Overall Satisfaction with SAP Business ByDesign
We implemented SAP BYD to improve out quote to cash process. We used consultants to help with the implementation, which was very helpful, but did not mean we got it right the first time. Once the software was implemented, and we were able to get data out of the system, we were really able to get the benefits of the software. It has improved tracking of transactions. It has provided transparency into open transactions that should be closed. SAP has allowed the company to have one source of truth. It has allowed us to have one customer name that all departments use to book time and expenses against as well as support and service request. The biggest cons were the CRM functionality - the sales team went back to Salesforce, the multiple steps for approvals, and the multiple steps needed to enter an expense report. In addition, the mobile app for submitting expense reports is less than excellent.
- It is very easy to customize settings, and process flows, but not functionality.
- It is easy to see what is open and what is completed.
- It easy to get data out of the system.
- It is difficult to get reports that tie sales order (materials) with projects (labor and T&E). This has to be done in Excel.
- Approvals involve multiple steps.
- Hard to enter expense reports and review expense reports.
- Microsoft Silverlight is slow as opposed to Adobe Flash
- We were able to implement the project under our $100k budget.
- The sales team moved back to Salesforce, which caused the company to use a separate person to enter the quotes in SAP as well as Salesforce.
- We have improved tracking of support costs as well as whether a customer has an active support contract or not.
- We have improved our inventory control for tracking changes to BOM costs or BOM items.
- We have better control of ensuring that only products that are on the sales order and that tie to the customer purchase order are released to the customer. Extras are controlled.
The accounting team went from struggling to keep data integrity and completeness to the ability to have more capacity to grow with the increased revenue and not need to hire any additional accounting staff. Now that we have completed one year on the system and had our financials from the system audited by a third party, the system is working as planned, and now we are moving to use more functionality beyond the basics, such as exception reporting, approval routing, and more.