The SAP Business One ecosystem is moving fast, and customer expectations are moving even faster. Buyers now expect modern dashboards, fast answers, and AI-assisted insights as part of the ERP experience. And they’re not comparing SAP Business One only to other SAP products anymore. They’re comparing it to cloud-native ERPs that position analytics as “built in” from day one.
For SAP Business One partners, that creates a familiar challenge: How do you stay competitive, differentiate your offering, and create recurring revenue, without stretching your team thin?
A recent conversation with a prospective partner highlighted this exact tension, and it also reinforced why a new collaboration model is resonating across the B1 channel.
Why Analytics Has Become a Pressure Point for SAP Business One Partners
Across the partner ecosystem, the same themes come up again and again.
1) Competitive pressure from “analytics-first” ERPs
Platforms like NetSuite and Odoo sell hard on dashboards and analytics. Even when the underlying reporting is limited, the perception matters during the sales cycle. Prospects want to see “instant insights” and slick visuals, early.
2) SAP’s native analytics options don’t fit the B1 market
Partners often explore SAP’s tooling, but run into predictable friction:
- SAP Analytics Cloud is typically priced and architected for larger enterprise environments.
- SAP’s advanced AI investments are heavily aligned to S/4HANA use cases, not B1.
Both paths can require long timelines, specialized skills, and heavier development effort than most B1 clients (or partner teams) want to take on.
3) Reporting work drains partner resources
Many partners end up stuck in the “report request loop”, small changes, repeat modifications, one-off exports, and endless adjustments. It’s time-consuming, hard to scale, and it pulls consultants away from higher-value work.
4) Limited upsell opportunities
Analytics should be a recurring revenue engine, but many partners struggle to package it, price it, and deliver it in a way that’s repeatable.
A Partnership Model Built Specifically for SAP Business One
The model discussed was straightforward:
Give SAP Business One partners a turnkey analytics + AI insights platform they can offer customers, without needing to build or support it themselves.
In other words: partners keep doing what they do best (ERP strategy, implementations, and long-term account management) while adding an analytics layer that’s ready to deploy and easy to maintain.
What Makes This Approach Different
Pre-built analytics platform for SAP Business One (SQL & HANA)
Instead of starting from scratch, partners can offer a proven environment with 30+ purpose-built modules that can be deployed quickly, often in under two weeks, depending on environment readiness and scope.
Designed for business users, not just technical teams
A key shift is enabling customers to self-serve: build dashboards, answer questions, and explore operational and financial metrics without relying on partner consultants for every change request.
Enterprise-grade technology without the enterprise overhead
Built on a robust IBM analytics stack, this approach provides an alternative to SAP’s enterprise-priced tooling, without compromising on governance, scalability, or reporting depth.
Non-competitive by design
The analytics provider does not offer SAP Business One implementation services. Partners protect their core business and customer relationship.
Built-in recurring revenue for partners
A shared-revenue model creates predictable monthly/annual income, turning analytics into a long-term growth lever instead of a one-time project.
Lead generation and co-selling support
Partners receive enablement content (webinars, marketing support, sales assets) and in some cases even B1 implementation leads aligned to their geography and go-to-market strategy.
Sales demo support to help partners win
Analytics specialists can join partner demos to showcase modern dashboards and AI-assisted insights, helping partners differentiate faster and close more confidently.
Why This Matters for the SAP Business One Channel
- Differentiate your ERP offering with modern analytics and AI insights
- Reduce low-value reporting work that doesn’t scale
- Add recurring revenue without adding headcount
- Strengthen your competitive position against cloud-native ERPs
- Faster access to operational and financial insights
- Lower total cost of ownership versus “build-your-own” reporting stacks
- Self-service dashboards that reduce dependency on consultants
- A future-ready foundation for analytics and planning
What Happens Next
The typical next step is a hands-on demo for the partner’s internal team, focused on fit for their customer base, sales motion, and delivery model.
If the platform resonates, the evaluation usually expands to additional stakeholders (sales, delivery leadership, and technical leads), before moving into a formal partnership discussion.
If you’re an SAP Business One partner feeling the pressure to modernize reporting and AI capabilities, but don’t want to build (and support) an analytics practice from scratch, this partnership model is worth exploring.
Want to see what a turnkey analytics + AI insights platform can look like for your B1 customers?
Let’s schedule a demo and walk through the partner model.
