Simplify: SAP Partners Help Business Run Simple

Simplify is SAP’s show where we talk with our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.   Here is a summary of our conversation with Gary Young, Managing Partner at Vantage Point Solutions, a SAP Partner.  Gary is responsible anything that drives revenue: sales, marketing, and business development.   Vantage Point Solutions is an implementer and re-seller of SAP, focusing on offices of CFO to bring value from the SAP applications. Not only does Vantage Point Solutions re-sell SAP solutions but the team also creates solutions that enhance the product by creating packaged content for specific clients.   Where are your customers?   Vantage Point Solutions is North American based organization but has done projects overseas.  They are headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and have consultants all over the United States.    What is the value of working with a partner?   SAP creates amazing solutions and partners help organizations understand when they should be consuming SAP solutions.  Without partners, the client doesn’t have the roadmap to know when and how to extrapolate the value from the best solution.     SAP depends on partners to have the local or industry-specific expertise that they can’t have internally.   A real-world example   Pratt Industries, the world’s largest privately held largest recycling company, is a great example that has started small and has been very successful.   Their main business challenge was the number of systems they were using and a lack of confidence in their data.  They sought after SAP solutions, and we wanted to take on a big organization with multiple locations and systems to give them something they can work with and trust.    Once there was a platform with correct data, the client could see other opportunities for growth.   What is the process to create a solution that works?   SAP solutions aren’t made to be IT-driven; they are made to be owned by the business.   Vantage Point Solutions does not aim to be with the client forever.  They want to stand the product up, allow the client own it, manage it, leverage it across their enterprise.   The client calls Vantage Point Solutions back in when there is another opportunity, and Vantage Point Solutions call when they need support.   What is a specific business challenge?   Vantage Point Solutions created a financial platform, which allowed them to do better budgeting, planning, and analytics.  There was a secondary project around data, and the organization realized how much power is behind the data.  They saw their data as a true competitive advantage over their competitors.    They identified $35 million in savings from seeing and trusted their data, which allowed them to open up another planning tool.    That is a true success story and gave life back to the employees at the company.   What tools does Vantage Point Solutions implement?   Vantage Point Solutions focuses on Enterprise performance management and analytics.  The three main solutions used are (1) the budgeting planning and consolidation tool, known as BPC, (2) an analytics cloud product, and (3) a digital boardroom, an application that sits on top of the analytics cloud product made for the executive level.   There are some add-ons for the IP Vantage Point Solutions has created that come behind SAP tools that provide specific content needed for the client to be successful with these tools.   To connect with Vantage Point Solutions, visit http://www.vantagepoint-solutions.com/.  

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SIMPLIFY: Using One Platform as the Company Scales and Grows   Simplify is SAP’s show where we talk with our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.   Here is a summary of our conversation with Jory Lamb, CEO of VistaVu Solutions out of Alberta, Canada. VistaVu Solutions is an SAP integrator.    Jory and the team focuses on a handful of industries in specific verticals across North America.   What type of clients do you work with?   Jory’s team works with the life sciences, industrial field services, industrial machinery and components, and aerospace and defense industries.    VistaVu Solutions has been a SAP Partner since 2003.   What changes have you noticed in the market since 2003?  Why is now a good time to work with SAP and a SAP Partner?   VistaVu Solutions primarily sells to the mid-market and when the company started, it was about ERP.  The new story is about ERP cloud and the integrations that can come when a client uses technology under a single umbrella.   VistaVu Solutions focuses on operational efficiency to help clients innovate and grow by using one platform that will scale with them.   Who are VistaVu Solutions’ customers?   One client, CelaNova BioSciences, is a mid-market company and experienced a lot of growth in a short time.  Now they have a divestiture in one of their divisions and continue to use VistaVu Solutions’ product as they continue to grow.   What were some of their initial challenges?   Despaired systems. The client was going through FDA approvals and needed governance and controls in place.  Their fragmented systems, including Excel, wouldn’t give them the assurity to manage their suppliers and other parts of the company.   Why work with a SAP partner?   VistaVu Solutions works with this customer intimately to understand their business needs to understand how they can improve.  This kind of relationship ensures they stay in compliance after they are FDA approved.   What successes have they had?   The client began to understand their numbers were from a sales perspective.  They were approved to go to market, and one of their divisions was sold off to a larger company.    They have had a great run, and VistaVu Solutions is proud to work with them.   What SAP solution did they integrate?   As a robust company, the client used SAP ByDesign. It wasn’t infrastructure heavy, has a global presence, and the solution can scale with them.   Do you work with other SAP products?   VistaVu Solutions has used SAP Business One for small organizations and has built solutions on top of BusinessObjects.   As an organization, Jory and the team have been building on top of a few products that can aid the customer’s specific, vertical needs, including mobile solutions and AI technology.    Jory focuses on customer efficiency and providing solutions as customers grow.   To connect with VistaVu Solutions, visit https://vistavusolutions.com/.

Smplify is SAP’s show where we talk with our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.   Here’s a summary of our conversation with Nathan Crook, Sales Director of GB&Smith out of Atlanta, Georgia. Nathan works with software and analytics as an SAP partner.  As a SAP partner, GB&Smith is a solution provider, showing clients how to use (and thrive!) with SAP products.   GB&Smith focuses on BI, business intelligence.    Are there specific clients you work with?   Nathan believes that no matter what type of industry you’re in, you have to have access to, understand, and explain data to the users.  Many of GB&Smith customers are in the aerospace industry, oil and gas, medical devices, and hospitals.    Complying with federal regulations is a major part the client strategy for GB&Smith’s clients.  Nathan and his team help clients stay up-to-date with the products they use.   What are some trends small businesses should focus on?   Of course, BI and analytics are important.  Businesses take in a ton of information just from doing business (accounting, CRM, etc.) and being able to pull up the data, compare it across function, and deliver it to the higher-ups in the organization will continue to be important in how you run a business.   Who are GB&Smith’s customers?   Harley Davidson is a big client and focuses mainly on analytics.  They use Business Objects Enterprise and Dashboards and the 360 Suite.   Before working with GB&Smith, they focused on one piece of the Suite but they weren’t using it to the fullest capabilities.  Now, they utilize internal and external reporting functions across the operations side of the business.   Harley Davidson is a great BI case study.    Why did they need this software?   Harley Davidson’s BI group is a small, internal team who felt like they lost a lot of control with the various pieces of the puzzle.  Once they began leveraging the BI tools + managing and documenting security, they started to feel like they had control over their BI.  This is great news for both internal and financial levels.     What value does GB&Smith offer?   GB&Smith takes an existing system and augments it to make it work to fit the client’s needs.   360 Suite, a modular set of tools that work well together, has 3 main areas: visibility (managing the BI landscape), efficiency (using the most with limited resources), and risk (who has access to what and who is looking at the data).   Presenting this software to address all of these challenges makes GB&Smith very valuable to customers.  Nathan and his team can focus on specific business needs and customer success, which GB&Smith always put first.   As an added bonus, GB&Smith also provides training (for free!) to make sure clients actually use the software to make their business more successful.   What other products would be good for small to mid-sized clients?   Sit down with a SAP Partner and look into Hana and BusinessObjects to learn how to gather data and analyze.   Make sure you discuss the challenges (moving to the cloud, BI, AI, etc.) and feel comfortable with the product options and how it will impact the business.    If you aspire to grow and scale, grow your trustworthy network like SAP.  They present the information and provide a partner ecosystem that is invaluable.   To connect with GB&Smith, visit https://360suite.io/.            

SIMPLIFY: Solving Pain Points with SAP Solutions   Simplify is SAP’s show where we talk with our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.   Here’s an overview of our conversation with Tomas Fertig, shareholder and CEO of Seidor USA, a SAP partner who sells SAP products and services.  Tomas is responsible for the US subsidiary.   How many of your companies are small to mid-sized businesses?   After 35 years of business, Seidor has a 7,000+ client history and most of them are small to mid-sized businesses.  There are some larger companies, but the foundation of Seidor is small to medium-sized businesses.   What value does a SAP partner bring to customers?   SAP develops the software (i.e. IP and solutions) and Seidor finds the solutions and adaptive ways to bring business processes to the reality of each company.  Seidor’s role involves helping the customer adopt the SAP applications by understanding best practices so the client can use best processes and an effective implementation strategy.    Each company has their own value and unique identifiers. Seidor makes sure the customer remains unique while also implementing the best processes gained from lessons learned.   Who are Seidor’s customers?   In 7,000+ customers, Seidor’s customers are mostly private industries, including manufacturing and distribution companies.  Within those industries, there are also general and growing businesses who have high ambitions to become bigger.   What are the pain points for your customer?   Digital transformation means that everyone needs IT; it’s not an option anymore.  That means companies need to have all of their company information together in one solution.  Businesses need to be in the cloud – they need to be digitally transformed.   Integration is always a problem because many companies are islands of information that need to unite in a complete solution that merges design, subcontractors, timelines, stock available, accounting, and many other parts of the whole.   Having one solution for the whole business is the catalyst for growth rather than internal solutions inhibiting growth.  The market doesn’t wait for you to make decisions.  The client needs everything in one place to make a holistic decision.   What are the solutions Seidor works with?   Cloud solutions are the main priority.    There are 4 SAP products to handle a variety of complexities.   SAP Anywhere –smallest application; omnichannel solution that allows you to sell through a shop/point of sale; manage inventory; handle simple business process, Business ByDesign – cloud solution for complete ERP; includes CRM and business intelligence; accounting; warehouse + production, Business One –complete ERP; handles the back office; complete ERP, and S/4Hana –the powerhouse product used by large companies that handle any complexities; memory + database.   Seidor implements one solution and helps the client integrate as they grow in the future.   To connect with Seidor, visit www.seidor.com.        

Simplify is SAP’s show where we talk to our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.  Here’s a summary of our conversation with Ralph Hess, VP of Sales and Marketing at Navigator Business Solutions, a SAP partner who understands why SAP partners are so important.  Ralph manages a national sales team from Massachusetts and focuses on selling cloud enterprise resource planning solution (also known as ERP) to small to mid-sized enterprises.  What is the benefit of working with a partner when working with SAP solutions? SAP is structured around large enterprises and when SAP was ready to sell to smaller companies, they knew they would need to be more local.  They recruited partners, like Navigator Business Solutions, to be closer to the customers.  What percentage of your customer base is small to mid-sized companies? 95%.  Most of Navigator Business Solutions’ companies have a revenue of $5 - $400 million.  Ralph and his team have come up with a few unique value propositions to match each company’s requirements for implementation.  What type of customer and/or industry does Navigator Business Solutions focus on?  Navigator Business Solutions focuses on companies who have core capabilities (SAP Business One and Business ByDesign, both cloud solutions) around distribution, wholesale, or consumer products.  There are also project-based companies, and there is a focus in the life-sciences.   What are life-sciences?  The go-to idea of a life-science is pharmaceuticals or medical device companies, but there are other companies, like manufacturers, who also have a high degree of regulation.   How would you implement a solution for a life-science company?  A medical device company might have complex supply chains.  For example, they might be a US company that develops the product in the US but manufactures overseas.  Before a company like this gets big, they might use spreadsheets to manage everything.  Then, they get more sophisticated and started using accounting-specific software.  After that, they are ready for an SAP solution.  How would a life-science company find you?  Usually, the company grows slowly and often gets a new CFO.  New software developers are probably brought in and decide on SAP ByDesign.   When you’re a partner, like Navigator Business Solutions, the software publisher (SAP) has the name and reputation.  The smaller company (i.e. the client) wants to go bigger and partners are the dedicated marketplace for these smaller companies.  What does a SAP partner do?  With a rigid sales process, including budget and process, Navigator Business Solutions interviews the company to help them articulate their business requirements.  Then, Navigator Business Solutions does a demonstration using out-of-the-box SAP solutions to find the best fit for the specific company.  We, as a company, find the gaps and brainstorm solutions to make clients’ business run more smoothly. The client implements the solution, begins to see business efficiencies, and watches the company begins to grow.  What kind of benefits can a company see by using a SAP product?  In high growth companies, you look at being able to do more with less.   Clients can close the books and produce financial statements at the end of the month in just a couple days instead of weeks.  Management of the goods/supply chain can be achieved through the use of a proper application.  Companies have been able to reduce the number of planned hires by being more efficient with SAP products.  They can focus on the future of their business instead of handling multiple moving pieces.  Navigator Business Solutions deals have created implementation methodologies in 1 of 3 ways:  Standard Implementation – installing the software, teaching you how to use it, and running very quickly to get a fast ROI. You can be running in 12 weeks.  True Cloud Implementation (ERP*-like) – the customer may already have custom business processes and the business might need some customizations that adapt to the customer’s use. There are more consultancies and a longer implementation experience.   *ERP is an “enterprise resource planning solution” that takes all business functions and puts it into a suite of products, which allows the company to use the functionalities it needs and gives the company the opportunity to grow simultaneously.   Large Enterprise Edition (EPR-like) – a more sophisticated and complex company might require more project and change management that have extra layers of service to configure the product to look and feel how the customer expects. One of the qualifying questions Navigator Business Solutions ask is, “What is your anticipated growth over the next 3-5 years?”  Growth matters in this business, and it’s not taken lightly. Two products Navigator Business Solutions promote are Business ByDesign and Business One. Business ByDesign is a product SAP wrote from scratch born for the cloud, on the cloud.  It’s the only ERP developed to be run on the cloud. This platform is best for a company with beginning revenue of $15-20 million and growing. Business One is a product that is rapidly moving toward the cloud.  This is best for a $5-40 million dollar business.  To connect with Navigator Business Solutions, visit www.nbs-us.com. 

Welcome to Simplify, SAP’s show where we talk with our partners about how they work with small and mid-market companies to help them simplify business processes.   Our guest today is Hans Hansen.  Hans is the founder and CEO of BPBD, a SAP implementation partner.  SAP Business ByDesign is the only application they sell and implement worldwide.    Hans works with a team of experienced business professionals in small to medium businesses, and they have been implementing ByDesign for the last 6-8 years.  Hans discovered how to bring more value to customers by starting his own company.    Why small to mid-sized enterprises?   Hans’ team came from the industry and they know how to serve these customers.  By staying in the area where they have experience, Hans and his team and focus on providing value rather than learning a new industry.   Who are your customers?   BPBD’s clients are in the life-science manufacturing, food manufacturing, high tech manufacturing, and international corporations areas.    Each of these niches has compliance requirements to which the team is familiar and they are experts, not only in the US but also around the world.   What does compliance mean in a business sense?   Being “in compliance” opens the door to other industries that are also regulated, either by the FDA or a similar governing body overseas.    Being “in compliance” can a pain point for businesses that are trying to scale and grow, and BPBD eliminates these pain points.   A real-world example   If a US medical device company wanted to establish a presence in China and operate out of Singapore, they might be handling all of their data via spreadsheets, which is error prone, security errors, a lack of processes, and requires manual updating.    BPBD helps them get established in China, including being complicit with China’s FDA equivalent.  They helped the company dial into global custodianship with the medical device industry.   Business ByDesign fits into this company’s situation because it’s a great application for anything that deals with a supply chain, which helps from a compliance perspective.  They make sure processes were documentable, repeatable, and offer tangible outcomes for the company.   A situation like this takes less than 5 months to get all of the international processes, which have to be designed first.   What size companies do you work with?   BPBD works with smaller companies (~$15 million) and companies are above $500 million in revenue.  Business ByDesign is a scalable application that grows as the company grows because it’s small, nimble, and on-demand.   Get in touch with Hans via email hans@bpbd-llc.com or visit www.bpbd-llc.com.    

From the SAP offices in Silicon Valley, It’s SIMPLIFY with Ursula Ringham. Each week, we’re talking with SAP Partners about the digital transformation of small and mid-market businesses. How do they help integrate SAP solutions? Tune in to discover how you can SIMPLIFY your business. More episodes and resources can be found at www.growthmattersnetwork.com