Prices and costs for SAP Business One

This article was updated on 19.07.2017

The costs incurred when purchasing ERP software such as SAP Business One must be considered and determined from a variety of perspectives. When a medium-sized company manager decides on the purchase of ERP or business software, the most important questions are therefore: What is the benefit for me? and also: What are the prices and costs of SAP Business One?

Simple costs for SAP Business One licences ?

Take an SAP price list, use the function matrix to analyse which licences you need, add it all up and voila: You have the licence costs. You then have to take into account which

SAP Business One licence types

You can use this list to check which SAP Business One function is possible with which basic licence.

Database licence modell you choose. On the other hand, there is also a discount scale. The costs for the add-ons are also added (with their own discount scale). These can be smaller functional extensions such as the Versino DATEV interface or equally sophisticated industry solutions such as MariProject. I would say that 5 - 10 price lists can still play a role here in Germany at the moment.

As a result, it can be difficult to calculate valid prices. Depending on what the licence composition looks like, it may be cheaper to go for higher-value licences in order to get a better discount scale. These are upgrades are possible, but are ultimately based on the upgrade prices. The costs relating to the period of use of the software must also be taken into account. Maintenance must also be factored in here. This in turn is based on the price of the licence. The range of what a single user can cost is therefore not exactly small: everything from 250.00 EUR to 5,000.00 EUR is possible. Behind this is a configuration option of up to 30 individual components per user licence.

Lack of price transparency for SAP Business One?

Now one could surmise that the intention behind this multitude of possible combinations is to make the price of Business One as non-transparent as possible. Admittedly, transparency looks different, but it is what it is: variety.
After all, this diversity means the possibility of Licensing model to find the right solution for the customer.

SAAS, PAAS, Hosting, Housing... the price of diversity

The operator model on which SAP Business One is to be based is essential for costs and how and when these expenses are incurred.

Do you want to buy the SAP B1 or rent or lease it?
If one prefers a real SAAS Model from the cloud to operate SAP Business One?
Should it be a hybrid model? How does a Platform as a Service (PAAS), such as cloudiax, and run purchased SAP licences on it.
Do you want "classic" hosting for the SAP Business One installation?
Tend towards server housing that is managed by your own IT.
Can you set everything up on your own IT infrastructure?

These questions bring to light a wide variety of aspects, all of which must be weighed against the background of your needs, goals and requirements:

What does your own IT cost, including personnel costs and depreciation for the corresponding IT infrastructure?
How long do you plan to run SAP Business One as ERP software in your company?
How will the use of SAP Business One scale?
How much growth is planned for the company?
How will the number of users for SAP B1 fluctuate?
Which different company locations should work with SAP Business One?
What technical possibilities exist at which locations?
How will the conditions change?

Costs for counselling, integration and training

The licence costs for SAP Business One are one side of the coin. The other side is the costs for Consulting and Introduction of the software. Accordingly, there can be an enormous range here. This is mainly based on the customer's processes. The more processes that need to be mapped with the software, the greater the effort required. The same applies to the complexity of the processes. It's true: we are dealing with standard software in which standard processes are mapped. Nevertheless, there are special features in every company that should be reflected in the software. Because it is often precisely these special features that make the difference and thus the advantage over the competition.
Incidentally, one of the strengths of SAP Business One is the ability to understand these peculiarities despite standardisation. The customisation options within the basic system contribute to this. The large number of functional enhancements through ADDONs are also all the more helpful.

Price calculations on the Internet are dangerous

How do you arrive at a price determination for SAP Business One? Some people have already tried an automated solution for determining prices. Here you can click through a series of questions and data on the Internet, similar to a car configuration system, and finally receive information or even a ready-made quotation. Nevertheless, everyone realises that this is only a house number. After all, giving a house number is of no use if it ends up being located in the wrong street. In short, it can be plausible, but it can be totally wrong if a small speciality is ignored.

Why are there consultants for SAP Business One?

There's only one thing to do: pick up the phone and call someone from the Budgeting ERP projects understands something (or should understand something). However, one should ask oneself beforehand:

What do I want to achieve with a software solution?
What is the first priority of my goals?
What do I like about my current solution? What don't I like?

The most important resource that can be used to assess the cost and price of an SAP Business One project with a consultant is experience.
Anyone who can look back on a few or many projects also has a good sense of where a planned ERP project could develop and what a possible budget looks like.

and (very important)

What would I like to spend?

When you buy a car, your primary goal is to get from A to B. You can do this with a Golf or an S-Class, for example. Likewise, there are always several approaches to realising needs with software. And on closer inspection, some things become a dispensable luxury, others an absolute must, without which the whole investment makes no sense.
After discussing these or similar questions and the upcoming quantity structures, an experienced consultant should be able to give an estimate of the investment required for the implementation of SAP Business One.

Project examples SAP Business One

Finally, another key strength of SAP Business One is the scalability of the ERP system. Just like the term midmarket, the usability of SAP Business Software is also broadly defined in terms of the size of the customer. The smallest customers operate with one or two users, while the largest have several hundred.
In addition, the prices and costs for the implementation projects of the SME solution naturally also vary greatly. Here are some examples:

Start-up / Service company

Project costs : 6.000,00 EUR
monthly costs: 238,00 EUR

The recently founded company uses the cloud version of SAP Business One. Cloudiax was chosen as the platform. The monthly rent for the SAP B1 licences / Cloudiax including SAP HANA database is EUR 238.00. A two-day analysis workshop was also booked to introduce the system and the remote service was otherwise used. The costs for this totalled EUR 6,000.00

SME / Service

Project costs : 18.450,00 EUR
monthly costs: 155,00 EUR

A company that provides services uses four SAP Business One users. They have decided to install SAP B1 on the existing Windows server. The licences were purchased for EUR 8,450.00. The monthly costs for maintenance and support are EUR 155.00.
An SAP Business One consultant accompanied the company for several project days during the implementation. The costs for this were EUR 10,000.00

SME / medium-sized manufacturing company

Project costs : 38.000,00 EUR
monthly costs: 370,00 EUR

The company is in the metalworking industry and has introduced SAP Business One as a fully integrated system. It works with 8 employees in the administration and 45 employees in the production. For the Production data acquisition a certified SAP B1 add-on was also licensed. The licence costs for the ERP project amount to EUR 20,000.00. The monthly costs for maintenance and support are EUR 370.00.
The software is operated on the company's own IT infrastructure. The ERP system was introduced as part of a project. An amount of EUR 18,000.00 is estimated for this.

Medium-sized wholesaler

Project costs : 115.000,00 EUR
Monthly costs: EUR 4,000.00

The company is active in wholesale and operates from locations in Germany and Switzerland. It has 280 employees, 60 of whom work in administration, including purchasing and sales. The rest work in logistics and field sales. A mobile warehouse solution was also introduced. The licences were purchased for around EUR 70,000.00. The software is provided on the Cloudiax PAAS. The monthly costs for operation, maintenance and support amount to around EUR 4,000.00.
The ERP solution for wholesale was introduced as part of a project costing around EUR 45,000.00.

SME / Medium-sized plant manufacturer

Project costs : 157.000,00 EUR
Monthly costs: EUR 2,000.00

The company is in the plant construction active. 220 employees work in-house and also on site at the customer's premises. Almost all company processes were mapped in SAP Business One with an industry extension. Quotation calculation, purchasing processes, resource management, project planning and project accounting were integrated with SAP B1. Mobile data capture and a maintenance module for the systems were also important. The PLM system and CAD design were connected via the integration server.
The software was installed on the company's own servers.
The licences were purchased for around EUR 77,000. The project required services at a cost of EUR 80,000. The monthly costs for maintenance and support totalled around EUR 2,000.00.

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