Regarding the functionality, SAP Business ByDesign can improve some logistics functions and additionally should improve the data entries to update exchange rates.
About the licensing, there are many types of licenses and it is very confusing to distinguish them.
The mobile apps are confusing and they do not have the same functions as the web version.
Reporting is fantastic and is based on SAP's Business Objects design allowing a drag and drop UI for creating the fields you're interested in with the right views and filters
The Project Management controls are perfectly integrated into the solution allowing tight controls and easy set-up of projects. Everything flows smoothly from creating tasks in a gantt style control to being able to be entered into a timesheet. A PM can see project health from a cockpit view and make necessary decisions.
I am waiting for ByD to fully move away from the Silverlight dependance to being full on HTML5. Apparently this will happen over the next year.
There are many areas requiring multiple clicks to navigate that can be simplified. For example drilling down on expense claims; if you would like to navigate from a description to viewing a image of a receipt there could be around 8 clicks of navigation to move between the two (this is the worst case example btw)
When we first began using it, there was no function for housing budget data for comparison with actual performance. An Excel-based tool had to be created to address this glaring shortcoming.
ByDesign is not well equipped for large companies that need to be SOX-Compliant. For example, there is not a way to prevent the same person from creating and posting their own journal entries without approval. Documentation work-arounds are needed.
In many instances error descriptions are not adequate to resolve a problem. Errors are caught in the Closing Cockpit, but the error descriptions are usually not specific enough to resolve the problem.
Since the program is cloud based and the company is in Germany, it can be very slow to respond to requests; particularly when running large reports.
SAP Business ByDesign (ByD) is a cloud enterprise resource
planning software (Cloud ERP) that is sold and operated
as software as a service (SaaS) by SAP SE. It is designed for
small to medium-sized enterprises as well as subsidiary businesses. The
software is designed to provide business processes across application areas
from financials to human resources with embedded business analytics,
mobility, e-learning, and support.
SAP Business ByDesign is built on the principles of a service-oriented
architecture (SOA). The underlying technology is leveraging SAP's in-memory
HANA database.
A comprehensive set of prepackaged integrations as well
as SOAP and oData webservices ensure easy integrations to other SAP or non-SAP
applications.
The main application areas:
Financial Management
Customer Relationship Management
Project Management and Professional Service Automation
Supplier Relationship Management and Procurement
Supply Chain Management
Human Resource Management
Fund and Grant Management
Business Analytics
Executive support and compliance management.
ByDesign is deployed in 144 countries and
supports 12 languages.
SAP Business ByDesign is available for a
monthly software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription, based on a base package,
user types, and number of users. The price includes hosting, unlimited storage,
access to all application areas (see above), support etc.
Updates are delivered automatically four times a
year with no IT staff required.
