SAP demos SMB solutions for manufacturing, logistics, textile, professional services, consumer products sectors

If you're one of those people who still believes that enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from global business solutions giant, SAP, is too expensive and complicated for a small or medium business (SMB) like yours, you really do need to visit the SAP Africa stand at Futurex 2005.

SAP Africa is participating in a local expo for the first time precisely because companies like yours not only need to know in principle that there are ERP products designed specifically for them but also need to get a hands-on feel for just how easy they are to use, how affordable they are and how quickly they can be installed (never more than 13 weeks).

And, if you're dubious about whether or not SAP's new products - mySAP All-in-One for medium-sized and SAP Business One for small companies - are applicable to your industry, six of SAP's business partners will demonstrate how the solutions are already enabling growth in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, logistics, textiles, professional services and consumer products.

What's more, all the business partners are geared up to show you in half an hour how the products are benefiting SMBs like Banditos Chilli Company, Centurion Systems (manufacturing), Reef Minolta and Master Guard Power Systems (professional services), Lesotho Milling (part of the Tiger Group), Euro Paints, Extruda (components and engineering), Southern Star (logistics), and CMC Networks (IT infrastructure and networks).

Getting that sort of information by any other means would take you months. As SAP Africa's director of small and medium business, Brett Parker, says: "Condensing time, effort and cost is what SAP, all our products and all our business partners are about. So, naturally, our stand at Futurex will be living proof of that."

mySAP All-in-One demonstrations will show how SAP's famous corporate ERP systems have been pre-configured for medium-sized business in specific industries. The solution includes the core business processes needed by any business - including financials, cost management accounting, materials management, sales and distribution, production planning and quality management. Then, business partners chosen for their specialisation in and therefore deep understanding and experience of a given industry, have added industry-specific content localised to take into account country-specific market conditions as well as governance and regulatory requirements.

So expert is the pre-configuration that Ralph Muller of SCT - a mySAP All-in-One business partner in the consumer products sector - says that implementations rarely require more than 10% customisation. "Customisation involves large numbers of consultants. By pre-configuring, we slash the consultant count. And, we can fix implementation costs because we've eliminated most of the variables."

Pre-configuration doesn't mean, though, that you don't get any say in the way either mySAP All-in-One or SAP Business One should serve your specific needs.

Jan Posthumous of Silverhedge, the sole service centre for SAP Business One, says that while SAP Business One, for instance, provides all the usual business process functionality, it differentiates itself "in its ability to address the tactical and executive requirements of a company. SAP Business One is not about enabling you to do what you currently do better. It is quite deliberately a growth enabler.

"Also, it incorporates cutting-edge technology. For instance, it self-generates information, based on rules that you give it. So, instead of your having to initiate the production of information by going to a computer, typing in a command that triggers the system to look for that information, and perhaps getting it a fair time later, SAP Business One is designed to automatically generate information based on the occurrence or non-occurrence of events and then find you - on e-mail, via SMS or through the desktop - in order to draw your attention to what you need to know."