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SAP S/4HANA vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
SAP S/4HANA offers significant ROI and efficiency, appealing to large organizations despite initial costs, due to cloud-based savings.
Sentiment score
4.5
SAP S/4HANA Cloud users saw long-term ROI and efficiency, despite high initial costs and varied experiences.
It's not a matter of the solution; it's a matter of the clients and the approach that we follow.
We have observed a good return on investment, with calculations based on a five-year ROI plan.
There is an ROI, otherwise I would not buy it.
The transcript suggests SAP S4HANA Cloud may offer cost and time savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
SAP S/4HANA's customer service is knowledgeable but varies in response speed, with room for process and speed improvement.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP S/4HANA Cloud's service is praised for professionalism but criticized for long response times and support channel navigation challenges.
A traditional challenge with SAP support is that SAP teams only support the standard functions, which are part of the product.
Establishing the right channels was a challenge, as BTP was new to everyone, including our SAP contacts.
I would rate the support a ten because there are a lot of knowledge-based articles published, and most of them are available online.
My experience shows that it often requires another level or two to reach someone who can effectively address the problems.
If tickets are raised to the wrong team, it takes considerable time to be routed to the appropriate team.
SAP doesn't typically listen to individual feedback because of their position as the number one product.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
SAP S/4HANA is scalable and flexible, suitable for medium to large businesses, adaptable across various sectors and global locations.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for scalability, adaptability, and integration, suiting both large and small enterprises effectively.
SAP S/4HANA scales exceptionally well.
It is very easy to scale within businesses, especially when a new business falls within the range.
Scalability is a key strength of SAP, especially for HANA, compared to all the other ERPs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA is praised for stability and reliability, especially in the private cloud, with up to 10/10 user ratings.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for stability and performance, though updates and customizations can occasionally affect reliability.
The SAP HANA system is not very easy to unlock, and it's something strange as, compared to other databases, when transaction logs are full, you stop the system, run the transaction log backups, and then restart.
Not very often, but it can happen, especially with user load; if many people use the system at the same time, there might be issues depending on various factors.
I rate the stability of SAP S_4HANA as fairly stable because we have never experienced any downtime from SAP, and the performance is good.
SAP S_4HANA Cloud is very stable, especially for bigger corporates that are geographically spread out.
It is very flexible and can cater to every industry.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP S/4HANA needs enhancements in pricing, customization, usability, support, integration, AI, cloud capabilities, and regional compliance.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud needs interface, mobile, and user improvements, with cost, integration, and complexity posing challenges for businesses.
Organizations face challenges like adapting to new technologies rapidly, and whether customers are early or late adopters influences their experience.
I can perform a lot of data manipulation directly on SAP using S-One, without having to resort to Excel, unlike with View ID.
The performance of the SAP interface could be improved.
The challenge is that if a customer has already deployed the entire solution on-premises, it becomes difficult to immediately convert to the new product and manage new license costs.
This reliance on ETL experts or data engineers is necessary to ensure clean quality data, which is critical for the effective operation of the SAP S_4HANA system.
It should have features or facilities so customers can get audit-related queries resolved independently without requiring ticket-based service.
 

Setup Cost

SAP S/4HANA pricing is complex, varying by user, deployment, and functionality, with high costs for small businesses.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud pricing is modular and expensive, typically more suitable for larger enterprises than smaller businesses.
It's higher compared to similar peer solutions.
Most users or IT professionals typically criticize the high price of SAP license costs.
It's not easy to have a clear understanding of the price and the value, especially if I talk about the business transaction platform.
 

Valuable Features

SAP S/4HANA offers efficient management, fast reporting, real-time analytics, and scalability with AI and IoT for diverse industries.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud enhances business efficiency with integration, real-time analytics, scalability, and global access, supporting diverse platforms.
It enables the posting of transactions and allows us to see the impact across various application scenarios, providing significant benefits for business.
The way SAP has helped our customers is by establishing a discipline where industry-specific operations and SAP's standard processes work hand in hand, improving resource utilization, material movement control, and cost control.
The insights given help us make strategic decisions.
Some of the most important features include data analytics and real-time data analysis capabilities.
The integration between SAP EWM and S4HANA Cloud is seamless.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides integration, controls, efficiency, visibility into business operations, and collaboration, especially for geographically spread operations.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP S/4HANA
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
123
Ranking in other categories
ERP (1st)
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Cloud ERP (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP S/4HANA is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 11.1%, down 16.5% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 16.9% mindshare, up 12.3% since last year.
ERP
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Deepak Madhavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Implementation simplifies ERP management with comprehensive data integration and visibility
A lot of people would say the pricing. SAP is seen as quite expensive even now. It doesn't work for smaller or medium optimizations. The licensing and pricing could be looked at. In Brownfield migration, the trade-off between greenfield and brownfield means you either keep it clean or match the business requirements. Sometimes, it's not possible to do both. While ValixAPI provides significant support in making those decisions and the SAP consultant is very useful, we are still dependent on past history and how it was originally set up. I wouldn't call that a real disadvantage, yet more accessible consulting would be beneficial. Incorporating all other cloud products, like APO or IPP, into the S/4 house might also help.
Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Extensive real-time analytics and superior support enhance decision making but continued product evolution impacts existing investments
Improvement is needed, and they need to slow down. When I say slow down, they need to do more validation. Things are going rapidly and changing fast. For example, they moved from SAP SRM product to SAP CLM. They bought IBM CLM and marketed it as SAP CLM. Shortly after, they bought SAP Ariba and discontinued the SAP CLM product. Now they state that SAP SRM is outdated and has reached sunset. The challenge is that if a customer has already deployed the entire solution on-premises, it becomes difficult to immediately convert to the new product and manage new license costs. From a consulting perspective, it appears that SAP's biggest competitor is itself, as they sometimes discontinue their own products to promote new ones.
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Answers from the Community

RB
Jun 30, 2021
Jun 30, 2021
The main difference is RISE is associated with S/4 Product Range on Cloud while By Design is modeled after SAP Business One also on Cloud. So both are SaaS but the difference is in enterprise size and also application complexities. Also, RISE offers a bundle of pre-configured modules while By Design is similar to B1 with a lot more flexibility and high scalability. License wise both are per us...
See 2 answers
EB
Jun 28, 2021
Hello @Terry Jones ​, @Sanath Premachandra ​, @Ben Melchionno ​and @ASalman. Can you please assist in answering this question?
PB
Jun 30, 2021
The main difference is RISE is associated with S/4 Product Range on Cloud while By Design is modeled after SAP Business One also on Cloud.  So both are SaaS but the difference is in enterprise size and also application complexities. Also, RISE offers a bundle of pre-configured modules while By Design is similar to B1 with a lot more flexibility and high scalability. License wise both are per user on the cloud.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Are there any advantages of SAP S4 HANA over SAP Business One (SAP B1) apart from the cost?
SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and com...
What needs improvement with SAP S4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA has room for improvement because we are still exploring functionality, and while most modules are implemented or supported by the partner, we are still in the process of exploring. Righ...
What is your primary use case for SAP S4HANA?
I use SAP S/4HANA because most of the manufacturers in pharmaceuticals are using it. We migrated from Microsoft Dynamics to SAP S/4HANA. My relationship is with solutions in retail as we are custom...
What do you like most about SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
The manufacturing area is a good feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is very expensive, both to purchase and maintain. It's important to evaluate the costs of recruiting and maintaining trained personnel as it's not just a one-time payment yet requ...
What needs improvement with SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
While SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers numerous functional benefits and powerful integration capabilities, there remain certain usability and operational challenges—particularly within the Fiori applicatio...
 

Also Known As

SAP S4HANA
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nestle, O.C. Tanner, Sabre, New York Life Insurance Co., MEMEBOX, Siemens AG.
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
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856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.