Thinc’s key takeaways from the 2025 SAP Partner Summit

At Thinc, we’re passionate about bringing the latest developments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) to our customers. Recently, our SAP team took the short flight over to Barcelona to attend the SAP Partner Summit for Midmarket – and have been eager to share their findings with you.  

Running from 18 to 20 March, the summit provided the latest updates on SAP Business One (B1) and how partners can support their customers in maximising their output.  

As always, we’re keen to bring you news hot off the press, so here are our key takeaways from the summit and reaction from our SAP team.  

SAP Business One Version 11 is on the horizon

Version 11 is set to come out in 2027 and will feature a new generation of partner managed cloud tools. It brings with it further enhancements that have been developed in response to partner and customer feedback. (Please note: the following features are part of a current vision for planned scope and could be changed by SAP at any time.) 

First up, there are a number of further improvements planned to lifecycle management, making SAP B1 much quicker and easier to run and host. These include simpler processes for deployments and updates, all of which will help to make upgrades even smoother.  

Another innovation that’s planned is a single directory of your system landscape – so, whether you’re using SAP B1 in the cloud or on-premise, there’ll be one central place to manage your systems. This should make it simpler to choose how you want to deploy and maintain your solution.  

Next up, there are changes that’ll result in a new and improved cloud experience for cloud users, as SAP is looking to launch a next-gen cloud management system that gives users more control, security and efficiency. You can expect upgraded login options like Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to help keep data safe while making it easier for teams to access what they need. SAP B1 will also directly integrate with cloud-native tools like SharePoint, Google Drive and OneDrive – making document storage and sharing simpler for your teams. 

SAP is also working on usability to address customer feedback, making SAP B1 slicker, smarter and even more user-friendly. SAP B1’s Web Client will continue to receive enhancements, as the browser-based application is made faster, while the groundwork for users to benefit from built-in artificial intelligence is underway, helping with the automation of tasks. 

A continued focus on SAP B1’s Web Client

This one came as no surprise to us, as SAP continues to transition SAP B1 into a web-based interface. SAP plans for an 80% feature parity between the Web Client and desktop versions of SAP B1 by 2026.  

We’ll provide more updates on the Web Client as they develop, with two major releases set to happen in the August of this year and February of next year.  

Our key takeaway from conversations and presentations about the SAP B1’s Web Client is that SAP is clearly steering toward a web-first future for SAP B1. While the legacy desktop client isn’t going away anytime soon, the Web Client is expected to become the primary interface over time – especially for new users. 

In the meantime, take a look at what the latest release meant for SAP Business One’s web client functionality. 

What new features are we most excited about?

At Thinc, there are two features that we are particularly excited about, based on what we’ve identified from working with our customers. Those two new features are Item Variants and Bill of Materials Versioning. We believe that both will help to bring more flexibility and precision to its users and to the manufacturing and inventory process. Here’s what we can expect from the two new features: 

What does the Item Variants change bring to your business? 

Item Variants will essentially allow users to manage multiple versions of a product that differ slightly – for example, by size, colour, material or other attributes – without creating a separate item master for each variation. 

For this reason, we think it’ll be great for a wide range of its users, who can expect to benefit from cleaner item data (due to less duplication), easier reporting and inventory management and better support for product configuration and sales processes (for example, where a customer is choosing from differing options). 

We suspect it’ll be an attribute-based setup, such as defining a product’s size or colour, where stock, pricing and availability will be tracked per product variant. 

How will Bill of Materials help your business?

For users who produce goods using Bills of Materials (BOM), keeping track of changes and managing engineering revisions has always been a challenge in SAP B1. 

The proposed BOM Versioning release will allow customers to maintain multiple BOM versions for the same finished product. Traceability will be improved due to the greater ease of tracking which version was used in production and it’ll be possible to run production with the correct version based on date, order or customer. Users will also be able to manage change processes more easily, without losing the historical BOM data. 

Both enhancements bring SAP B1 much closer to the capabilities of larger ERP systems – without losing its simplicity of use. They’ll help you to scale your business thanks to a reduction in manual workarounds and improved accuracy in both operations and reporting. 

Revisiting the summit: thoughts from our SAP Business One team

We sat down with Greg Crawford, our SAP B1 Managing Consultant and Anastasia Gwynne, our Head of SAP Practice, to discuss the summit and their thoughts on the event. Here’s what they had to say: 

“This was my second SAP Partner Summit and it was as enjoyable as the first. Having worked with SAP for a number of years, it was really refreshing to see the focus that SAP Business One is getting from SAP, and to hear the certainty on its direction. I attended a couple of really good talks that confirmed what my thoughts were about future focus, such as the Web Client. It was also great to meet up with other partners, such as the team over at Boyum IT, whom we work closely with. I’m looking forward to the next one!” 

Greg Crawford, SAP B1 Managing Consultant 

“This was my first SAP Partner Summit since I moved over to Thinc’s SAP team towards the back end of last year. The speaker slots and breakout rooms were really valuable to me as I continue to focus solely on SAP Business One, rather than the full range of solutions that Thinc offer in my previous role. The summit was also the perfect opportunity to speak with the other partners that we collaborate with – such as Boyum IT and Codeless Platforms. By strengthening those bonds further by discussing matters face to face, we’re in a strong position to continue to collaborate, making sure we’re helping our customers get the most out of SAP B1.”

Anastasia Gwynne, Head of SAP Practice 

At Thinc, we pride ourselves on our experience with SAP Business One and its further integrations, supporting our customers across a variety of different markets. We are here to help you to understand how SAP Business One can make your business operate with greater accuracy and efficiency, utilising technology to achieve more. 

Supporting our clients can sometimes mean going beyond the core capabilities of SAP B1. With support from our trusted partners, we can support SAP B1 users with further modules and integrations to support their daily activities. These include warehousing and scanning and shop floor management with Boyum IT, intercompany capabilities from Walldorf Solutions, systems integration and business process automation with Codeless Platforms and tax automation with Avalara.