Kartik Shah’s brag on SharePoint technologies, Microsoft Consulting, communities, business, p2p networking, IT in business

SAP B1 or SAP Business One is recently started making buzz in local companies here in Ahmedabad Region. I was talking to some of the decision makers about SAP B1 and Microsoft NAV as ERP options. From my knowledge SAP B1 is having following modules

SAP Business One contains 14 core modules:

• Administration Module, where configuration is performed
• Financials Module, where various accounting and financial activities are conducted
• Sales Opportunities Module, where existing customers and potential accounts are structured tracking
• Sales Module, where orders are entered, shipped and invoiced
• Purchasing Module, where purchase orders are issued and goods received into inventory
• Business Partners Module, where Business Partners (customers, vendors, and leads) are contacted and maintained
• Banking Module, where cash is received and paid out
• Inventory Module, where Inventory is valued and managed
• Production Module, where bill of materials is defined and manufacturing is tracked
• MRP Module, where purchase and production planning takes place
• Service Module, where after-service products are managed
• Human Resources Module, where employee information is kept
• Reports Module, where system-default and user-defined reports are generated (as on-screen tables, printouts or Excel files: Print Layout Designer, Advanced Layout Designer (To be Discontinued in 2009 due to purchase of Business Objects), XL Reporter and Crystal Reports 2008 Basic(One Free License per customer))
• E-commerce, allowing customers to buy and sell online to consumers or other businesses.
• WebCRM. Allows employees to manage customer support cases, salespeople to manage prospects, and customers to submit cases all via a web browser client

The major drawback I can quickly identify is lack of "Manufacturing Module", so I am surprise that you have an ERP (Claimed and marketed at least by SAP AG) without manufacturing module. From public records (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_Business_One ) and available known public fact I would like to highlight that SAP purchased TopManage Financial Systems – Israel-based Financial System Software and branded it as "SAP B1 ERP", oh come on…just adding Mercedes Car name to Maruti 800 Car doesn't mean it will be as powerful as Mercedes lowest model even. This is what happening in local market and that is annoying me. Instead of hiding all the drawback of B1 if you sell as a Business Automation solution which has financial system, MIS reporting and CRM features it should be fine with customer. However i acknowledge the fact that financial module in SAP B1 is very good (it should as it is native Financial System Software), however in Indian Businesses where Talley represents most of Financial Accounting module in Small Business does they need this comprehensive financial module?, that is what i am unable to understand. This is kind of making business owners fool with name of SAP and claiming SAP B1 as ERP which I think is NOT. I am aware that sales pitch is always saying you can add manufacturing module blah blah blah ….. but really our LOCAL business leaders are so fool to get in to this trap?

Let's not talk on this.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft.

The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. More over Value-added resellers (VAR)s can have full access to the business logic source code, and it has a reputation as being easy to customize. This makes in my personal view dynamics NAV a complete ERP for small to mid size businesses in India. Microsoft in India sells Dynamics AX (ERP for Large Enterprise which competes with SAP R/3 and SAP AiO) and Dynamics NAV. More over Microsoft stand by with its ERP product where as I am not sure on SAP's approach on SAP B1 (I have heard from a customer that they have no support for SAP B1 written in Agreement). Microsoft NAV and all Microsoft ERP line is schedule for new releases and the new releases (Microsoft NAV 2009) will be launched with the same new role based user interface, SQL based reporting and analysis, SharePoint based portal, Pocket PC based mobile clients and integration with Microsoft Office which will really help organizations to collaborate and automate their businesses seamlessly. The both ERPs available for India Market from Microsoft is really Business Ready solution for Indian Market as they are heavily customized for India business scenarios and are business ready out of box.

If you search on Google for SAP B1 Vs Dynamics NAV you will find so much more information which will echo my thoughts here.

From my personal views, small to mid size Indian Businesses should go with Microsoft NAV as full ERP rather than Maruti 800 branded as Mercedes kind of ERP from SAP which is B1 J.

Disclaimer: Author of this post is IT consultant and provides services to mid to large size businesses since last 11 years. He is a technocrat and delivers solution per client business need in Indian scenario. The article above is personal expression of his own view based on his experience and expertise in to Indian IT solutions Market. Author can be contacted by using contact me tab above.