SAP Business ByDesign has grown into a trusted, mature ERP solution for fast-growing and medium-sized business since its initial release in 2007. With its use of SAP’s new Business Technology Platform (BTP), Business ByDesign is further evolving into a core product for businesses not ready for SAP’s flagship S/4HANA ERP solution.
Business ByDesign adoption continues to grow. As of April, more than 15,264 companies in 165 countries rely on Business ByDesign for backend functions, a growth rate of 21 percent year-over-year. There currently are more than 200 software solution partners that support ByDesign, 250 value-added partners, and roughly 12,220 add-on solutions for the platform.
The options and support for Business ByDesign will continue to grow in 2023 and beyond thanks to a major change that SAP is rolling out right now across its ERP solutions.
Meeting the Future with the SAP Business Technology Platform
Late last year, SAP announced a major change that impacts Business ByDesign and the other ERP solutions it offers: The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
The idea behind BTP is a single, unified platform that cuts across the various SAP ERP solutions. Instead of multiple products and codebases that need integration and periodic upgrades as an organization grows or evolves, BTP is a universal software platform that atomizes business software functions and allows these functions to integrate on any of SAP’s ERP solutions.
When a business adopts or develops a specific software function for operations, it can keep using this function as long as it is necessary as a result of BTP. There’s no migration as a business grows or changes. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time a business evolves. There’s no missing out on SAP innovations because a feature has been released for SAP’s Fortune 500 S/4HANA ERP but not for Business ByDesign.
With BTP, functionality is built once and available for use everywhere. For Business ByDesign users as well as companies that rely on its larger S/4HANA ERP.
SAP enables this by using the open-source model of a small software kernel and universal modules that any kernel can then tap into for specific functionality. These modules both come from SAP and its extensive network of partners such as Navigator Business Solutions, and they also easily can be developed by employees themselves using either SAP’s drag-and-drop editor or its low-code development environment for the platform.
With BTP, Business ByDesign users will get better agility and faster adaptation, easier custom processes and self-development, comprehensive AI and automation system-wide, improved integration and connectivity, and an even easier systems growth path.
IDC, a third-party research firm, calculated that BTP and the opportunities from the new paradigm will boost productivity for Business ByDesign users by an average of 19 percent, save businesses an average of $195,000 per 100 users of the system, and reduce business process errors by 63 percent, among other benefits.
This represents a significant expansion for Business ByDesign, both adding additional capabilities to the product, and more fully integrating it with other SAP offerings. The BTP release is the biggest evolution of Business ByDesign since its initial introduction.
The Roadmap of Business ByDesign
The three core ERP solutions offered by SAP remain, even with the advent of BTP. SAP Business One still is for small-businesses, Business ByDesign still is built for fast-growing and medium-sized businesses, and S/4HANA still is SAP’s large enterprise ERP solution.
What’s changing for all three solutions is that most functionality now will live in this common BTP platform, with version releases for each platform focusing instead on improving the core software kernel that is specific to each product.
So what this looks like for Business ByDesign in 2023 is full rollout of this connection with the BTP platform, building out templates for faster ERP implementation, improving legal and compliance processes, and modernizing the technical foundation. New functionality will come to Business ByDesign through BTP now, not version releases.
Future-Proofing for AI and Greater Agility
The move to a common BTP platform is an exciting evolution for Business ByDesign and SAP’s product offerings in general. This move prepares Business ByDesign for a future where businesses move faster and more deeply integrate AI and automation in all parts of operations. It also makes Business ByDesign even more in line with SAP’s other ERP offerings. It has never been a better time for running a business on Business ByDesign.
For more on BTP and how it will drive greater efficiency for your company, see our recent blog post, Understanding the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). You also ask specific questions about leveraging BTP or learn more about how it impacts Business ByDesign by contacting one of our experience consultants at (801) 642-0123 or by writing us at info@nbs-us.com.
