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IFS Cloud Platform vs Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in ERP
12th
Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
CRM (21st), Customer Experience Management (7th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (12th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (2nd), Local Government CRM (9th), IT Asset Management (10th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (11th), License Management (2nd)
Sage Business Cloud Enterpr...
Ranking in ERP
23rd
Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the ERP category, the mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 2.5%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Brendan Fisher - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, customizable, and modern
IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.
Ikbel Zammit - PeerSpot reviewer
Makes processes including calculating costs, accessing inventory information quickly, validating offers, and extracting data easier
I use Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management to digitize our processes. I put our work and the opportunities on the platform, validate financial offers, and manage fees from transport and financial management.  I also use the system for record-keeping of client information and work…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"When it comes to financing, the solution has helped us to concentrate finance functions like accounting processes in one system. This includes about 70 internal entities around the world."
"Some of the strengths are Enterprise Management Solutions and the series of Management solutions which is number one in Gartner's report and has been for the last five years."
"The most valuable features of IFS Applications are their intuitiveness and ease of use. The navigations are also straightforward, which makes it easy to train users. The feedback I always receive is that it is very user-friendly."
"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."
"The best feature is the maintenance module, which is essentially an industry-specific workflow designed with a manufacturing module as per industry standards. It's very precise and specific without having complex functionalities. It's straightforward. Field Service Management is definitely a wonderful product that IFS has developed because it caters to field services. The energy and utility sectors can answer their business needs using the software."
"The solution overall is very versatile and flexible, especially compared to other products."
"We could quickly understand what was going on and what the customer wanted to do."
"There are fewer fields on the user screen compared to other products."
"Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management has helped by making processes such as calculating costs, accessing inventory information quickly, validating offers, and extracting data easier."
"The most valuable feature of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is the business intelligence module. Additionally, report consolidation, cloud access, and analysis are useful."
"The solution is parameterized so it naturally has the ability to parameterize, configure, and adapt to various organizational procedures."
"The initial setup is not complex. The deployment process was relatively straightforward."
"The interface is rich in features, allowing efficient management of business operations."
"The accounting part and the procurement part are most valuable. It is a very good system with workflows and notifications."
 

Cons

"The solution's reporting tools still require improvement."
"The support provided by IFS Applications has room for improvement. I'm based in Poland, and when my company had an issue, finding people from IFS to give my company the support it needed was difficult."
"An area for improvement would be transactions, which can be tedious to complete as the process is very complex."
"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."
"Aspects of HR and payroll could be better."
"Technical support could be improved."
"The solution needs to improve its documentation and user-friendliness."
"I'm a business analyst, so I do a lot of customer-facing work. I take calls from businesses I have to troubleshoot. One thing that bugs me is the error messages you get from IFS. If I get an error message, I have to dig to find the cause because, often, the error message doesn't precisely describe the problem. It'll hint about where the problem lies, but you have to work to find the root cause. It doesn't help in my situation. You expect an error message to point to the field or what is causing the issue."
"Its implementation process is kind of complicated. If the person implementing it doesn't know what he is doing, the system can have many issues. Sage X3 is just an accounting system. As compared to Oracle E-Business Suite, it does not cover a lot of functionality. It doesn't have the payroll, lease management, and HR modules. Oracle E-Business Suite is better than Sage X3."
"The solution does not have a solid, out-of-the-box API architecture that is supported."
"Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved."
"Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management could improve the search functionality. For example, if I was to search for a transaction from last year it would be difficult to accomplish. I have to scroll through to find what I am looking for. The approach should be more similar to Quickbooks where when you search for something it takes you directly to the searched item."
"Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved."
"It is not suitable for corporate or manufacturing companies. For example, it's challenging to use it for a manufacturing company."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
"Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive."
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"IFS Applications is expensive software, but it's on par with SAP and Oracle. It's for large enterprises and government entities and not for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have one licensing model, but if you want to have a module-specific license, they provide component-based licenses. Unlike SAP and Oracle, it doesn't have different levels of licensing. It's one level of licensing."
"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"The cost is not expensive."
"The solution delivers the same capabilities of SAP or Oracle at about 30% to 40% of the cost."
"The price of this solution is expensive. However, it depends on the number of branches used. The price can be upwards of $40,000 annually."
"It is very cheap. There are no additional charges, but the problem is that you have to acquire an additional supporting system such as a budgeting system. You will have to implement the integration and maintain two systems. So, you need to pay for the license of that budgeting system and this one. You also need to pay the license for the payroll and integration. There are all these integrations that you have to pay for."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
25%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IFS Applications?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...
What do you like most about Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?
The initial setup is not complex. The deployment process was relatively straightforward.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?
The pricing of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is high compared to other solutions like Bitrix.
What needs improvement with Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?
Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved. The importation of configurations like BOQs is challenging as each line has to be added individually, which is time-consuming...
 

Also Known As

IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
Sage ERP X3, Sage X3
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Power Distributing, Universal Paper and Plastics
Find out what your peers are saying about IFS Cloud Platform vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.