Int. J. Management Practice, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2013 199 Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The real SAP ® Business One cost: a case study of ERP adoption in an SME Marie Griffiths*, Aleksej Heinze and Anthony Ofoegbu Salford Business School, The University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, UK Fax: 0161 295 4237 Fax: 0161 295 5024 Fax: 0161 295 5000 E-mail: M.Griffiths@salford.ac.uk E-mail: A.Heinze@salford.ac.uk E-mail: A.C.Ofoegbu@salford.ac.uk *Corresponding author Abstract: This paper reports on a UK based service management Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that invested into SAP ® Business One. The action research case study highlights the real cost and difficulties faced in moving to the one single SAP system and the process that was followed in order to identify third-party vendors that can integrate or customise SAP ® Business One. This paper highlights the additional costs required to ensure a ‘fit-for-purpose’ solution to close the gap between strategic needs and the existing SAP Business One solution. The gap itself is illustrated by highlighting 10 key functionalities expected by the given service management SME. The actual implementation cost of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was found to be approximately double the initial SAP costs. The real costs involve time for, among other things, process reengineering, strategic decision making, software add-ons, staff-training, project-management and software maintenance. Keywords: SAP Business One; ERP; enterprise resource planning; service management solutions; SME vendors; action research; IT adoption; IT gap; strategic service management needs. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Griffiths, M., Heinze, A. and Ofoegbu, A. (2013) ‘The real SAP ® Business One cost: a case study of ERP adoption in an SME’, Int. J. Management Practice, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.199–215. Biographical notes: Marie Griffiths has significant experience gained working on varied digital research projects which have explored the commercial and societal implications of technological change. Her current research agenda focuses upon young people and digital media, exploring their behaviour in virtual spaces, their roles as ‘prosumers’ in social networking sites, the extensive media hubs that now surround even very young children and understanding the potential consequences of this digital saturation. She also researches identity, privacy and surveillance technologies and works with Fletcher and Kutar on the Day in the Digital Life project.