Problem Solving

[Former Member]

Hi SAPies

Does anybody know who watches/participates in various FORUMS. It seems to me that this forum is very useful to solving problems and sometimes raising "Real Issues" within SAP B1. However, I am not sure that the "Real Issues" are communicated with SAP developers because I come accreoss Issues which are years old and nothing has been done by SAP to rectify them. This is a great shame because there is valuable information for SAP on this FORUM, but I feel that it is lost within the context of users learning from each other, developers trying to find their own answers to their issues, some social chatter etc. But the real problems and bugs within SAP are really lost and I see various users reporting similar things but NOBODY is listening.....

Perhaps somebody knows how to communicate with SAP developers - I did not manage to find a way after 6 months of trying. Is SAP B1 so confident that they do not care about their customers? - dangerous policy!

Robert

PS. Perhaps there should be a way of highlighting the REAL issues when they are found. So here is an idea how to do it:

STEP 1 - The user can Flag a potential Real ISSUE when they are confident that it is the case (say a Pink Blob against the question) This way SAP developers will only have to look at the Pink Questions.

STEP 2 - SAP aknowledges that it has idendified and aknowledged the issue by changing the Blob to Brown colour

STEP 3 - SAP changes the Blob colour to Orange when they start working on this issue.

STEP 4 - SAP changes the Blob to Green when the issue has been resolved.

The result will be that Users of this FORUM will have a system of communication with SAP on real issues, otherwise I feel that we are having a "Conversation of the Deaf"

We need some initiative on this because a lot of people are wasting their time and get frustrated when the solutions are not there or they do not know if anybody is listening...

I hope somone from SAP will read this as a "constructive idea" of how to gain more satisfied users.

[Former Member]

Hi Robert,

Questions posted in this forum are real ones and genuine as far as I know so far. May be you are frustrated with R/3 forum as some of your question may have not reply yet.

SAP being a market leader in ERP segment, may overlook some problems but there are so many users like Suda Sampath, Nagesh Murthy and Dhanaluxmi (and many more) who are Voluntary giving their time and valuable advise to real users.

What I came to know about SAP products is that their product are of community product not (SAP product) because the users from community identified the bugs and give the solution or workaround which is expected from SAP. In addition to that lots of suggestions about to improvement the product is contributed by forum community only.

Advise you to have a faith in forum users (not SAP guys), and post to this forum, I am sure someone will reply. Sometime it may be overlooked by users, So post it again. There is no harm into it.

Further, If you are genuine customer of SAP, open the ticket on support portal and still your problem not addressed by them then aproach to escalation centre of your country as it is your right to get support from SAP.

OP Sharma

[Former Member]

Hi OP

It sounds that you work for SAP and I am pleased (if this is the case) because you also replied to me about one of many issues that other helpful SAP experts cannot sort out because there is a genuine problem within SAP. I entirely agree with you that this forum is a great source of information and had I not found it, our company would have ceased using SAP. B1 has a variety of issues that effect our daily workings of our company. The Date issue I raised about 6 months ago is a typical example:

There is no Document Date Field shown in the most important functions of SAP b1, Payment Of invoices, BanK Reconciliation

and many others. My support center did nothing about it and nor did anybody at country level.

I noticed that other users have similar problems and probably the communication system you have is not great - this is why I suggested that bypassing the "system" and picking up the issues directly from the users may make more sense. And SAP would have direct contact with the PROBLEMS that need sorting.

Robert

[Former Member]

If someone's post has the SAP logo, then he or she works for SAP and is posting / responding to the forums.

I believe the best way to get issues to SAP (including DRQ's) is to pass it on to your local SAP B1 Manager and get him or her to escalate it upwards to the programming and development team.

The forums is mainly an easy way for users to discuss issues with one another, mostly business oriented issues against SAP B1 (IMO).

[Former Member]

Thanks for your clarification.

I did report a few issues 4 months ago but they did not respond. Also I think it is unfair for users to discuss and trying to find answers if the fault is in the programme. I have noticed a number of issues raised in this forum that may be connected to the fact that the Dates are in a mess.

I do feel that a simple intervention from SAP, can stop a lot of speculation about an issue. All they have to do is to aknowledge the problem and we, the users, can stop speculating about what is wrong.

It is a shame that such a good piece of software should have some real basics (such as a Date) wrong.

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi OP

I read your reply again and I just wanted to say that I really appreciate users taking the time to reply to users Questions. Suda and others already help me with my understanding of SAP B1 and my remarks refer only to basic "faults" that should be rectified within the programme. Our company progressed to SAP B1 from another Accounting package which was far less sophisticated however had the Basics right and it is frustrating to waste a lot of time on solving such basic issues. My message to the user group is to keep up the good work and cooperation.

Thank you

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your understanding which more clear now.

FYI, I never worked for SAP. I am just a user like you (free lancer techno-functional consultant). This forum help me a lot hence I shared my experience.

I have seen in my 20 year IT career that no sftware is bug free whether it is SAP or Oracle or Microsoft. But every vendor has its own ways to handle it.

For more discussion off the topic, you may write to me at opsharma (dot) sap at gmail for better understanding.

OP Sharma

[Former Member]

Thanks Op

[former_member583013]

Hello Robert,

SAP Business One as a product is constantly going through improvement and a lot of effort is being put by the product development team in making it better and responding to bug fix needs. Thats probably why you might seen many patches were released in a short duration of time.

Members from SAP's product roll-out team and product development team might not be answering question here but I can assure you that they keep constant watch on whats really going on and they are very well aware of the things that need to be fixed.

There is another Forum SAP Business One Product Development Collaboration (/community [original link is broken]) where specific question / requests for Product development are made, you could very well make your request or comments on that Forum.

If there is a very specific question you might have you can always post it here and member would be glad to answer them.

A product feature will not be simply added just because one or two partner are requesting them, SAP should actually validate the feature request and if found viable will be part of the Product Roadmap for development.

My best wishes to you

Suda

[Former Member]

Thank you Suda

As a new user I can only comment from my personal experience with SAP. Since purchasing this programme 8 months ago I had no information on any pathches, upgrades or any communication from SAP that any of my problems are looked at. When I posted a legitimate suggestion about the confusing nature of the Item Group Determination Screen on the Product Development Collaboration user group, I received a response from someone that this is the wrong Forum for this type of suggestions. So now I am not sure where the SAP users should discuss their issues in such a way that someone takes notice.

However, I would like to commend your efforts in responding to users but unfortunately, programme faults need to be sorted by SAP and it would also be nice to know when they are sorted. I am also pleased to know that you have confidence in SAPb1.

We will soldier on for a while and see if we can resolve our core issues.

Thanks again

Robert

[former_member583013]

Robert,

Are you working with a SAP channel partner in your area. They should be the one who should be helping you with understand the different things and guiding you through all this.

I am not clear why SAP would would get directly involved with a Customer when they deal everything through the channel partners

Suda

[Former Member]

Because there are issues with SAPb1 that our channel partner admits that they can do nothing about so it is up to SAP to react to such issues. The other reason is that we are unlucky that we have a channel partner who is not interested to sort out this type of problems.

At the moment we have no Channel Partner to resolve issues and no SAP company who is interested and the only source of help is from people like yourselves, for which I am grateful. I am not sure if we will get to the "promised land" with SAP but I am still trying to sort out this programme. For your information SUDA, I am the Managing Director of our company and I got involved because AFTER many months of our Finance people and our IT department and our channel partner all working at setting up our system, I realised that we are getting nowhere. We spent a lot of money on this programme and on training and we cannot produce a set of accounts. I think SAP should be responsable for their software and their channel partners.

Robert

[former_member583013]

Robert,

Why don't you contact SAP to be referred to another SAP partner in your area. I could help you further if you want to email me at sudasampath.sapb1 at gmail dot com

Suda

[Former Member]

Yes, you are right and i will take action on this. Thanks for your suggestions

Robert

[former_member583013]

Please mark this question answered if you need no further assistance on this

[Former Member]

This forum is very good for improving the understanding of SAP but perhaps you are right and this forum may not be the right medium to resolve SAP issues

Thanks

Robert