A Comprehensive Guide to Business Intelligence with SAP Business One

What is SAP B1 Business Intelligence?

According to SAP, business intelligence is the set of tools and processes that can:

• Analyze business data.
• Extract actionable insights.
• Use these insights to improve decision-making.

SAP B1 is a powerful BI tool used for data analysis and reporting. This ERP tool is integrated with SAP Crystal Reports, which enables it to collect real-time data from multiple sources. With SAP Crystal Reports, you can also select the report format and configure access control.

Here are some of the BI-related capabilities of SAP Business One:

• Real-time reports with access to information from disparate sources.
• Ad-hoc analysis into MS Excel pivot tables – thus providing insights from a fresh perspective.
• Intuitive user interface with features like drag-and-drop, drill-downs, search functionality, and workflow alerts.
• In-built and customizable dashboards
• Scheduling of report generation

Next, let’s discuss some of the benefits of BI with SAP Business One.

Benefits of BI with SAP Business One

Here are some of the benefits of using business intelligence with SAP Business One:

1. User-friendly Interface

Most of the popular BI tools are designed for data analysts and programmers – and not for business users. On the other hand, SAP Business One provides an intuitive interface, which is easy for business or non-technical users to learn and use.

Additionally, business users can access various BI tools from a single web interface – thus enabling faster onboarding.

2. Data Sharing

With business intelligence, organizations have real-time access to data insights and reports. However, the real value of BI is when business users can share these insights with other business users and stakeholders.

With SAP Business One, users can easily share insights with each other. They can share real-time information in textual format – or through customized dashboards and data visualization.

3. Predefined Metrics and KPIs

With SAP B1 Analytics, functional teams can now leverage predefined metrics and KPIs. This enables them to track their progress toward their business objectives and goals. Through BI dashboards, business managers and users can track predefined KPIs – and customize the information they want to see.

Additionally, BI users can drill down into data for advanced analysis and share the insights with other stakeholders.

4. Self-servicing Tools

To work with data, BI users often need data-specific skills and expertise. Thus, they often need to wait for the assistance of expert BI developers and IT personnel. SAP Business One offers a variety of self-servicing tools like Lumira and BusinessObjects, which are easy to use for non-technical users. This reduces the overall BI maintenance costs and time spent on business reporting tasks.

5. Compatibility with MS Office

Business users can also upload BI data (from SAP B1) to MS Excel spreadsheets – and share them with other users. Additionally, data visualizations and their results can be shared through MS Office documents across the organization.

Also Read: From Excel to ERP—Why You Should Make the Switch

6. Easier Report Generation

With SAP Business One, business users can now configure and generate easy-to-refresh reports – using prebuilt report templates or customizable reports. They can run an ad-hoc report any time (during the month) for interim reporting or to investigate any ongoing variances. They can also speed up data analysis with “live” data drill-downs.

This reduces the overall time and effort spent in performing data analysis and generating reports.

Overall, Business Intelligence in SAP B1 Enables:

• Faster decision-making – based on accurate reports built on real-time data from the company’s sales, inventory, and production functions.
• Cost-efficiency – due to the reduced time taken to generate business reports and lower dependence on IT teams.
• Improved access to critical business information whenever employees need them.

Also Read: Analytics and Reporting in SAP Business One

Conclusion

As an ERP solution, SAP Business One is the ideal platform for implementing business intelligence in any SME. By integrating BI with ERP, you can bring powerful decision-making capabilities to your organization.

With its technical expertise in BI and SAP ERP, Praxis Info Solutions can help you manage your business growth with data-driven insights. Our professional team can help in consolidating your organizational data through actionable reports and dashboards. Here’s how we simplify decision-making using Business Intelligence and Analytics. Our BI & Analytics offering extends to platforms like Power BI, Tableau, and Zoho Analytics.

We hope this guide has been useful to know about the capabilities and benefits of BI using SAP B1. If you want to know more, Contact us today.