What’s New in SAP Business SAP Business ByDesign 1608

The release of SAP Business ByDesign 1608 brought with it many changes and improvements, and you may not be taking full advantage of them.

In this blog, we’ll tell you all you need to know to about the changes that have occurred during the SAP 1608 update.

Video: 5 Brilliant Ways to Customize SAP Business ByDesign

Like snowflakes, no two businesses are alike, and at times it’s necessary to customize your ERP solution to ensure it works exactly the way your business does.

In this video we’ll demonstrate 5 brilliant examples of how you can customize SAP Business ByDesign to ensure it accommodates your most unique and critical business needs.

Specifically, the video covers:

1. How Development Works in SAP Business ByDesign
2. Basic User Assistance – Sales Order Duplicate Check
3. More Advanced Validation – External Reference Required for Release
4. Store Custom Data – Approved Supplier List
5. Upload Custom Data – File Input
6. Automate Processes – Freight on Customer Invoice

Application Identifier on Bar Codes in SAP Business ByDesign

It appears that there have been a number of questions raised on the ByDesign forums related to the use of the mobile devices with existing SAP Business ByDesign form templates, and errors due to a lack of an “Application Identifier” when trying to scan barcodes.

The reason for this is that not all standard form templates for ByDesign are built with mobile devices in mind. Luckily, the fix to this is very straightforward. By default, most of the forms do not include the “Application Identifier” for the related fields. The “Application Identifier” is a numeric code that represents what type of data is being scanned.

Take the use-case in which the product ID is expected to be scanned. The associated application identifier is “91”. Note that this is a ByDesign-specific application identifier (it is one of the “90 – 99” custom fields referenced in the GS1 specification). Therefore, the mobile device will expect that any barcode that represents a product ID will start with a “91”. However, the XML data that is used to generate the forms will not necessarily have information in this format – in general, it would come over with just the regular value.

With the example of a product ID “SKU1234”, the product ID on the form template would still be “SKU1234”. However, if this product ID needs to be scanned, then the application identifier would need to come first – the barcode would actually need to contain the value “91SKU1234” to scan correctly, with the “91” representing the application identifier. We can make this adjustment through the addition of a simple script in Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

SAP Business ByDesign Customization: 4 Real-Life Examples

When it comes to ERP systems, a strong and diligent selection process can really help you meet your business needs without the requirement for any customization. While SAP Business ByDesign is able to fulfill the majority of common business requirements, there will always be industry-specific or customer-specific requirements. For these requirements, SAP provides a combination of tools: both front-end based adaptation and extensibility as well as the Cloud Applications Studio can be used to develop solutions to bridge any out-of-the-box gaps.

In the blog series below, we’ll explore four examples of customer-specific SAP Business ByDesign solutions built by FMT Consultants. While the level of effort behind each of these enhancements varies, the business impact for even the simple solutions has been substantial – improving efficiency, automation, visibility, and data integrity. The solutions are ordered from least complex to most complex. The first two solutions can be built without the use of the SAP Cloud Applications studio. The second two solutions do require a small customization to be built in the SAP Cloud Applications Studio.

4 SAP Business ByDesign Customization Examples - by FMT Consultants:

1. Application Identifier on Bar Codes

2. Detailed Material Description

3. Actual Freight on Customer Invoice

4. Material-Specific Lead Time

Actual Freight on Customer Invoice in SAP Business ByDesign

We’ve often come across the requirement to invoice customers for only the actual freight price or cost incurred related to the outbound delivery. In the example we explore here, the “Freight Price” is an extension field that has been added to the outbound delivery. The value in the field is actually being sent to SAP Business ByDesign from an external system, but this functionality could also work with a value entered manually on the outbound delivery itself.
Note that this customization was only built for a single-currency environment, but it would be very easy to adjust to a multicurrency environment by changing the “Freight Price” field to an “Amount”-type field instead of a “Text” type field. In this scenario, the external system did not send data in an “Amount” type structure.
The external system would send back the actual amount value to populate the “Freight Price” field once the outbound delivery had been processed.

10 Tips for Reports and Data Sources in SAP Business ByDesign

Author: Dan Edelman, Senior SAP Business ByDesign Consultant at FMT Consultants

This blog is intended to provide some tips and tricks for creating custom reports or data sources in SAP Business ByDesign. It’s aimed at users that don’t have a reporting background, so if you’re used to building SQL-based reports, just bear with me. This isn’t an end-to-end guide from data source to report, but serves as a reference to use if you’re just getting started, or have gotten stuck trying to figure out how to do something.

Video: 5 Brilliant Ways to Customize SAP Business ByDesign (by FMT Consultants)

Like snowflakes, no two businesses are alike, and at times it’s necessary to customize your ERP solution to ensure it works exactly the way your business does.

In this video we’ll demonstrate 5 brilliant examples of how you can customize SAP Business ByDesign to ensure it accommodates your most unique and critical business needs.

Specifically, the video covers:

1. How Development Works in SAP Business ByDesign
2. Basic User Assistance – Sales Order Duplicate Check
3. More Advanced Validation – External Reference Required for Release
4. Store Custom Data – Approved Supplier List
5. Upload Custom Data – File Input
6. Automate Processes – Freight on Customer Invoice