India version of SAP Business One in H2 '05

MUMBAI: SAP will be announcing the India specific version of Business One in the second half of this year.

Business One is an integrated business management solution designed to address the specific needs of emerging and dynamically growing small and midsize businesses. It is an out-of-the-box solution with country-specific localization that can be deployed "as is."

Currently, India is the only country in the Asia Pacific region missing out on SAP Business One.

The solution package of Business One starts at Euro 15,000, which includes the software, service and the hardware. However, India may have a different pricing for the India specific version, which will be decided at the time of the launch.

Business One has nearly 40 country versions with over 800 business partners implementing it worldwide. “SAP Business One is helping over 5,300 customers worldwide to improve business-process efficiency, take advantage of growth opportunities and seamlessly link with parent companies, customers and suppliers using mySAP Business Suite solutions,” said SAP Asia Pacific SMB operations director Pranay Mital.

According to him, Business One covers the core operations necessary to run successful businesses, including customer relationship management, accounting, reporting, sales and distribution, purchasing, and warehouse and partner management, whether it has several employees or a few hundred. It is sold exclusively through a channel of certified sales and service partners.

An important part of SAP's offering for channel partners is the SAP Business One software development kit. It also allows partners to develop applications that add new business management and industry-specific capabilities to SAP Business One.

Business One encompasses core enterprise management functionality such as general ledger, sales, purchasing, inventory, costing and CRM. With the new XL Reporter feature to be incorporated through SAP's acquisition of iLytix Systems AS, SAP Business One also offers a strong business intelligence tool for SMBs leveraging Microsoft Excel to provide users with access to critical data and advanced reporting.