In February 2024, SAP released a YouTube video in which Rainier Zinow – the SVP and Head of SAP Midmarket Product Management, talked about the innovations to SAP Business One in 2023, as well as its product direction going forward into 2024.
It serves as a good summary of all the investment SAP has made in enhancing and improving Business One since the launch of Version 10, and also what it has planned for users of the ERP software in the near future. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at what he covered in this video.
Disclaimer: Everything in this video details the current state of plans as of the release of this video, and may be subject to change later on.
Enhancements Brought To SAP Business One In 2023
In the video, Zinow highlighted the following innovations that SAP had invested into Business One over the course of 2023.
Cybersecurity Enhancements
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The global cybercrime industry is not only ever evolving, but has also recently changed their tactics from targeting larger enterprises, to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have less resources and/or qualified personnel to harden their digital infrastructure.
Because of this, providing a secure business environment for customers of SAP Business One is, and will continue to be a key priority now and in the years to come.
Zinow acknowledged that SAP’s partners and vendors have done an amazing job of helping Business One customers harden their digital infrastructure against external threats, and emphasised that SAP must also do its part to bolster the cybersecurity measures of these customers.
Because of this, SAP has replaced all open-source libraries that had been in use in Business One over the past year, with the most up-to-date versions. In addition, they are putting much effort into finding out about any new vulnerabilities that might have discovered in Business One, so that they can be quickly patched, and ensure that users always have rock-solid security with their ERP software.
Planned Enhancements For The Web Client
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Improving the SAP Business One Web Client for users; Source: Rainer Zinow
The next highest priority for SAP when it comes to Business One are planned enhancements for the Web Client.
In the video, Zinow states that SAP has managed to bring up to 50% of the full set of features and functionalities available in the desktop application to the Web Client by the end of 2023. He also states that more work remains to be done when it comes to improving the Web Client.
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
Introducing SAP Business Technology Platform; Source: SAP
Zinow brought up a frequently-asked question that many partners have asked SAP; how can they make their own extensions for Business One future-proof?
For that purpose, SAP introduced the Business Technology Platform (BTP) in 2023. Zinow recommended for these partners to build their extensions on BTP in the future, to ensure that they’ll remain future-proof through future versions of SAP Business One.
SAP BTP also make the SAP process automation engine available for Business One users. SAP is publishing sample automation scenarios in the repository free of charge, so that partners and customers can use them as a template for building additional scenarios.
MYWAVE.ai and SAP Business One
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Collaborating with MYWAVE.ai for various end-to-end scenarios; Source: Rainer Zinow
SAP has also collaborated with MYWAVE.ai to integrate its natural language processing (NLP) and large language modelling (LLM) technology into SAP Business One. This collaboration has yielded positive results, with both technologies having been successfully utilized to create Sales Orders in the ERP software, and proves that integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in SAP Business One is viable.
The Product Direction For 2024
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SAP Business One Road Map 2024; Source: SAP
For the near future, Zinow mentioned that the product roadmap for SAP Business One has been updated, with several key areas of focus.
Globalisation of the ERP software is one of these key areas, as many changes are expected in regulatory compliance regimes across the world. Thus, SAP is investing in this area to address the differing needs of their customers in different countries.
Secondly, SAP has taken into account their partners’ request that the Web Client be made as extensible as the desktop application already is. While there are limitations with a browser environment, Zinow stated that SAP has delivered a lot on that front in 2023, and will continue to deliver even more in 2024.
SAP will also be focusing on enhancing the Identity and Authentication Management (IAM) features of SAP Business One in 2024, further boosting its security capabilities.
SAP Has Great Plans For Business One This Year
In conclusion, Zinow states that SAP’s plans for Business One in 2024 is to continue with a clean core strategy, which means further investment in security and data privacy to harden Business One against external threats from malicious actors.
SAP will also continue to invest in improving the extensibility of the Business One Web Client as well, as well as deliver new Web Client content.
Last but not least, Zinow also says that SAP is currently working on the long-term plan for the upcoming Version 11 of SAP Business One, so that SAP can deliver on the promises it has made to their customers.
In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about SAP’s long-term vision. for SAP Business One, click on the image below to download their own white paper on this very subject.
