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SAP Business One vs NetSuite: ERP Software Comparison
Choosing the right ERP solution can be a game-changer for your business. Two of the most popular ERPs for small and midsize businesses in the market are SAP Business One and NetSuite ERP.
While both Enterprise Resource Planning systems offer robust tools for managing operations, SAP Business One stands out as the clear leader for businesses looking to take that next step in their evolution with a solution that offers seamless functionality, affordability, and customizability.
In this guide, we’ll be comparing SAP Business One and NetSuite to help business leaders and professionals determine the best ERP systems for their operations.
An Overview of SAP B1 and NetSuite ERP Systems
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are fully integrated software solutions that help manage and automate core business processes across the various departments of an organization.
They have become indispensable for modern businesses that need to maintain their competitiveness and agility in order to adapt to ever-changing market demands. ERP platforms like SAP Business One and NetSuite support businesses by streamlining their operations, delivering meaningful data to support customer and vendor relationships, and driving sustainable growth.
What is SAP Business One?
SAP Business One is an ERP software specifically designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) wanting to improve efficiency, gain greater visibility across their operations and make better business decisions. It offers an integrated solution that connects various business functions like finance, sales, purchasing, inventory management, production, customer relationship management (CRM), and more onto a centralized platform.
This ERP for small businesses is best suited for companies that have outgrown their entry-level systems, disparate systems, or homegrown systems and are looking to scale their business with an affordable solution that they can grow into over time. It is ideal for companies in the wholesale distribution, manufacturing, professional services, and retail-oriented distribution industries.
What is NetSuite ERP?
NetSuite, in comparison, is a cloud-based ERP solution that integrates various functions in an organization including finance, CRM, e-Commerce, inventory and supply chain.
Some of its key features include real-time dashboards, reporting, and global financial consolidation. NetSuite is best suited for businesses with a simple retail and e-Commerce focus, or the upper-end of the mid-market for manufacturing, and professional services companies.
Benefits of an Integrated ERP System with SAP B1 and NetSuite
Improved Efficiency
ERPs like SAP Business One and NetSuite enable companies to automate repetitive tasks like data entry, order processing, and invoicing while streamlining processes that eliminate redundant steps and bottlenecks.
Increased Collaboration
By centralizing your data onto a singular platform, it eliminates the various silos of information and reliance on tribal knowledge that exist within your organization, and provides one version of the truth. This facilitates better communication and coordination between departments.
Enhanced Visibility
By virtue of having a system with one source of truth and real-time data filtering in from all aspects of your business, it provides you with a higher level of visibility and transparency across your operations.
Resource Optimization
With real-time data insights, organizations are able to keep tighter controls over their inventory levels, forecast more accurately, be more proactive with their supply chains and analyze trends to drive their costs down.
Improved Decision-Making
With real-time data at your fingertips, interactive dashboards, and robust reporting tools, ERP systems facilitate informed decision-making through data-driven analysis.
NetSuite vs SAP: ERP System Comparison Chart
Several core elements differentiate the two Enterprise Resource Planning systems. This side-by-side ERP software comparison breaks down key features, pricing, scalability, and industry fit for SAP Business One and NetSuite, making it easier to find the best match for your business.
| Category | SAP Business One Features | NetSuite Features |
|---|---|---|
| Target Market | SMBs with 10 to 300+ employees, with a focus on wholesale distribution, manufacturing, retail and professional services industries. | Focused on the mid-to-higher end of the midmarket across the following industries; retail, manufacturing, and professional services. |
| Deployment Options | Offers flexibility in cloud deployment options and On-Premise options. | Cloud deployment only, with limiting options for certain industries. |
| Scalability | Ideal for growing SMBs with tools that scale as you expand. | Scales well but may become cost-prohibitive as you grow. |
| Customization | Extensive customizability with robust configurability, industry-specific extensions and seamless integrations. | Customizations are available but often require advanced technical expertise that is costly. |
| Financial Management | Strong accounting, finance and reporting capabilities for SMBs. Includes fixed assets, banking, multi-currency, multi-entity, and 50+ localizations. | Comprehensive accounting and finance solution for the mid-market. Ability to manage complex financial needs, including multi-currency and consolidations. |
| Customer Relationship Management Capabilities | SAP B1’s CRM capabilities are extremely pervasive and interconnected with all of the core modules. It offers contact, company and tasks management, lead tracking, pipeline management, and an integrated calendar. Additionally, seamless integrations to leading CRM solutions are available such as Salesforce, HubSpot and more. | NetSuite’s core CRM functionality is more robust which includes contact, company and tasks management, pipeline management as well as sales force automation and marketing automation. Integrations to third-party solutions are more complex and costly. |
| e-Commerce Integration | Integrates seamlessly with leading third-party solutions like Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and more. Several eCom solutions are tailored to SAP B1 and offered as add-ons. Integrations can be managed directly with SAP’s exclusive middleware solution. | NetSuite offers a simple eCom solution as part of its core set of modules but companies with a higher level of complexities often turn to leading third-party solutions like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. The integrations are typically more costly, require more customization, and rely on external middleware tools. |
| Reporting and Analytics | With SAP HANA in-memory processing, SAP B1 offers significantly faster reporting and analytics. It emphasizes features like enterprise search, dashboards, KPIs, and Excel integration. Additionally, SAP Analytics Cloud is an add-on. | Offers user-friendly reporting features like customizable dashboards, pre-built and ad-hoc reports, and strong integration with external BI tools. However, the complexity of some reports may require more technical expertise. |
| Inventory & Supply Chain Management | SAP B1 offers robust inventory management capabilities to manage complex requirements. Though, more complex supply chain management environments may require industry-specific add-ons. | NetSuite focuses on Supply Chain flexibility but lacks the depth of functionality when it comes to complex warehouse and production needs. |
| User Interface | The current user interface (fat client) is dashboard-oriented and intuitive but slightly dated. SAP B1’s Web Client which is 50% complete and available is very modern, tile-based, and user-friendly. | The user interface is quite intuitive, modern and demo-friendly. It offers a high degree of customization but this often leads to a more complex user experience. |
| Integration Capabilities | SAP Business One has very robust integration capabilities. It provides multiple tools to integrate with other solutions including SAP-exclusive middleware called the Integration Framework keeping everything under one roof, as well as the Service Layer and the DI API. | NetSuite ERP has very robust integration capabilities including SOAP-based APIs, and REST web services, however, their reliance on third-party integration solutions often complicates the process and drives costs up. |
| Industry-specific Features | SAP is able to meet many industry-specific features using its high degree of configurability. For more complex industry requirements, SAP relies on a mature partner ecosystem of certified add-on solutions to bridge those gaps. | NetSuite has pre-configured specific industry packages for a handful of industries. Those that can take advantage of those packages may realize a quicker time to value. However, many companies find these packages too restrictive or limited and often see their scope and cost skyrocket after the fact. |
| Cost Structure | Clear pricing structure with subscription-based and perpetual-based license models available; typically lower TCO over a 3-5 year period. | The NetSuite ERP pricing structure is much more convoluted; typically higher subscription costs and ongoing costs. The upfront NetSuite ERP cost is often heavily discounted for the initial term. |
| Global Compliance | Available in 50 country-specific localizations in over 170 countries, and 28 different languages with 80,000+ total customers. | Available in 51 country-specific localizations in over 190 countries, and 27 different languages with 40,000+ total customers. |
| Support & Community | SAP’s primary support is provided through their extensive partner network which is their Go-to-Market strategy. Additionally, SAP offers customer and partner portal resources, and there are a plethora of independent user forums. | NetSuite’s support is often provided by a hodge-podge of resources including NetSuite directly, certified partners, or off-shore resources. With a smaller user base, there are less independent forums. |
SAP Business One vs. NetSuite: Which Is Right for Your Business?
Ultimately, choosing the right ERP software for your business depends on several factors that are unique to each organization. A thorough assessment of your organization’s critical requirements, what industry-specific capabilities are offered, your long-term plans for growth, and the total cost of ownership over 3-5+ years will be important to understand.
When it comes to small and medium-sized businesses, especially those in the wholesale distribution and manufacturing industries who have outgrown their current systems due to increasing business complexity, lack of controls, or are looking to gain a competitive edge, SAP Business One is the optimal solution to consider.
SAP Business One offers more robust inventory and warehouse management capabilities and deeper manufacturing functions. Additionally, SAP HANA’s in-memory database provides robust analytical reporting and its embedded integration framework ensures seamless integrations to third-party applications giving you confidence that it will continue to scale with you as you evolve.
On the other hand, NetSuite ERP tends to be a better fit for medium-to-larger organizations that run multiple company entities, across different localizations and want to host each company under one customer cloud instance. NetSuite’s native financial consolidation and e-Commerce functionality tends to satisfy basic needs for companies in the professional services, retail-focused, and light manufacturing industries. Overall, its user-friendly interface, and out-of-the-box reporting capabilities provide a relatively shallow learning curve.
The one key difference with NetSuite is they may sell the solution directly or go through their partner channel and often compete against each other. They may do the initial implementation directly, or assign a certified partner, or offshore resources to manage the process. Either way, if they are involved during the initial implementation, your ongoing support may bounce from one support team to the next, anywhere across the globe, losing all previous lessons learned or specific customer details from previous interactions. Customers often waste more time getting their support team familiar with their environment than dealing with the actual issue at hand.
Discover the Best ERP Systems Setup at aclaros, Your Platinum SAP B1 Partner
When comparing NetSuite vs SAP Business One, before you decide which ERP solution to select, it’s important to understand that the differences in capabilities are very marginal—some are stronger in one system while others may be strong in the other.
The biggest differentiator actually rests on the shoulders of your implementation partner. How successful your team will be at adopting the platform and continually optimizing it into the future as your business evolves has a direct correlation with the ERP Partnership that you foster.
With SAP Business One, aclaros is your Partner of Record and the only contact you will need. aclaros manages everything from the initial sale to implementation, training, ongoing support, advanced functions, integrations or programming. With an average tenure of 7+ years and consultants who bring industry and functional expertise across all areas such as project management, finance, warehouse and production, technical infrastructure, programming and more, we are your one-stop-shop.
Contact our team to learn more about SAP Business One, a comprehensive ERP solution tailored to the needs of small and midsize businesses.
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FAQs
What’s better, SAP or NetSuite?
The answer to this question ultimately depends on what’s most important to the particular company. 90% of the core functionality small to medium-sized businesses look for can be found in either SAP Business One or NetSuite.
The 10% difference simply accounts for how that functionality is being delivered (user interface and experience, deployment models, system extensibility, etc.), all of which have inherent strengths and weaknesses. However, the biggest difference between NetSuite and SAP lives outside the actual system functionality and has to do more with the type of implementation and support partnership you’re looking for.
Is Netsuite an ERP system?
The answer to this question ultimately depends on what’s most important to the particular company. 90% of the core functionality small to medium-sized businesses look for can be found in either SAP Business One or NetSuite.
Yes, NetSuite is an ERP system, more specifically a cloud-based ERP solution. NetSuite offers a core set of modules that have been pre-configured for specific industries and includes a laundry list of additional functionalities that can be purchased a-la-carte, as well as third-party add-on solutions, and integrations that are delivered through partners.
Is Netsuite a CRM or ERP?
NetSuite is not inherently a CRM solution but CRM is a component or module within its core functionality.
What is the best NetSuite alternative for small business processes?
The best alternative to NetSuite for small and midsized businesses is SAP Business One. SAP Business One’s core out-of-the-box functionality offers more robust capabilities in the areas of inventory management, MRP, production, and services. Additionally, SAP Business One can meet all other functions offered by NetSuite using a combination of its core modules, SAP portfolio of products, partner solutions, or through seamless integrations. Learn more about this level of personalization.
Who is NetSuite’s biggest competitor?
NetSuite’s biggest competitor is SAP Business One. SAP Business One has twice as many customers as NetSuite globally, a more mature partner ecosystem, a clearer go-to-market strategy, and a proven track record.
