“Bringing together SAP Business One customers, partners, and solution providers for the common good” is the vision, mission and core value proposition of the SAP B1 Community Association. For many, this might seem to be a very fluffy, innocuous statement. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The SAP B1 Community is one of the few environments in which every participant can derive real value. Not because we are all nice people trying to “do good”, but because value is driven by the model in which it is created, the structure in which it is organized, and the value proposition the drives its behavior. In short, by actively participating in the association, all the participants benefit in a very real way.
Customers Win!
If you are a customer, you will have access to the latest information including product roadmap, updates, enhancements, and announcements so you can plan for a continued and elegant transition of your B1 environment. There are numerous opportunities for education and training for you and your people. There are events that highlight and share additional functionality available from other B1 customers or solutions providers in the SAP eco-system. Customers will have an opportunity to meet with SAP representatives, giving them more visibility than they would have otherwise. There are even forums where communities of customers can share their experiences, resources, questions, concerns and successes. Does this represent real value? You bet!
Customer Benefits
Consider the following:
- A customer that distributes seafood meets a customer that owns multiple restaurants. A relationship is formed that helps both members to grow and prosper.
- A member of an accounting forum obtains a new report shared by another customer that gives them enhanced visibility into their day-to-day operations. Another customer was able to find a hire a new controller due to a post on the community website.
- Customers that have found workarounds for common issues share those workarounds with the overall membership, helping hundreds of other customers solve the same or similar problems.
- It is even possible that your next acquisition could be found within the Community membership. What a great way to meet and get to know a potential merger or acquisition candidate.
Partners Win!
If you are an SAP partner, the benefits and opportunities are even more substantial. In addition to all of those benefits mentioned above for customers, partners will have access to “Centers of Excellence”. Imagine being able to confidently make plans and commitments knowing that should additional resources be required, there are members (that you know) available. SAP B1 Community members will get to know other partners that share similar cultures, capabilities, values and even pricing. If you are in need of marketing, sales, pre-sales, consulting or even development support, there are other member organizations capable of providing those needed resources. This could be short-term, or it could be part of your on-going business plan.
Partner Benefits
Solution Providers Win!
Additional partner benefits include:
- SAP Partners will gain access to exceptional online assets to help them grow and manage their practice, continue their evolution into a SaaS business, and build very real relationships that can lead to mergers, acquisitions and other exit strategies.
- The SAP B1 Community will also offer its members other key managed services. These include, but are not limited to, online discussion groups, resource libraries and knowledgebase.
- As part of a large, vibrant and growing association, Community Members will also have visibility inside SAP that is far in excess of the visibility that they might achieve on their own. Not just speakers at meetings, but also inclusion into partner forums and discussion groups. When you ask a question, you can get answers from the entire community.
- Members work in a culture of “coopertition” rather than cut-throat competition. Having a community with similar values, ethics and practices helps to build the SAP reputation in the marketplace which will benefit all members.
- The B1 Community will also have the ability to negotiate as a community. This could be access to better pricing or margins from other B1 solution providers wishing to gain access to the community as a whole. It could mean strategic additions to your portfolio.
- The B1 Community Association is also agnostic. This opens up additional opportunities for members to discuss topics that might not otherwise be discussed. It could lead to visibility into other solutions, technologies or managed services.
If you are an SAP B1 Solution Provider, the B1 Community Association is a strategic part of your go-to-market strategy. The community represents an exceptionally effective and efficient way for you to gain access to many partners and customers at one time. By working within a structure that provides you the ability to promote your value, you can gain mindshare in a way that benefits all of the various member communities.
The creation of intellectual property (IP) is a huge investment and commitment. The SAP B1 Community is a place where solution providers can:
- Make their IP or other managed services known.
- Gain information on SAP Business One usage of your products and services.
- Solicit feedback for your product roadmap.
Solution Provider Benefits
In addition to the knowledge sharing you can have through community, you also receive the following benefits:
- Access to members through many events, webinars, seminars, and other activities throughout the year will become a strategic part of your marketing planning.
- The ability to create forums and/or communities where other members can participate based on their interests in your solutions.
- You can participate in a “Center of Excellence” where your knowledge and experience can benefit the community as a whole. For example, if your solution represents something as strategic as intelligent process automation (IPA), you can create and publish content helping to educate and inform customers and partners as to the importance of IPA to their companies. If customers or partners do not have resources that are knowledgeable or experienced in things like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, machine learning and other IPA technologies, your organization can demonstrate thought leadership in this area.
Maximize Your Investments in SAP
Regardless of your relationship to SAP B1, the SAP B1 Community Association is the place where you can maximize your investments of time, money and people. It is a “safe place” where value is praised above all else. Customers will not be bombarded with solicitations. Partners will not be asked to spend money to attend another party once or twice a year, and solution partners will not have to cajole and beg for access to customer lists for organizations that don’t have a need or interest in their solutions.
Instead, all of the members will be working to find ways to manage, grow and succeed using a very powerful, trusted and capable platform. SAP Business One has been around since 2002. Over the last 23-years it has helped hundreds of thousands of customers the world over. It is a mature solution that can continue to grow and evolve. For this reason, everyone in this community can continue to grow and evolve as well. Working together to build a solid future!
