ERP for global use

Globalisation has long since ceased to be the preserve of large corporations. Small and medium-sized businesses also play in the international competition and use their opportunity to find their own place in the worldwide economic tussle by establishing branches or exporting goods. This is made possible by the right ERP, which, like SAP Business One, exists in the maze of different countries and cultures.

Even though the seven seas are now no longer an obstacle, companies still have some hurdles to overcome in their global expansion. After all, what applies to operations in one country does not necessarily apply to those in another. The company is depending on the legislation, Currencyaccounting rules, languages and also banking systems are required to adapt to the individual cases. And the demand for compliance with the guidelines in the various countries is increasing.

Especially for IT, the expansion to different countries poses a special challenge. It has to integrate the new office, both the international branches and acquired companies, into the existing IT infrastructure of the company. The ERP system plays the main role here. But it is important to find a suitable solution that can be integrated uniformly and helps to handle business processes quickly and efficiently across all country borders. In addition, the ERP should accelerate the flow of information and what the system used to make possible within the countries, it should now make possible across all borders.

Multilingual and Unicode

In order for the same ERP solution to be usable for subsidiaries in different countries, it must be multilingual. It should not be a problem to display, enter and process various documents (e.g. invoices) and regulations in the corresponding national language. This is also necessary for companies that do not have a branches have abroad, but do business with international companies.
Furthermore, an ERP system that is to be used internationally today must be Unicode-capable. Since languages such as Chinese or Russian use special characters, this not only affects the documents, but also the menus of the user interface as well as the help system.

Currency and local law

Another important point to make an ERP solution internationally usable is that it must be adaptable to the different currencies and legal bases. This is noticeable, for example, when writing invoices, as these have to be adapted to all legal and fiscal requirements of the countries. Especially in countries like Brazil, China or Russia, where financial laws or regulations change frequently, an ERP system must have the possibility to adapt to them again and again. This process should be taken over by local partners of the ERP providers who are familiar with the requirements of the country. Things like accounting rules also play a role, chart of accountsThe role of the law, contract law, commercial law and copyright law must be taken into account.

The multi-site function

An equally important point is that the ERP software covers and consolidates all the sites in different countries in their country-specific units, i.e. currencies, quantities or calculations in one (multi-site function). It includes all parts of the company such as production, purchasing and sales, finance and inventory. The right ERP system makes it possible to automate the course of an international business almost entirely.
The multi-site function also makes it possible to create the data of key figures such as turnover development or the stock levels of the individual branches within a short time and to consolidate them. This is particularly useful because the data from different countries can be compared better and faster in uniform formats. Such central data management thus ensures efficient controlling and a transparent financial plan for a company with international distribution.

Scalable ERP system

An ERP solution that meets the international standard must allow for growth among its users and function at many locations as well as at a single one. In addition, the solution should introduce the various functions step by step as needed. Especially with small locations in the Abroad or in branch offices with few business administration workplaces, changes often occur to which the system must be adapted. On top of that, these offices should also be able to be operated via a browser.

Implementation and local service

If you want to choose a certain ERP provider, the implementation of the solution should play a major role. On the one hand, it is important to have a local partner who works well with the head office. It is important that these partners are well networked and at home in the culture of the respective country, i.e. that they are competent in the mother tongue, and that they are familiar with the legal regulations and can respond to them if necessary.
On the other hand, both the provider and its partner should use a uniform implementation methodology and proceed in a standardised manner during the rollout, which should ideally be tried and tested. rollout should be standardised. For example, if new partners arrive in later years, it should be possible to work with an identical methodology, since the most important company processes are stored in the ERP system.

Reference customers

Of course, the choice of the right ERP solution always depends on personal requirements and the company's industry. However, you can narrow down your choice based on a few points. Firstly, it should be determined which countries will play a role for the company in the future. Secondly, which system will be used, for example, by a company that has been taken over. In addition, the provider should be able to name at least one reference from the corresponding region from which one can obtain information about the system and implementation.

SAP B1 blog