Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA comparison

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution developed by Microsoft. It is designed to help small and mid-sized organizations streamline and automate their financial, supply chain, and project management processes. Business Central offers a range of tools and features to support collaboration and communication and provides real-time visibility into business performance.

With Business Central, organizations can manage their financials, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management. It also offers supply chain management capabilities, including inventory management, purchase order management, and sales order management. In addition, Business Central supports project management, including project tracking, project billing, and resource management.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Features

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Mobility: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides mobile access, allowing users to access information and perform tasks from anywhere, at any time.

• Reporting and analytics: The solution includes business intelligence and reporting capabilities to help organizations gain insight into their operations and make data-driven decisions.

• Security: With its secure platform, the solution protects sensitive data and ensures the integrity of business operations.

• Customization: It offers a highly customizable solution that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a wide range of industries and organizations.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Adapt as your business grows: With full capabilities on desktop, tablet, or mobile, on-premises or in the cloud, across Windows, Android, and iOS devices, the solution allows you to work wherever your business takes you.

• Rapid deployment: The solution can be rapidly deployed either in the cloud or on-premises.

• Scalability: With the solution, you can scale as you grow using modern technologies built on the Microsoft cloud, such as machine learning, IoT, and mixed reality to help you adapt to market dynamics.

• Drive continuous process optimization: When you implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can Improve outcomes and productivity with real-time system suggestions, based on historical data, to guide employees through workflows.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is user-friendly, has good integrations, and is flexible.

Sasinath V., Project Consultant ( Scale Up) at a tech vendor, says, "For me, the main strengths of Microsoft Dynamics NAV are that it's user-friendly and light. These are its major wins. I have used other ERPs and their architecture was a little more complex when compared to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV architecture."

"The solution's integrations and interface are very good,” mentions Alonso R., Director de Servicios at Kc ERP group.

Another PeerSpot reviewer, Kamesh G., Vice President - Information Systems at a media company shares what he likes most about the solution: "I have found the flexibility to be very valuable. It's highly flexible, and at least for us, it has been effective. It is also highly functional."

SAP S4HANA is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that uses sophisticated technologies including machine learning and AI. It is most commonly used to integrate and manage business functions and is an ideal solution for large enterprises. The platform includes supplier relationship management (SRM), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and product lifecycle management (PLM) functionality.

SAP S4HANA offers three different deployment options:

• On-premises
• Cloud
• Hybrid

SAP S4HANA Features

SAP S4HANA has many valuable key features, including:

• Customizable
• ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, PLM co-deployed
• High throughput
• Fast analytics and reporting
• Smaller total data footprint
• SAP HANA multi-tenancy
• All data: social, text, geo, graph, processing
• New SAP Fiori UX for any device (mobile, desktop, tablet)
• Unlimited workload capacity
• High-volume transaction processing (OLTP)
• High volume real-time analytical processes (OLAP)
• Service Management
• Digital Boardroom Integration

SAP S4HANA Benefits

Some of the benefits of using SAP S4HANA include:

• Speed: S4 HANA applications leverage speed, context, and data accessibility to ensure you can stay up to date with rapidly evolving technology.

• Improved performance: With SAP S4HANA, you can plan, execute, or generate reports and analytics based on live data to increase performance.

• Simplicity: SAP S4HANA’s whole infrastructure was designed with simplification in mind — from the management of the solution to the administration of the IT landscape. The solution serves as the digital core for business process simplification and enables the centralizing of hardware and network resources.

• Cost effective: SAP S4HANA is a cost effective solution. It provides the ability to bring together all the analytical and transactional capabilities of a variety of systems in one location, enabling better decision making.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by SAP S4HANA users.

A Mechanical Engineer at a construction company says, “It is a very powerful, highly customizable tool. The most valuable feature is that the reporting is fast. We can see the results from that in that our commissions come in fast. That is the main advantage.”

Another reviewer, a SAP Technology Manager at a financial services firm, mentions, "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. In terms of the features I have found most valuable, I don't think that there is any lack or any gap process-wise. SAP is a very good tool."

A Project and Service delivery Manager at a tech services company comments, "One of the most valuable features, which we used the most, was the FI module, for finance. It involved controlling, account receivables, account payables, and complete financial steering."

A Senior Architect at a construction company states, “The POD applications are very useful to us. There are a few POD apps which we are using for different business scenarios. They are quite interesting.” He also adds, “The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The documentation is very good. The solution can scale well. The solution is stable.”