When considering the costs of an SAP Business One cloud migration, you have to go into detail to get a realistic view of the expected expenditure. The different billing models of the providers and the technical pitfalls of your own IT infrastructure can quickly eat up the savings. There is the threat of sensitive cost drivers that are easy to overlook in the complex ERP migration.
SAP Business One running on-premise costs
An initial measure initially has little to do with a cloud to do. Around the SAP Business One To be able to assess cloud migration costs at all, you should first evaluate the operation of the existing hardware and software in order to objectively compare them later with the costs of the future cloud solution. The problem is that the costs for most local software and hardware components differ structurally from the cloud pricing models. On-premise infrastructures require considerable upfront investment in hardware and software, but are then amortised. The costs for an SAP Business One Cloud remain the same or increase with more intensive use.
On-premise costs for operation
A large part of the costs of in-house ERP operation is naturally the salary for IT professionals. However, the costs for personnel recruitment, further training, and „downtime factors“ such as holidays or illness must also be taken into account. Although own IT professionals are also needed when using cloud-based solutions, they are freed from some tasks, allowing them to focus more on the effective further development of the ERP.processes focus.
Even with on-premise operation, the costs for external IT service provider rather the rule. These should also be included in the cost calculation. These include expenses for system houses in the area of IT equipment, maintenance, repairs, etc.
Of course, the rest of the IT infrastructure, including space and electricity costs, must be included in the cost consideration.
Check existing contracts
Often existing, contractual ties in connection with the existing SAP Business One On-premise installations are overlooked. This starts with rental leasing contracts and also applies to maintenance and support contracts through to expenses, asset management and audits. SAP Business One licences that have already been purchased to date can be migrated to SAP Business One Cloud at Cloudiax „take with you“. Annual costs for software maintenance will continue to be incurred.
Billing models for an SAP Business One Cloud
When estimating and costing cloud services, it is important to clarify: how does the respective provider measure the utilisation of their capacities? At the same time, one should question the criteria by which these are billed. This ranges from hourly billing for the utilisation of individual instances and calculating costs by data volume, to calculating availability levels. This means that companies need a largely precise insight into which cloud capacities are needed in which quality levels, when, and in what quantities. Otherwise, you start by calculating with a relatively cheap model and end up with unexpectedly high costs for SAP Business One Cloud after an „optimisation phase“. This particularly applies to the offerings of the „cloud heavyweights“ AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft) and Google.
The application architecture and performance, for example in terms of the required memory or transaction data volume, hardly play a role with the usually generously dimensioned hardware in data centres. In cloud operation, however, this can significantly increase costs.
Software landscape in an SAP Business One Cloud
In the case of a migration of an existing SAP Business One installation is rarely just about moving the SAP core application. Larger installations in particular operate some extensions or add-ons together with their SAP solution. Integration with additional software packages is also the rule. Other cloud services are also used to exchange data with SAP Business One.
The additional software may also have to be moved or cause additional data traffic, which can affect the costs of SAP Business One Cloud.
Last but not least, not all third-party software can be operated on the cloud provider's infrastructure in the same way. It is not uncommon for medium-sized companies to run individual servers with outdated operating systems. This is because they are running outdated specialised software for which there is no replacement or update.
Versions and updates in an SAP Business One Cloud
SAP Business One systems are often large and complex structures, even for medium-sized companies. adjustmentschanges and updates are carefully considered and usually result in small projects of their own. With this in mind, upgrading to a current version is not always necessary. Depending on the cloud model, this is no longer possible without further ado. Even if the cloud provider is only used as a Software as a Service (PAAS) conflicts can arise that force you to update to a new version. At the latest when the updates are security-relevant, you can no longer avoid them, regardless of the reason.
Other user requirements
Users often cannot simply carry on as usual after they have moved to an SAP Business One Cloud without being asked beforehand. For example, a cloud environment must always comply with very high security standards. Any kind of shadow IT installed by users themselves is unthinkable. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is often also mandatory. The individual user must also accept that their administrator has less power to act. It is no longer possible to make quick adjustments or deal with a malfunction immediately.
Correct calculation for SAP Business One Cloud costs
From the above and the sometimes necessary many options and variations of the providers, a realisation quickly emerges. A quick calculation of the number of users multiplied by the base price for cloud use is in most cases a pipe dream based on often overly optimistic marketing. The SAP Business One systems and often the requirements of the companies that use them are usually too individual.
It is worth investing in detailed research and talking to experts beforehand.
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