SAP Business ByDesign Reviews

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.

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.

The clients we have for SAP Business ByDesign are mostly in education centers.

The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards.

SAP Business ByDesign can improve the flexibility and user-friendliness of the reporting during the implementations. Customizing the reports inside the device requires a lot of knowledge and most of the time a developer level is needed. For example, if you want to have a more specific reporting layout.

I have been using Business ByDesign for approximately three years.

The stability of SAP Business ByDesign is stable.

SAP Business ByDesign is a scalable solution since it is on the cloud.

The technical support from SAP Business ByDesign is very good. They have supported us well and they are well known. The knowledge and skills they provide are helpful. They have knowledge of many of the SAP solutions.

I have not used another solution other than SAP Business ByDesign.

The initial setup of SAP Business ByDesign is straightforward.

We have one person that is well trained in the solution that does the maintenance. However, in most cases, the amount of supporting staff required is dependent on the number of users that the IT team is managing. In our case, since our clients are not that large, for deployment, one person would be enough to manage SAP Business ByDesign, as long as everything is done properly.

Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges.

My advice to others wanting to implement SAP Business ByDesign is they need to have a very good partner with a strong partnership with SAP and check their credibility and skillset from a technical standpoint. The partner will be handling their accounts. If the partner is good they should be fine.

I rate SAP Business ByDesign an eight out of then.

I like the tool’s customization.

The solution does not support customization for forms and reports. It's not flexible in case you need some enhancements in business processes.

The tool is stable.

The solution is not scalable. You will have difficulty adding new users. My company has 80 users for the tool.

The tool’s customer support is okay. Sometimes, they do not analyze the issues properly.

Neutral

The tool’s pricing is expensive.

I would rate the solution a four out of ten. We plan to migrate to HANA Cloud.

It covers most of your scenarios except for some parts of manufacturing. But otherwise, it is a great fit for any SME's with distribution, finance, utilities, and professional services. It is a perfect product.

The most valuable part of the product is user-friendly for customers. It has a quick implementation and onboarding of users. It is flexible with reports and powerful.

The database needs to be more customizable.

I have been using SAP Business ByDesign for the past four years.

The stability has been great. Compared to other products that I have used before, they have been doing really well with stability. 

Scalability can be an issue. That is why SAP Business ByDesign needs to be more customizable and more flexible. If I want to upgrade, it should be easier to do that.

Technical support has been great. I have not been in a situation where I had difficulty getting in touch with people or was not able to resolve situations or problems.

The cost starts anywhere between fifty thousand dollars and up depending on the number of licenses.

I would rate SAP Business ByDesign a nine out of ten.

I have found the consolidation of the business and group reports very useful. There is plenty of features and the manufacturing and finance aspect of the solution are strong.

SAP Business ByDesign is a very vast product, but it has to be a bit more centralized. All the models need to be more centralized for a better experience.

In a feature release, a development kit should be available in the UIDs, where people can have the customizations. HR and payroll should be added and the human resource management system should be added by default.  

I have been using SAP Business ByDesign for approximately three years.

The solution could improve the stability. It is approximately 60% stable. It still has to be stabilized in terms of the module device.

SAP Business ByDesign is scalable, but there are limitations on the cloud. The solution could be more customizable. It's not recommended to have much more customization in the cloud product. It's scalable, but not to a very high level.

The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy.

I rate SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case is for financial reporting and accounting.

SAP ByDesign is suitable for sales. It gives us a complete view of our customers. In terms of purchasing, we can track the order status. We can understand the order status associated with excellent inventory management.

Now we can know our available stock. This visibility enables us to make better resource and supply chain operations decisions as well as better financial decisions. 

The most valuable feature is the feature called Financial Closing Cockpit. This feature allows us to monitor our accounting and processing closely.

I would say budget controlling needs improvement. I mention this because it does not have all the functionalities that we need in terms of managing the budget.

The stability is good, very good.

It's very scalable. SAP takes care of the infrastructure; we don't see any problem with increasing the workload. In our experience, we can also connect with other external systems very quickly and pick up a lot of data.

In my organization, we have around twenty, mainly purchasing and accounting people using SAP ByDesign.

Our organization is extensively using ByDesign for coverage in the area of sales, purchasing and inventory, finance, accounting, and then we implement this data into our business workflows. We plan to do it for manufacturing as well as extend coverage to other companies.

The technical support is improving. I've noticed a definite change over the past four years, so you know they are picking up. Now their response time is quite good.

The previous software solution we used had significant limitations; it was only an accounting system, so we needed to extend the functionalities to an ERP system.
We switched from the local software, accounting software, to SAP.

The initial setup was somewhat moderate. I say that because you need to understand the data structure of the system well enough to be able to set everything up properly. There's a significant learning curve there because you need to learn tons of information specifically about the data structure.

Implementation can take about three to four months. Three to four months for a small company and it takes up to six months for the company with the manufacturing.

Typically we use a consultant for deployment. Our experiences have been quite good, in terms of understanding various aspects and functionalities of the Business ByDesign solutions. I think that now there's a lot more access to high-quality and knowledgable consultants in the market, so it's not difficult to find a consultant, who knows and understand the software.

I can say that it's only user subscription fees. It's approximately 2,500 annually.

My advice to anyone considering this solution is that they need to understand how the solution works. They should start small and start by adopting the software in a small area. Cover only a few business functions first, and then after when they become more familiar with the system, then they can expand the usage. That's the most effective method, but a lot of people tend to use big bang approach, where you make sure that the deployment covers all the functions in your organization and that can be very time consuming and costly.

On a scale from 1-10, where 10 represents the best and one is the worst, I would rate this product a nine. Nine because it's keeps improving. There are always enhancements in product features, plus technical support is excellent.

It could be used for any financial use case. Production companies can use it, and wholesale distributors can use it. Any professional services company can use it.

I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology.

The Arabic localization is neglected. It should have an Arabic interface. It lacks Arabic translation or support from right to left.

I have been using this solution for one and a half years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We have about 40 users, and we plan to increase its usage.

I am satisfied with their support.

We used another solution, and we switched because of accuracy.

Its initial setup was straightforward. It took about six months to implement it.

It has to be done by a consultant. We had three people for its deployment. We had one developer, one functional person, and one finance person.

We have to pay yearly.

I would anytime recommend this solution to others. I would rate it an eight out of 10.