CRM software for midsize businesses: one system instead of two databases
Many midsize companies keep customer data in a dedicated CRM and orders in the ERP. In SAP Business One the CRM features are part of the ERP system – sales, service and inventory management work on the same data: opportunity, quotation, order and service call all hang off the same business partner as delivery, invoice and account balance.
SAP Business One Gold Partner in business since 1999 more than 400 midsize customers offices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
CRM software for midsize businesses – in brief
CRM software (customer relationship management) brings together everything you know about prospects and customers in one place: master data and contacts, sales opportunities, quotations, activities and service calls. When a midsize company selects CRM software, the deciding factor is usually less the feature list than the question of where that data lives.
In SAP Business One, CRM is not a separate product. The CRM features are already part of the ERP system and work on the same data as sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting. Open a customer record in sales and you see account balance, credit limit, open orders and live opportunities on one screen.
In practice this means no second customer database to reconcile, and no interface to rebuild with every release. What is in the quotation is also in the order, the delivery and the invoice.
- Category
- CRM functional area inside the ERP system SAP Business One
- Intended for
- small and midsize businesses
- Prerequisite
- an existing or new SAP Business One installation
- Database
- SAP HANA or Microsoft SQL Server
- Deployment
- cloud or on-premise
- Access
- SAP Business One client and web client
- Licensing
- per user; the feature scope depends on the licence type
- Implemented by
- init consulting AG, SAP Business One Gold Partner
Where separate systems break down in daily work
The situations below are typical of midsize companies running a CRM alongside an ERP. They are the reason bringing the two together comes up for discussion in the first place.
Two versions of the same customer
The new billing address is updated in the CRM and the invoice goes to the old one. Which record is authoritative only becomes clear once somebody complains.
Sales cannot see the order
A customer asks about the delivery date and an internal enquiry begins. The information sits in the ERP; the field sales team works in the CRM.
The pipeline lives in a spreadsheet
The forecast is assembled at month end from hearsay and a worksheet. How it came about cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
Service calls without history
Who promised what, what was actually delivered and whether the warranty still runs sits in three different places.
The interface as a standing item
Every update on either side creates coordination work. Running the connection takes more attention than anybody planned for.
Reports that do not line up
Revenue per customer in the ERP, activities per customer in the CRM. Neither tells you what effort sits behind a given revenue figure.
What the CRM in SAP Business One covers
The scope described here follows SAP's own product documentation. Which areas a given installation actually uses depends on the licence type and on configuration; the sources are listed at the foot of this page.
Business partners and contacts
Profiles for customers, prospects, resellers and suppliers with a contact overview. Account balances, credit limits, open orders and live opportunities are reachable from a single screen.
Opportunities and pipeline
Sales opportunities can be tracked across the whole sales cycle. Reporting by lead source, territory, industry or customer provides the basis for revenue forecasting.
Quotation and order
Quotations are created in the system, converted into orders and checked against real-time product availability. Once an opportunity is won, the sales order follows without re-entering data.
Activities and calendar
Calls, appointments and tasks are scheduled, given reminders and recorded against the business partner. The history stays with the customer rather than in one employee's inbox.
Service and customer care
Service contracts, service calls and warranty information are held in the same system. Service levels can be monitored through alerts and reports, and a solutions knowledge database records recurring cases.
Campaigns
Marketing campaigns can be created, maintained, executed and analysed – against the same business partner data that sales and service work with.
Reporting and forecasting
Dashboards and interactive reports for sales analysis and forecasting. Because revenue, margin and activity come from one data set, they can be set against each other.
Microsoft Outlook
Contacts can be viewed in Microsoft Outlook and synchronised with the system. Which further Outlook functions are an option is settled during the project.
Access through the web client
Alongside the classic client there is a web client. For field sales that means access to customer and transaction data without a local installation.
What changes in day-to-day work
| Characteristic | What it means in daily work | Business outcome |
|---|---|---|
| One data set | Address, contact and terms are maintained once and apply to quotation, delivery and invoice. | Fewer corrections along the document chain, fewer queries between sales and internal sales support. |
| Opportunity and order in one system | A won opportunity becomes the order without line items being entered twice. | Less time from award to order confirmation, fewer transfer errors. |
| Activities on the business partner | Conversation history, appointments and commitments sit where the documents and balances are. | Cover and handover are possible without losing ground. |
| Service on the same data | The service call knows the serial number delivered, the contract and the warranty status. | Faster case handling and dependable answers to the customer. |
| Reporting across sales and inventory | Pipeline, revenue and margin can be looked at side by side. | Decisions about customers and products on one shared set of figures. |
CRM inside the ERP or a standalone CRM system
Both routes work. The decision turns on where the greater effort sits in your business – in reconciling two systems, or in marketing activity that goes beyond what an ERP-based CRM offers.
| Criterion | CRM as part of SAP Business One | Standalone CRM system |
|---|---|---|
| Data | One business partner master for sales, service, logistics and accounting. | A separate customer master that is reconciled with the ERP. |
| Interfaces | No connection between CRM and ERP needed. | A connection has to be built and maintained across releases. |
| Quote-to-invoice chain | End to end in one system, with availability checking. | Quotation in the CRM, order in the ERP – with a handover point. |
| Reporting on revenue and effort | Possible from one data set. | Requires consolidation from two sources. |
| Marketing feature depth | Campaign management and analysis. | Products in this category typically offer more here, such as automated journeys and lead scoring. |
| Interface for sales staff | The ERP interface, plus the web client. | Screens designed around sales work. |
| Licensing and operating effort | One licence landscape, one operating model. | Two contracts, two operating models, two points of contact. |
The right-hand column describes the market category in general terms and does not refer to any particular product. For a comparison against your own shortlist, please bring the list to the meeting.
What the CRM in SAP Business One does not do
These points belong before the decision, not in the first project meeting after the contract is signed.
It is not a standalone product
The CRM module is part of SAP Business One. Without an existing or new installation of the ERP system it cannot be used, and it cannot be licensed separately.
Not marketing automation
The product documentation describes creating, maintaining, executing and analysing campaigns. Multi-step email journeys, point-based lead scoring and website tracking are not listed there as features.
Not every licence covers every area
The feature scope differs by user type. Which role needs which access belongs in the costing – the overview is on Prices and costs.
Telephony and newsletters need checking
What is documented is contact synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook. Connecting a telephony system or a newsletter service has to be settled case by case and may require additional components.
Software does not create data quality
Duplicates, incomplete contacts and neglected opportunities migrate along with everything else. Cleaning them up is part of the project and belongs in the estimate.
Industry specifics come from add-on modules
There are additional modules for project business, manufacturing and warehouse logistics. What you need shows in your processes, not in your industry label – see Solutions.
From the first question to going live
Review of the current situation
We look at where customer data sits today, which systems are involved and where the same thing is captured twice.
Concept and estimate
From that comes a proposal covering licences, configuration, data migration and training – with an estimate you can hold against your budget.
Configuration and data migration
Business partners, contacts, open transactions and history are migrated. What comes across and what gets cleaned up is decided beforehand.
Training and go-live
Sales, internal sales support and service are trained on their own transactions. Go-live is accompanied, not handed over as a date and a manual.
Support in operation
After go-live the people you dealt with stay the same. Support, maintenance and further development come from the same house.
Terms that keep coming up in CRM projects
- Business partner
- The central master record for customers, prospects and suppliers. Every transaction – quotation, order, activity, service call – hangs off it.
- Sales opportunity
- An active sales pursuit with a stage, an expected close and a value. The basis for the pipeline and the forecast.
- Activity
- A planned or recorded interaction on the business partner: call, appointment, task or note, with a reminder and an owner.
- Service call
- A recorded customer case in service – from the fault report to resolution, linked to equipment, contract and warranty.
- Service contract
- The agreed service for a customer or a piece of equipment: term, scope and response times, against which a service call runs.
- Solutions knowledge database
- A collection of cases already solved, searchable from a new case for comparable problems.
- Licence type
- Determines which functional areas a user may open. Mapping roles to licence types belongs in the cost calculation.
- Web client
- Browser access alongside the installed client – relevant for field sales and shared workstations.
Questions worth settling before you decide
What does CRM in SAP Business One cost?
There is no separate CRM licence. Licensing is per user, and the feature scope depends on the licence type. On top of licences come implementation, data migration and training. An overview is on the Prices and costs page; a figure for your own project comes out of the costing.
Do we need SAP Business One to use the CRM features?
Yes. The CRM features are part of the ERP system and cannot be used on their own. For a company already considering an ERP replacement, that tends to be an argument in favour rather than against.
Is it worth it for a small sales team?
The benefit depends less on team size than on how often information travels between sales, internal sales support and service. With three sales people and a lot of service contracts the effect can be larger than with ten people doing pure new business.
Can we retire our existing CRM?
That can only be answered after a comparison. What matters is which features are actually used, not which ones the current system offers. Marketing automation is the point at which a replacement most often fails.
Can Microsoft Outlook be connected?
Contacts can be viewed in Outlook and synchronised. Anything beyond that – creating documents from within Outlook, or a telephony connection – we settle during the project against the current state of the product.
Cloud or on-premise?
Either is possible. For the CRM features it makes no functional difference; the decision is about the operating model, IT resources and cost structure. A comparison is on the cloud ERP page.
Can we migrate our existing data?
Business partners, contacts and open transactions can be migrated. Before migration we agree which data comes across and which gets cleaned up – the part of the project that is most often underestimated.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on scope: number of users, condition of the legacy data, number of adjacent systems. A dependable answer comes after the review of your current situation, not before it. An estimate without knowing your data would be a number without a basis.
Does the system cover warranty and service contracts?
Yes. Service contracts, service calls and warranty information are held in the same system as delivery and invoice. Service levels can be monitored through alerts and reports.
Who looks after us after go-live?
The same people who ran the project. Consulting, implementation and support come from one house, with a direct line rather than a ticket number as the only point of contact.
Work out what bringing the two together would cost
The online calculation gives you a first, non-binding estimate for licences and implementation, based on your user numbers and your requirements. For the meeting, bring a typical quotation template, your current customer list and a list of the systems that hold customer data today.
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