We performed a comparison between Infor M3 and SAP S/4HANA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two ERP solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."It's very stable, and it handles all types of industrial and manufacturing businesses in very good ways. I've found it to be easy."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the Infor GL tool that allows us to do our application support and development."
"provides all modules, supply chain, HR - it's good for management."
"The user interface and user experience were good."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to cover different types of activities, and the requirement for maintenance and data is very low."
"M3 has several useful features for managing supply chains, production, and customer orders. It's an excellent system that helps me meet all my requirements for fixed costs."
"Infor M3 has tailor-made packages for each and every industry."
"The most valuable feature of SAP S/4HANA is the innovational process. We are able to receive more efficiency or accuracy than previous versions."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is the inbuilt standards included in SAP that customers can adopt easily. Also offers to customize it based on the specific requirements."
"It is more or less a very, very smooth and seamless product. Day by day they are increasing their technology features and they are keen to resolve the issues. India has a complex business scenario and SAP is thinking about that and resolving the issues day by day."
"One of the things I like about it is its well-integrated and secure nature."
"The solution's new UI called Fiori is user friendly."
"The solution makes its use and the management of our infrastructure easy."
"It seamlessly integrates with all the SAP Business Suite products such as IoT, AI, Analytics and all other SaaS solutions. The product is very robust and comprehensive."
"I would like to have some kind of dashboard to show an overview of different data on the same dashboard or on the same screen instead of moving to BI."
"Infor should create one product to handle the whole business. At present, they make ERP systems for each type of business, and then sell additional features. I would like to have one system handing all organizations or all the business in deep ways and not have to buy additional features."
"The solution is stable but not agile."
"It would be great if Infor added some new workflows in the finance module. I'd also like to see better integration with third-party applications."
"Its initial setup was probably complex, but it is a very good system."
"The solution must provide more learning documents."
"An area for improvement in Infor M3 is training. There should be more training resources available for clients. Clients also find it challenging to get consultants or integrators for Infor M3. The product doesn't have enough resources in the market to help clients."
"Sometimes, M3 alone cannot handle all the planning functionalities required by a customer. It has to be used along with industry-specific planning tools because M3 doesn't have all the features. However, no product can handle all the requirements of all the industries. There will be some shortcomings in all the products. Though this is an area for improvement, it is not a very serious shortfall or limitation. It can be covered by using third-party planning applications that integrate with Infor M3."
"There should be a place where I can get the best available applications in one place. Currently, Fiori applications are available in different tiles on the dashboards. If anyone wants to check the financial, sales, and inventory reporting in one place, it is not possible in Fiori. We would have to develop a custom Fiori application. If that feature can be incorporated into the standard Fiori, it will be helpful for us."
"SAP S4HANA could improve by having a more seamless easier integration, faster integration. The overall implementation timelines should be reduced."
"I would like to see the AI included to help from a data standpoint."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"The user interface should be much more convenient and user-friendly."
"It requires a lot of planning to implement the product correctly."
"If S4HANA has more AI and machine learning, it will be better and easier for reporting and dashboarding."
"Items that impact the TCO should be improved because the solution is very complex to integrate and keep running."
Infor M3 is ranked 12th in ERP with 13 reviews while SAP S/4HANA is ranked 2nd in ERP with 65 reviews. Infor M3 is rated 8.2, while SAP S/4HANA is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Infor M3 writes "The solution is a reliable, stable, and cost-saving ERP". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP S/4HANA writes "The solution is highly scalable, with solid performance and integration". Infor M3 is most compared with SAP ERP, Infor LN, Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, whereas SAP S/4HANA is most compared with SAP ERP, SAP Business One, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Epicor ERP. See our Infor M3 vs. SAP S/4HANA report.
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I can only base this on selections done a couple of years ago and I may be off by a version or two.
SAP tends to have more functionality and lends itself to modification and customization for large companies. M3 is really good technology and where it works, offers a price usually 1/4 that of SAP - EU consulting teams are really good with M3 given it's Swedish heritage and EU acceptance. It's really hard to find US teams who are at the same implementation volume as their EU cousins.
The rational choice between the two generally comes down to 'we can customize a process that saves time for 1,400 worldwide sales reps' with SAP. Notice I said 'rational'. The actual choice is more like 'SAP is better known and represents less percieved risk to deploy' also - the career building aspects - an IT team with SAP experience has better future career choices - and I suspect that drives SAP selection as well.
M3 is a lower cost option - and with the right implementation and support team, performs very well -
However, they are both Tier One solutions and will require sufficient budgets, support staff internally, and a good partner.
I'd suggest a fully formed selection process and if M3 suits your requirements, it's a great choice. SAP projects are what they are, long (M3 won't be shorter by a large factor) and upgrades and audits are historically pricey.
It really comes down to your cost justification and if you have the internal team to achieve the project goals (which happen well after go-live). You'll be much better off with a clearly defined cost/revenue model prior to selecting either and a numerical goal to achieve with either software package.
(And Alex's comments regarding Netsuite are valid, we do see more overall clients selecting Netsuite than any other platform - however - Netsuite cannot do process manufacturing - especially in FDA validated environs where M3 and SAP play, so in those cases, SAP and M3 are solid choices - though I might include DynamicsAX in the mix - but that was not the original question.)
first, you need to distinguish different deployment options: S/4HANA on-permise is different from S/4HANA public or manage cloud. Cloud solutions are much more restricted.
Secondly, you need to take the release planning into consideration: currently S/4HANA includes only Simple Finance but time flies and soon more and more "Simple" components become available. All this is described in the roadmap and needs to be mapped to the customer's project timeline.
Third, taking "Simple Finance" as an example, the installation is not a classic add-on but a so called "Exchange Innovation" which changes and/or removed SAP code and database tables! You also get Fiori apps... So functionaly these are not the same.
Disclaimer: I am a NetSuite employee.
From my own experience as a former SAP employee I would be very through in investigating the marketing/messaging , indirect access challenges (non compliance audits) and maturity of SAP S/4 Hana.
Here is an example of messaging and maturity of S/4 HANA that is not publicly touted:
The latest public figures SAP shared in October 2016 put the number of S/4HANA customers who have licensed the in-memory-based business suite at more than 4,100, 350 of whom are live on S/4HANA. Typically, SAP talks about its ERP customer base being around 37,000, so there’s a long way to go before everyone is live on S/4HANA. We’ve heard both SAP and ASUG members describe S/4HANA as being “a journey.”
www.linkedin.com
On INFOR I would express concerns at the AWS environment where they are hosted (not true cloud) and that that INFOR ION middleware adds complexity as it must reconcile data between various models and databases. NetSuite uses a single database and there is no reconciliation process so when data is changes all modules access the current data
In a totally biased plug I would like to mention that at Netsuite (where I work) our motto is 100 days to the cloud, our 99% client retention rate and a large number of awards for excellence in the ERP space.
I would welcome the chance to offer a third perspective if their is an appetite for further information or if not I wish you the very best in your future ERP investment.
I suggest the following like to be used for the requested comparison:
www3.technologyevaluation.com
SAP S/4 HANA is the best Manufacturing ERP, it has in memory processing. Uses huge amount of RAM to process reporting specifically BI. Whereas M3 Lawson can be said as one the best suited products for Process Manufacturing from Infor.
I have no direct answer to your question from my recent experience with S4 HANA are
- In memory processing
- best practice process with proven from large company
- many capable implementer available in the market (and to support as well)
- industry expertise with IFRS roadmap develop to support future
Not very much heard about M3, guess Infor buy too many ERP solution to thier house and roadmap / R&D might be unclear.
Most of supply chain functions should be almost the same. Finance and Accounting are areas that you can compare implementers skills. Bring your critical business requirement, be open mind and listen to what they offer.
I’m sorry, but I can’t actually comment on Infor Lawson M3 as I have no experience with that application. If there are specific questions pertaining to S/4HANA functionality, I would be happy to offer perspective.
1. With respect, an analysis needs to start with the customer’s requirements (industry, revenue, headcount, geography, business goals, budget, timeline, risk assessment etc) before any meaningful analysis can be undertaken.
2. Why wouldn’t the Customer start with what’s already in the public domain (see below) AND
3. Why wouldn’t the Customer ask for each vendor to provide their own analysis of their product and the target competitor product, and then go from there with data sets 1. 2. and 3. respectively?
httpsr://rsupply-chain-management.softwareinsider.com/compare/31-32/M3-Supply-Chain-Management-vs-SAP-ERP
erp-systems.zone
www3.technologyevaluation.com