As an SAP Business One partner, you have to deal with the entire spectrum of medium-sized businesses. The customer and the SAP consultant often first have to find and align their roles. This is a task above all for the SAP partner.
When will the installers come
If I were sensitive, I would probably have been slightly offended. However, I found it funny at first and then interesting. The managing director of a company that was planning to introduce SAP Business One asked: When will your installers come then?
What he meant, of course, were the SAP Adviser. What became clear, however, was that we were not yet in complete agreement about the role of an SAP partner in an ERP project.
The perception that often prevails in SMEs with regard to an SAP Business One project often does not coincide with the often practised and structured approach by an SAP partner.
First misunderstandings between customer and SAP partner
A fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the customer is often how he basically sees ERP software: A software package with a selection of functions that you install, train and then use.
The SAP consultant often sees the same software from a completely different perspective. He understands a Standard ERP such as SAP Business One as a construction kit that is delivered with a certain setup of functions and is adapted to the customer's requirements. Of course, the SAP partner must have the appropriate staff for this. Often these are SAP consultants with special orientations.
In this example, the customer's view is that the SAP consultant should take him by the hand. The SAP partner should show him what to do.
The SAP Business One partner, in turn, first wants to know exactly how the customer works. The good SAP consultant will, however, first and foremost try to find out what the customer's objectives are.
The SAP Business One Partner and the "Standard Mantra"
A different understanding of the role of SAP Business One partner is often encountered goes in the opposite direction of the one described above. The SAP partner is seen as a software forge. The customer comes to the SAP consultant with a colourful bouquet of functions and wants them implemented. Whether they are covered by the standard ERP solution is irrelevant to him. Then you have to do the programming ? that's why the SAP specialists are there.
The SAP consultant has a mantra in his head: Standard! Standard! Standard!
For him, custom programming is the very last option. He would like to force the customer to change the process instead of changing the ERP solution.bend?
The good SAP consultant is not an installer
As you can see, it is often a difficult situation at first that determines the relationship between SAP Business One Partner and SAP Business One customers. A good SAP consultant is aware of these hurdles when starting out in a ERP project and will try to clarify the roles in time.
This requires backbone, experience and deep knowledge of the ERP application and the client's processes.
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