When SAP Business One customers share their stories, especially when they talk about hits and misses and things they would stress to others going through a software implementation project it is so impactful. The feedback is so much more meaningful when coming from someone who has gone through it, and in hindsight can point out tactics and give advice on the make or break elements for the project.
The top 4 tips for a successful SAP Business One implementation that we captured from this session are:
Determine your technology options for data in advance. Once Future Health made the decision to move to a new solution they made a strategic decision to keep historical data in their legacy system. Which is smart. Historical transactional data is difficult to bring into a new system. More easily brought in are month-end or quarter-ending balances so that financial comparisons can be done. If you can pick a year-end or month-end date for go live so you can keep the past in your old system as you move forward with all today and forward transactions in SAP Business One.
Organize your internal team for evaluating and planning the software project. Having the right people on board for the project in the beginning helps you move smoothly through the process of evaluations, demos and proposals with your key decision makers able to give approvals to keep the momentum of the project. When a software evaluation project stalls, it is almost impossible to pick up where you left off down the road.
Take responsibility for the project. As the subject matter experts on your company, you are in the best position to decide what go-live means and how you can change the business processes to take advantage of system processes. They stress test, test, test - run test transactions of every transaction your would normally perform through your prototype system and trace them through the G/L -- and while you're doing it document procedures. Use your partner's time wisely and have them focus on system setup and difficult tasks like data transfer through DTW. On training, Future Health said it helps to have staff review the SAP module videos either in a group setting or through departmental training sessions for an idea of how the software looked and operated so they could ask better questions.
Forms take longer than you think. Future Health realized that customization of forms within SAP Business One takes longer that you may have considered. Somehow forms and outputs end up being an afterthought but are so critical for the business process. This is especially true when you decide you're going to take the opportunity to change, tweak or improve your forms now that you're recreating them. The "just one more change" ends up costing you big in service hours. Do your best to review all forms early for any changes and lock them down quickly.