SAP Business ByDesign Reviews

Our use case for SAP Business ByDesign is our dealer team accessing their system to perform sales and service; these two functionalities are done through SAP Business ByDesign.

SAP Business ByDesign has multiple functionalities, but at Tata Hitachi, we are using only the sales and service models.

We are not using SAP Business ByDesign for project management; we are using it only for sales and service for dealers.

We have created some reports to use real-time analytics features in SAP Business ByDesign, and we have been using that one.

SAP Business ByDesign is connected to our S/4 HANA system, and we have developed some APIs which help us integrate the system with S/4 HANA.

We received a few complaints about the slowness in SAP Business ByDesign last year, so I think SAP can focus on improving performance, particularly when it becomes slow during data saving and handling.

My feedback about the modular architecture and customized features of SAP Business ByDesign is that it is only good, but we have not explored much on this one.

The initial setup for SAP Business ByDesign was complex. One disadvantage was that we had the legacy system, SAP Business One, and we could not migrate our data to SAP Business ByDesign. They should have provided a migration path.

We have been using SAP Business ByDesign since 2021.

The stability of SAP Business ByDesign rates at eight out of ten.

The scalability of SAP Business ByDesign rates at seven out of ten.

The technical support from SAP is good, and it rates at eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup for SAP Business ByDesign was complex. One disadvantage was that we had the legacy system, SAP Business One, and we could not migrate our data to SAP Business ByDesign. They should have provided a migration path.

The price is high, as every year SAP increases the price by 3.5%.

We have been a customer of SAP for almost 25 years, and for SAP Business ByDesign or the SAP dealer management system, we have not explored any other options yet. I feel that it performs well with our current setup.

SAP Business ByDesign and all products are good. I rate this solution eight out of ten.

I'm using SAP Business ByDesign, implemented in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. It provides custom versions of reports personalized for you. When implementing, we consider three main things: the industry and business process, company size, and solutions already used in the company.

The solution uses different types of graphics, such as horizontal, parallel, etc. It provides facilities for both soft forms and hard pages, such as PDF and Smart Forms.

The most helpful feature is the integrations. Integrating the tool with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is easy, facilitating implementation and deployment. The runtime analysis checks for real-time analytics to see if the software works properly. This is a powerful feature. 

There might be some hurdles when integrating with SAP ECC, but integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is smooth.

I have been using the product for nine years. 

I rate the product's stability a ten out of ten. 

I'd rate the scalability seven out of ten. It can be challenging in industries like textiles that require a lot of customization, but the solution is suitable for all types of businesses.

SAP Business ByDesign offers high-priority support. 

Positive

The initial setup isn't complex if you consider the company size, current processes, and industry size.

The pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones.

For AI initiatives, you need to purchase a separate AI license to integrate with SAP Business ByDesign. I'd recommend SAP Business ByDesign for large companies that want to check data graphically, especially for monthly income, expenses, and taxes in the millions or trillions. Overall, for large-scale companies, I'd rate it ten out of ten.

Our clients opted for BYD where they needed an HCM module, which was not available in the system. Additionally, they wanted to enhance their warehouse management, which was also not provided by BYD. Lastly, they are looking to move away from BYD due to integration challenges with the Pulse system. These are the three main areas where they are seeking a suitable solution to meet their requirements.

There are certain areas of improvement. One main area is the absence of payroll functionality in BYD, and as far as I know, BYD has no plans to introduce it. Another aspect is related to warehouse operations, where they want integrated processes, including barcode scanning for material movements. This feature is currently missing as well. 

Additionally, the clients require seamless integration with the Pulse system for updating inventory and master data. At the end of the day, they want sales data from the Power system to be automatically received in BYD. However, this integration is complex and partially functional. They also have a requirement to bring purchase order creation into the Pulse system. Handling these data integrations and processes is a bit challenging for BYD. These are the areas where BYD could improve.

Our clients have been using BYD since 2018. They purchased SAP Business ByDesign in 2017 and started using it in 2018. 

The standard system is stable, but any areas with customizations are not as stable. They require continuous monitoring and maintenance.

Scalability is difficult. We work with all business types including small, medium-sized, and enterprises as well.

The customer service and support were good. However, there were some tickets in 2020 that were important to be resolved, but they took longer than expected to address.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy. It took around 24 weeks to get ready for business. 

Five people were involved in the deployment process, out of which three were technical personas, one was management, and one was an IT administrator.

Maintaining the solution is neither complex nor easy. It is okay. Two people are maintaining the solution.  

We have actually worked on four HANA implementations as well as SuccessFactor and Revolve implementations. We have a customer who is currently using SAP Business ByDesign, and now we are trying to move them from BYD to SAP S/4HANA. Due to budget constraints, they are looking for something with the same set of business processes in a lower version. They are also considering B1. 

To help them with the decision, we conducted a clear comparison of the features available in S/4HANA and B1, which we identified from multiple internet sources. We provided them with a summary to help them decide if they should go for S/4HANA or if B1 would suffice their business requirements. They are from Bahrain and operate in the pharmaceutical industry with multiple pharmacies and integration with the Pulse system. This is why we are encouraging them to make a decision as soon as possible.

Our clients are fine with the rest of the features, but they want these missing areas to be addressed in BYD if they choose to continue using it. That's why we are suggesting that it's better to go with S/4HANA, as it provides all the necessary functionalities by default. If they opt for private cloud deployment, we can handle the integrations and other processes as well.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten because a lot of things are missing in BYD. It still needs improvement.

There's a new project that is going to be enabled. In that case, I need to set up the system, enable the necessary features, conduct testing for enrollment in both test and production environments, ensure that templates or scope items are copied from the previous tenant to the new one as requested, and enable the country-specific settings. Additionally, I will enable key users and technical users who will be involved in development activities. In case of any issues, I will raise an incident ticket with SAP. I am the escalation point of contact for such matters.

SAP Business ByDesign has supported company's growth. We have implemented the ERP solution in most of our small-sized countries, fostering our rollout of the ERP landscape. As a result, many day-to-day business activities have significantly improved.

There is a business object developed by the SAP team for managing customer master data, called as business partner. With a single business partner, companies can manage custom suppliers, employees, and service agents. They have end-to-end process capabilities. For example, if an order is placed on our website, the system can track its origin and its progress until it is delivered to the customer. The end-to-end sales and logistics processes are highly functional in the system.

There should be a lot of production and treasury management especially in finance.

I have been using SAP Business ByDesign as a consultant for 10 years. We are using V24.02 of the solution.

Sometimes there are downtime of the systems, leading to login or similar issues. If such occurrences were told to the customer in advance, specifying the duration and timing of maintenance periods, it would enable businesses to plan their day-to-day activities accordingly.

I rate the solution’s stability a four out of ten.

There is a limitation in custom developments. If they provide more flexibility in the custom developments, then it will be more easy for our day-to-day business.

I rate the solution’s scalability a six to eight out of ten.

Sometimes we need to enable the scope manually if there is mismatch with the production copy or testing copy. It takes lot of time for the initial setup, around five to six months but for the later rollouts, it's less than three months.

I rate the initial setup a six to seven out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

Deployment depends from company to company. Some companies can recruit an expert to handle the implementation. Companies may initially engage with SAP partners or SAP directly for the initial implementation, and go with their internal team.

Business ByDesign is a good cloud ERP solution. It can be used for small and medium-sized enterprises with various modules enabled, from customer service to Sales & Service procurement.

We integrate with other tools. We have many front-end applications, and we also work with numerous logistics providers. Without integrating these tools into ERP, we cannot have a standalone solution.

Maintenance depends on how many countries you need to maintain. It depends on the volume, number of countries, users and licenses.

SAP also offers another cloud ERP solution. Perhaps, they could also consider that option before selecting Business ByDesign. Both applications offer extensive functionalities and benefits. Even the other cloud ERP from SAP has broader functionalities. So, before customers decide on selecting a Business application, they could also consider the new cloud ERP solution from SAP.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

I'm a project accountant in my organization and use SAP Business ByDesign to prepare my project reports.

The most valuable features of SAP Business ByDesign are customer invoicing and cost and revenue, from which I get the data for my project reports. The solution makes reporting seamless by making capturing of cost easier alongside invoicing of project revenue. The solution provides good customer management and reporting.

The approval process for the solution could be improved. With SAP S/4HANA, you can design your release strategy and modify it to include as many people as possible, which is missing in SAP Business ByDesign. That could be an area of improvement.

I have been using SAP Business ByDesign for seven months.

SAP Business ByDesign is a stable solution, and we hardly have any downtime.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.

You can always create more businesses under your organization. The solution is very easy to scale up when your operations are changing.

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten.

I have previously worked with SAP S/4HANA. SAP Business ByDesign has a more friendly user interface compared to SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Business ByDesign has improved our financial operations by eliminating the need to maintain data from multiple sources. We now have just a single source of data. We have more data integrity because we can see an audit trail of how a document or information came to be on the system.

With the solution's real-time analytics capability, we can now see the affairs of our business in real-time. Earlier, we had to wait until the end of the month for different users in the finance department to come up with their reports before we could present a position to the management. With real-time analytics, we don't have to wait until the end of the month, and we can give the management a position on the affairs of the business at any given point in time, any time of the month.

I would recommend the solution to other users. With businesses changing daily, the solution's interface should be as user-friendly as possible. Ambiguous language or steps do not necessarily add value to the system.

Overall, I rate SAP Business ByDesign nine and a half out of ten.

We use the tool for financial accounting, project management, sales and invoicing, and accounting inventory management.

I find the tool’s every feature valuable.

I would like the tool’s interface to be better. Currently, we use a client application to access the product. I want that to be replaced with a web version. I would like to improve the tool’s internet availability. I also want the product’s setup to be easier.

I have been working with the solution for 15 years.

The solution’s stability is very good. I would rate it a ten out of ten.

I would rate the tool’s scalability a ten out of ten. My company has 150 users for the solution.

The tool’s setup is not straightforward. There are a lot of layers in the tool’s deployment and it requires expertise. If you stick with the default functionality, then the deployment is quick. However, if you want customization as per your business needs, then deployment will be dependent on that. It will take time.

We used an integrator for the tool’s deployment.

The tool’s subscription is yearly. There is no flat pricing involved and everything has a range. Pricing depends on the functionality that you would use. You need to also pay for the additional hosting and maintenance costs.

I would rate the tool a nine out of ten. The solution is customizable so you can customize it to whatever you need it to be. We have a team who customizes the solution. It is a very comprehensive solution. The best thing to do while using the solution is to limit customization. You shouldn’t customize it for every small thing. You need to fall in line with the product and change your processes.

We use SAP Business ByDesign focusing on your basic accounting and controlling functionalities, including transferring functionalities, so that's the ideal thing.

When comparing SAP Business ByDesign to much larger ERP solutions, such as SAP ECC 6.0 or SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business ByDesign is more user-friendly and easier to implement.

The Purchase to Pay process could benefit from further sophistication and additional functionality. It would be helpful for the user community to receive clearer information about the future roadmap of the business. Unfortunately, there were some confusing articles in the German press towards the end of last year about the future of SAP Business ByDesign. Therefore, more clarity is needed in the support function to address this.

SAP Business ByDesign has been discontinued and no further updates will be made to it. It appears that the focus is now on the BTP platform, and I'm exploring ways to add more integrations to it. If this trend continues, the user community of SAP Business ByDesign could potentially benefit from increased connectivity with external parties, which would lead to greater satisfaction.

I have used SAP Business ByDesign within the past 12 months.

We use SAP Business ByDesign for middle-sized companies.

SAP Business ByDesign has some scalability limitations, such as the absence of source checks and separation of functionality, which are available in SAP ECC 6.0 or SAP S4/HANA. Consequently, certain tasks, such as multi-entity management, cannot be restricted to a single entity which hinders scalability.

We deployed the solution for companies with over 2,000 users and can be implemented for companies of varying sizes.

I rate the scalability of SAP Business ByDesign a six out of ten.

SAP does not have support, but it is being managed by partners within the industry. The partner that you choose can vary in the level of support you will receive. The partner we use for support is excellent.

I rate the support of SAP Business ByDesign a nine out of ten.

Positive

We're currently working with SAP Business ByDesign because I'm currently employed by a company that has a small team of around forty to fifty users, which makes SAP Business ByDesign a cost-effective option. Although it offers limited corporate functions, it provides a straightforward way of implementing such features.

The initial setup of SAP Business ByDesign is simple compared to SAP ECC 6.0 or SAP S/4HANA.

I rate the price of SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten.

We conducted evaluations of Workday and Microsoft Dynamics, but Workday isn't widely used in Germany at present, and it's also quite expensive. Additionally, since we had already deployed SAP Business ByDesign and made investments in it, there was no thorough investigation into switching to another platform.

My advice to others is for them to look for a strong implementation partner.

I rate SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten.

Our use case for this solution is processing inventory transactions, everything from receiving inventory to different types of costing situations, consignment inventory versus inventory held, non-netable locations, different types of costing, builds material, routing, inventory evaluation all the way up through to and including your cost of goods sold release.

When we were using it, we did see an immediate benefit, especially in the inventory on consignment issue. We were a biotech pre-revenue company and most of our manufacturing was outsourced. So being able to track inventory within the system without creating a financial impact was very key for us.

Our organization has also been improved by the solution's regulatory reporting, specifically lot identification for FDA regulation. For example, if you have bad batches and it results in a compromised product, you could trace that all the way back to the receipt of the vendor good. That connect capability is very key and very helpful.

There is room for improvement in the reporting capability. To use it properly, you need intensive IT support. You cannot write your own reports. You can query data from tables and you can create your own reports within an Excel environment and that's helpful. But if you have to do anything formalized in a SOCs-compliant environment, you wouldn't be allowed access to those data tables. You would have to have a support function that can help you create the reports that you need.

I have been using this solution for about two years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the least stable and 10 being the most stable.

This is definitely a scalable solution. It's a tier-one ERP system, so you definitely get what you pay for. If you're a small company and you buy a tier-one ERP system, you're never going to be able to address the full feature and functionality of something like an SAP. But if you're a large-scale organization, multiple legal entities, inventory accounting, and things like that, you'll get far more use out of it and it'll be a far greater payback.

At the time, I would say there were about 25-30 people using this solution in our company.

I don't have any experience with SAP's technical support in regard to Business ByDesign.

We were on a different version of SAP. We were very limited because we had a shared environment with a sister company. It was a very complicated setup. We had to have very synchronized functionality needs. We couldn't bring in any new functionality that the sister company didn't also want or need. It was a very complicated and unique situation.

How straightforward the initial setup will be for your organization will depend on the level of integration that you want within your organization. For example, how many users you have, how many specific requirements they have, and what your logistics function needs are versus your accounting function versus your HR function. The list goes on.

I would say that when it comes down to tier one and tier two ERPs, a lot rides on the partner you choose to help with the implementation and the requirements that you have going into it. It has to be carefully managed. You can have a very decent implementation. But if not, you're going to be stuck with horrible reporting.

I would say having a core implementation team is essential. Each function is represented by a business leader and that leader can bring the requirements to the implementation team and serve as an intermediary between the business itself and the implementation, providing the test cases, doing the pass or fails, evaluating the progress of the partner that you're using. Being able to have direct communication and having a very structured approach to implementation is key.

You cannot just install the disk and have it be ready to go. This solution requires a lot more thought and effort to be able to put into place in a large-scale company. 

A lot depends on how you approach it. If you approach it badly, you're going to have a bad experience. But if you approach it in a very prudent way, you're going to have the right experience implementing this solution.

The deployment of this solution took about five months for us. We took specific steps when we deployed Business ByDesign. We chose a project manager. We chose a VAR to help with that. We set up our historical data integration, we defined our test cases, and we developed a timeline for the implementation with key points and deliverables along the way. We took a very practical view of the implementation.

We had to hire a third party to help us implement this solution. I would say around 40 people worked on the implementation process.

I would say that the price is quite high. SAP and Oracle are highly competitive with each other in quality and in price. 

The licensing is usage-based. The price also depends on the complexity of your organization. So if you're just a software company, you don't need to put in an inventory module within SAP. But if you do, you're going to have to pay for that.

We looked at Oracle solutions as well, but I don't remember the reason why we chose SAP over Oracle as I was not in that decision-making process.

Overall, I would rate the SAP solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

SAP Business ByDesign is utilized by small companies that aim to streamline and harmonize their processes without necessarily focusing on expanding their user base. This could include companies with as few as 23 users who are seeking to simplify their operations, with the help of inbuilt CRM and financial reporting features.

The most valuable feature of SAP Business ByDesign is it has a streamlined design.

The payroll module of the solution could improve.

I have used SAP Business ByDesign within the last 12 months.

The solution is suitable for smaller-sized businesses.

The initial setup of SAP Business ByDesign is straightforward.

The price of SAP Business ByDesign is less expensive than SAP S/4HANA. However, the price is on par with other similar competitors, such as Microsoft.

When evaluating SAP Business ByDesign it is important to look at what features are not available. It is a limited version of an ERP.

I rate SAP Business ByDesign an eight out of ten.

ByDesign is used in automotive manufacturing to sell products.

ByDesign's best features are its speed, real-time data, and reporting.

ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier.

I've been working with ByDesign for three years.

ByDesign is stable.

ByDesign is scalable.

SAP's technical support is good - any time we've raised issues, they've fixed them.

Positive

The initial setup was complex, but that was due to our business scenario rather than the product.

We used an integrator.

ByDesign is perfect for B2B scenarios but may not suit B2C. I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.