SAP Business One For Wholesale Distribution
                     SAP® Business One for
Wholesale & Distribution
Are you ready to transform your business?
Publisher- Silver Touch Technologies UK Limited
© Copyright 2016 Silver Touch Technologies UK
All rights reserved. No part of this Guide shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, 
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from Silver Touch Technologies UK
Introduction
The Wholesale & Distribution sector in the UK is composed of many different types of companies that act as a link between 
producers and end customers. The core processes of a distributor include purchasing, inventory, sales, delivery, and retail. 
There are many different ways for a wholesaler/distributor to serve the end customer, ranging from companies with a mix of 
design, stock, and retail to those focused on shipping and value-added service. 
Wholesale companies take risks by holding inventory in order to have products available when their customers need them. As 
a result, Distributors are sensitive to trends, price fluctuations and economic turmoil, and they must have the means to 
respond quickly to market changes. What’s more, the wholesale industry has become increasingly competitive, with many 
other factors affecting the growth and sustainability.
As is the case in other industries, businesses in the Wholesale & Distribution sector should have all the necessary information 
at their fingertips to enable them to make the right decisions to stay ahead of the competition.
Challenges faced by
Wholesalers & Distributors
Wholesale & Distribution is all about juggling stock, increasing volumes, and maintaining competitive prices to improve 
margins. This sector has to be quick and agile in adapting to changes in the market and catering to fluctuating customer 
demands.  Here are some of the challenges for businesses in this sector:
» Tight margins because of the complex supply chain and having to rely on delivery carriers to deliver the products safely 
and on time.
» Managing the many different types of customer relationships smoothly & efficiently
» Efficient stock management wherein it meets the currents requirements without overstocking or being left with old stock
» Preparing detailed reports based on analysing all the various operational aspects such as – warehousing, floor supervi-
sors, etc.
» Legislation is becoming more complex for you and your customers. As your administration increases in volume and 
difficulty, so does the potential for mistakes. 
» Acquiring the right talent to contribute to the smooth functioning of the business.
» Other Wholesalers are no longer your only competitors. Retailers are joining forces. Manufacturers now supply direct. 
Simply offering a fair price, quality and reliability is no longer enough. 
» By offering additional services, you can create extra value, differentiate and attract new customers.
» An efficient system that processes orders and packages the goods from a distribution centre closest to the customers 
address.
» Seamless workflow and managing your growing business with a robust system that can keep up with the changing 
times.
» Supply chain disruptions from third party logistic companies or manufacturers and other unforeseen political events – 
labour disputes, etc. directly impact the cost and inventory.
Wholesale distributors are at the helm of the commerce process and are a significant factor when it comes to its smooth 
functioning. An efficient system calls for a 360-degree business visibility, adept order and shipment processing, efficient 
inventory management and smart problem solving. This is where SAP ®Business One steps in by providing the right balance 
of CRM, ERP and warehousing solution.
SAP® Business One for
Wholesale Distribution
SAP® Business One is designed with small businesses 
in mind, so it is affordable, quick to install, easy to use 
and simple to maintain. As your business grows, SAP 
Business One allows you to easily adapt the application 
to meet changing business needs.
SAP® Business One provides a single system for 
processing analytics and transactions, smarter 
business process handling, accounting and financial 
management, sales and customer management, 
purchasing and operations management, inventory and 
distribution management, ad-hoc interactive reporting 
plus customizable dashboards and analysis. 
It allows you to manage your entire business from 
anywhere on any device, by automating key business 
processes and streamlining for maximum operational 
efficiency. 
Consider these questions:
» How well does your existing ERP solution streamline the order-to-cash process, in terms of automating supply and 
distribution chains? 
» How does your current software support warehouse and inventory management, bin location management, goods 
receipt and issue control, and product and material requirements planning? 
» To what extent do you think you could improve customer satisfaction with faster, more accurate order processing? 
» How much do you think you could improve your margins with more efficient quoting and insight into true costs? 
» How long would it typically take today to get accurate information about inbound and outbound shipments, inventory 
and item location? 
» Are you able to produce accurate bills of materials, costing and stock reports? 
» How does your materials planning impact on your control over stock levels? 
» Do your staff have to switch between workflows to fulfil orders?
If the different parts of your business aren’t connected and able to easily share information, you’re not running as efficiently as 
you could, and that means devoting more time and resources to managing the business than necessary. 
A scalable and affordable business management system like SAP Business One helps reduce these inefficiencies and drive 
productivity and increase profitability.
SAP® Business One Overview
The SAP Business One application for wholesale distributors has been specially designed to run all the key processes you 
require such as order processing, procure-to-pay and purchase order optimisation with improved functionalities like inventory 
control, warehouse management, supplier-managed inventory, direct store delivery and chargeback.
You may be using multiple applications to run your business, which fail to deliver a unified view.  Your business executives 
spend more time on operations, rather than providing strategic insights for better decision-making.  Not having the right 
information in real-time can lead to duplication of work and managing multiple locations and currencies difficult.
This makes it essential for you to opt for a comprehensive and cost-efficient solution. SAP® Business One application has 
been designed to meet the growing needs of small and midsized businesses. It supports all the processes needed to run your 
operations, captures important information, stores critical business data and provides users, instant access, from anywhere 
and at any time.
It is a complete business solution that can help you to manage all your functions like accounting, sales, CRM, operations, 
service, inventory, warehousing and more. You get better visibility and control and can run your end-to-end business processes 
smoothly. It also makes integration with your other systems easier and provides extensive flexibility for future growth and 
innovation. It is offered as “on premise”, “on-demand” and also as a mobile app to help you get real-time insights and stay 
ahead of your competitors. It is highly scalable and helps you to expand, as your business grows.
SAP® Business One Features Summary
Accounting and Financial Customer Relationship
Management Management
You can streamline and automate financial management You can convert more prospects, keep your clients happy, 
with SAP® Business One, which integrates accounting, and maximise business revenues. The integrated CRM tools 
sales, and purchasing data. It will help you to improve support all of your sales, service, and marketing activities – 
margins, reduce errors, and make profitable decisions. from managing campaigns to tracking leads to administer-
ing after sales support.
Warehouse and Production Purchasing and Procurement
Management
SAP® Business One helps to optimise your entire purchas-
You can manage inventory across multiple warehouses in ing process – from planning and PO creation to vendor 
real-time and maintain cost-efficient production. SAP® selection, invoicing, and payments.
Business One will help you to track and record stock 
movements, optimise inventory levels, improve on-time 
delivery, and control stock-outs.
Reporting and Analytics
Reporting and Analytics helps in creating updated reports easily. You get end-to-end visibility of your business and gain 
real-time insights for better and quicker decision-making.
SAP® Business One will thus help you to streamline your business processes, act on timely information and drive profitable 
growth!
Summary
SAP® Business One solutions for wholesale distributors offer a complete web-based solution empowering businesses with the 
following benefits:
» The ability to easily engage with clients through omnichannel commerce – phone, emails, social media, in person etc.
» An extremely nimble dashboard that can be customised to suit your needs including built-in best practices for wholesale 
distribution.
» A warehouse management and inventory management system that gives you all the capabilities to convert leads into 
orders and generate revenue.
» Cut warehouse inefficiencies and reduce the need for warehouse space.
» Real-time analytics and a 360-degree view of your business enabling you to provide better services at a low cost and 
reduced risks.
» Transform and modernize your business with game-changing software designed specifically for wholesale & distribution
Why Silver Touch?
Silver Touch Technologies is a partner of SAP® and has expertise in 15+ industry verticals. Silver Touch has 90+ successful 
SAP® Business One implementations with 100% delivery record over the last seven plus years.
We are always on hand to support you with our SAP® Business One experts. This is provided by our 24/7 support center.
We pride ourselves on achieving customer satisfaction, since the cornerstone of our success lies in building long-term 
relationships with our clients ensuring successful use of Business One.
Our Solutions for the Wholesale and Distribution sector has enabled companies to leverage all the benefits of SAP® and 
deliver quantifiable business benefits keeping them ahead of the game.
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