with extensions, and an overall enhanced sign-in experience for customers.
Intelligent Automation:
With the rise of AI technology in recent years, it’s no surprise that SAP Business One has also been equipped with powerful AI capabilities. Last year, SAP unveiled their AI copilot Joule, and it was under the spotlight once again at this year’s summit.
The AI copilot is set to significantly enhance the user experience with innovative features such as:
- Offering quick answers and intelligent insights, supporting faster decision-making.
- Act as a personalized assistant with generative AI capabilities.
- Allowing users to ask questions or present problems in plain language, receiving contextual, actionable responses
Globalization and Compliance Readiness:
SAP Business One is well-prepared to support global operations, ensuring that companies comply with local tax regulations and business practices seamlessly.
Flexible tax management tools have been provided so that the SAP Business One can adapt to various tax scenarios globally, aiding businesses in managing complexities associated with multi-national operations. SAP wants to establish its position as a global leader, so these features are a step forward toward preparing the ERP system for country-specific regulations.
SAP’s Strategic Vision and Product Direction
The strategic vision outlined at the SAP Partner Summit 2024 underscores SAP’s commitment to empowering small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with robust, flexible, and scalable solutions.
While a lot of major and minor details were discussed throughout the event in regards to SAP’s decade-long vision and for the future of SAP Business One, here’s a quick rundown of the most significant updates:
Cloud ERP Strategy
SAP Business One is poised to transition to a fully cloud-based ERP, moving away from its original roots as an on-premises ERP system. By embracing cloud technology, SAP aims to provide SMEs with flexible, accessible, and cost-effective ERP solutions.
Innovation and Extensibility
Future investments are targeted at improving core product functionalities while also enhancing the platform’s extensibility through the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This will allow businesses to develop add-ons that customize and extend the capabilities of SAP with greater ease, ensuring that they can meet their unique business needs effectively.
Enhanced User Experience
SAP is dedicated to continuing its investments in improving the web client, especially in terms of usability, integration, and mobile support. The goal is to create an interface that simplifies complex processes and enables users to perform their tasks with higher efficiency and lower learning curves.
Focus on Intelligent Technologies
Emphasizing the integration of AI and machine learning, SAP Business One aims to automate more processes and provide deeper insights into business operations. This not only helps in reducing manual tasks but also in making more informed decisions faster.
In fact, they are working on the development, testing, and gradual release of more AI-powered features such as:
SAP Business One Roadmap and Planned Innovations
As per the roadmap unveiled by SAP, the future of SAP Business One promises a suite of enhancements that are designed to bring substantial benefits to SMEs across the globe.
Here are the key planned innovations that SAP Business One is set to roll out:
Service Layer and API Functionalities Enhancements
SAP Business One is set to enhance its Service Layer, which will facilitate easier and more robust customizations. This includes broader API functionalities and more effective integration tools, which are crucial for businesses aiming to tailor SAP Business One to specific needs. It also plans to expand and enrich its API library, which will facilitate data exchanges and integrations, enhancing the system’s flexibility and utility.
So as SAP Business One improves its Service Layer and API functionalities to provide easier and more robust customizations, businesses can leverage integration platforms and tools for seamless API integration between SAP Business One and other enterprise applications.
Global Compliance and Localization
Localization and compliance will remain an important area for future upgrades. Customers can expect more refined localization capabilities that cater to the regulatory and business nuances across over 50 countries. This also includes dynamic and adaptive tax management tools designed to handle various tax scenarios, helping companies manage VAT, GST, and other regional tax obligations efficiently.
Cloud and Mobile Enhancements
As already mentioned, SAP is committed to strengthening the cloud capabilities of SAP Business One, emphasizing security, scalability, and operational flexibility, so upcoming upgrades will certainly prioritize cloud services. This also includes leveraging the powerful in-memory HANA database, which can equip SAP Business One with enhanced real-time insights, faster processing speeds, and improved data management capabilities.
Upgrades to mobile functionalities are also planned that facilitates access to the system on-the-go , allowing for crucial operations like sales transactions and customer service management to be handled via mobile devices as well, and not just the web client.
User Experience, Customization and Accessibility
For the new web client, future improvements will also focus on user interface design and interaction. The aim is to make the client more intuitive and responsive, which will help reduce the learning curve and improve overall user satisfaction and productivity.
Future versions will include better personalization options, allowing users to configure their workflows and dashboard views to match their preferences, along with improved accessibility features to accommodate a diverse range of user needs.
What Does the Future of SAP Business One Look Like? Trends and Predictions for 2024
The entire decade-long roadmap for SAP Business One includes numerous major and minor updates along with a detailed plan for the future. But on the surface level, here are the most significant trends that are going to define the future of SAP Business One.
Trend #1: SAP Business One will focus on a cloud-first approach
SAP Business One is strategically transitioning towards a cloud-first approach, so further enhancing their cloud services will remain one of SAP’s main priorities. This shift reflects SAP’s commitment to providing SMEs with enhanced accessibility, scalability, and flexibility in their ERP systems.
Takeaway for SAP Partners & Customers:
SAP Business One customers who are already on the cloud and leveraging the service layer or the HANA database can expect a more seamless experience operating the ERP system. But more importantly, taking SAP Business One to the cloud means that it is high time for businesses using on-prem deployment and Data Interface (DI) servers to make an important leap to the cloud and upgrade to the service layer.
Additional Resources:
Still relying on the outdated DI server and facing frequent issues? Then check out the guide below to learn how to troubleshoot SAP Business One DI server.
Troubleshooting Advice For SAP Business One DI Server Issues
Trend #2: SAP Business One will remain a core product within SAP’s portfolio
This year’s summit highlighted many groundbreaking upgrades and enhancements for SAP Business One, which is a clear indication that the company plans to keep SAP Business One at the center of its cloud ERP strategy. So in the coming years, SAP Business One will continue to be at the forefront of SAP SE’s portfolio and range of products, serving as the leading ERP system for midmarket SMEs and also getting more advanced and user-friendly with future upgrades.
Takeaway for SAP Partners & Customers:
SAP Business One will retain its status as a core product within SAP’s portfolio signifies stability and ongoing support for SAP partners and customers. Partners can expect a continued focus on Business One’s development, ensuring it remains a cutting-edge ERP solution. For customers, this commitment translates to long-term reliability and access to the latest advancements in ERP technology.
Trend #3: SAP will remain committed to a user-centric approach
This year’s recent development and innovations for SAP Business One as well as their product roadmap has made it clear that SAP is moving towards a user-centric approach. And they are zoning in on two aspects in this regard:
- Improving user-friendliness, so businesses can easily navigate the SAP Business One interface and seamlessly manage their back-end operations. This approach is solidified by the fact that they have made huge improvements to their web client and promise to continue doing so in the years ahead.
- Enhancing SAP Business One to offer even more features and benefits to end-users, especially in areas that have a significant impact on their business growth and success, such as advanced analytics capabilities and AI co-pilot that can automate manual tasks and processes. Along with that, tools and platforms like SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Build Apps also allow users to develop necessary extensions and add-ons for the ERP.
In short, the future of SAP Business One is on the right track to support mid-market SMEs by offering them a comprehensive ERP system that is packed with powerful features that can streamline every area of your business operations, while also being extremely user-friendly, easy to navigate, and hassle-free to configure and operate.
Takeaway for SAP Partners & Customers
SAP’s dedication to a user-centric approach in SAP Business One underscores its commitment to delivering seamless and intuitive ERP solutions. For partners, this means offering clients a solution that is not only feature-rich but also easy to adopt and navigate. Customers can look forward to a more intuitive interface and enhanced functionality aimed at driving business efficiency and growth.
Trend #4: Integration will continue to be a key focal point for SAP Business One
This year’s update included many new SAP Business One integrations, including integration with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Outlook and more.
We also discussed how the service layer and API functionalities have been improved, indicating SAP’s approach towards improving integration possibilities for Business One. These factors make it evident that SAP will continue working on new features and enhancements that make it easier to integrate Business One with a wide range of applications.
Takeaway for SAP Partners & End Users
The emphasis on integration in SAP Business One’s roadmap highlights the importance of unifying the ERP system with other enterprise applications. End users are encouraged to evaluate and prioritize SAP integration so that they can further enhance the ERP system by unifying it with other best-of-breed enterprise apps. They should also be more informed and aware about the challenges of SAP implementation and integration, while following the best practices for SAP integration.
As for SAP implementation partners, consultants, and solution providers, they must also be prepared to address the need of integration among SMEs that use Business One.
The Strategic Role of APPSeCONNECT in Enhancing SAP Business One Integrations
Looking back at this year’s SAP Partner Summit for SMEs, let’s consider two key statements:
SAP’s announcement of around 80,000 Business One users
This is an important statement for everyone in the SAP Business One community as these impressive growth figures demonstrate the sheer scale of SAP Business One implementation all around the world. But also consider the fact that these businesses lie in the midmarket segment and are at a critical stage of growth and scaling.
SAP Business One users also implement other enterprise applications
Alongside an ERP system, businesses usually have an entire tech stack comprising various enterprise apps for specific business operations, such as CRM, eCommerce platforms, sales channels, or marketplaces like Amazon, communication tools, inventory management platforms, and many more.
According to Statista’s report, businesses worldwide were found to be using 130 applications on average within their organization in 2022, as compared to an average of 8 applications in 2015.
Put these two factors together, and you realize that there are about 80,000 businesses out there that are also utilizing many other enterprise apps and tools in conjunction with SAP Business One.
So the ability to seamlessly integrate SAP Business One with a diverse array of business applications is not just ‘good-to-have’, but is a necessity to stay ahead in today’s competitive market.
This is where APPSeCONNECT comes into play. We fill a critical gap in the SAP ecosystem by providing ready-to-use, efficient, and powerful integrations between SAP Business One and essential enterprise tools like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce (Magento), HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, as well as eCommerce platforms such as.
We are not merely an integration platform – our specialists are adept at translating complex operations in supply chain management, inventory, finances, sales, purchases, order management, logistics, and manufacturing into optimized workflows within SAP Business One. This expertise makes us the preferred choice for companies looking for a business technology platform that will enhance their ERP systems with robust, scalable, and efficient integrations.
To this end, we also build and nurture strategic partnerships with various SAP implementation partners and consultants, which allows us to combine our integration services with other ERP solutions offered by our partners.
Interested to join our partnership program and offer combine our integration services within your SAP solutions? Click below to join our partner program.
Prepare to Embrace the Future of SAP Business One with APPSeCONNECT
The future of SAP Business One as unveiled by this year’s Partner Summit for SMEs has given much-needed clarity to customers and partners that this midmarket ERP system is here to stay and is only getting better with time. The new web client, advanced analytics capabilities for real-time insights, the transition towards cloud services, and the focus on integration and automation are all welcoming new features laid out in the SAP Business One roadmap.
And APPSeCONNECT is also committed to contributing to this future by offering powerful SAP Business One integration packages that seamlessly sync the ERP with a wide range of applications. Looking ahead to the future of SAP Business One, we welcome the new features and updates and encourage partners and end users to further enhance SAP’s capabilities through our integration platform.
Seamlessly integrate and automate SAP Business One with your CRM and eCommerce platform under a single, intelligent, and secure Business Process Automation platform through APPSeCONNECT’s robust integrations and achieve exponential business growth.
