SAP HANA Reviews

We use it in order-placing and in the IBD integration, integrated business planning for forecast, and demand planning. I'm working in the sales and operation department. I'm not working in finance or production. Maybe the other teams are using it differently, or they're using different modules, however, for us at sales and operation, we are using it to place orders, developer CAST, track reports, and ensure accuracy.

It's made everything faster. The best thing we have is a faster operation. Even the reports are being generated very fast versus before. Before, we used to have an older version of SAP, and once we migrated or upgraded the old system to the current system, the speed of the work totally changed.

The integration is quite good. It's like an add-on in which we add the tools we need, like Excel. 

We're not using the interface with SAP HANA itself. However, we're using a remote access link which we access via the web, and we are also using an add-on, which is installed in our Microsoft Excel program. Therefore, we are not particularly using the SAP HANA environment. We don't have this desktop interface in front of us. As far as I know, this is the engine behind all our work.

The setup is easy.

When we upgraded, we received more functions or more features. I am not aware of all of them; however, I've received positive feedback from the users in our company.

It's a stable product.

The solution scales well. 

The pricing could be better. Finding the solution or adding some additional features that are customized for what we need is difficult. It costs a lot of money. For example, our office has SAP HANA, and the Saudi distributor has SAP, or at least, another version. We are trying now to integrate the two systems together. However, the cost is too much. We'd like to see more integration capabilities.

It does take a while to set up.

I've been using the solution for a year and a half. 

The solution is reliable and quite stable. The performance is good. There are no bogs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It can scale. 

We have about 2,500 employees. Not everyone is using it. Some are in the factory, and some are in the office. Some are at specific branches. We are an international multinational company, our head office is in Italy, and we have branches worldwide.

We haven't had any critical issues. However, we have received good support overall. We haven't really dealt with any downtime. It's very rare. It might have only happened once. 

Positive

Currently, we are doing some integration between SAP and some other tools like Power BI and Tableau. We have some customized solutions developed in-house. We used to use an older version of SAP and upgraded it. 

When I worked at a different company, I used to work with Dynamic Business Solutions, not SAP HANA.

It was an easy setup. That said, the implementation takes some time. They spent two or three months just developing the requirements and they gathered from us what we need to do. Then they implement it in two or three months. I don't know if this is a long period or a short period, however, that is how long it took for us. 

I'm not sure how deployment and maintenance are handled. I'm not sure how many people are involved in those aspects of the product. 

We invited a third party to do the implementation. 

Our team did the wishlist, the comments, and we shared it with a third party, and this third party came on-site, and they finished the job.

I'm not sure of the exact numbers surrounding ROI. They may have done a study and chosen the solution based on ROI. However, I was not a part of that process. 

We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution. It is a one-time implementation. To integrate everything and do the gap analysis, and then implement all of that as per our requirements, that cost us too much money.

We're a potential SAP partner. 

We are using SAP HANA in Italy. We're using the latest version there. That said, in Saudi Arabia, we are not using SAP HANA. They're using the older version.

We have remote access. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. SAP is a very powerful tool.

I would rate it nine out of ten.

I was using the product for some research in technical drawings - in terms of making some drawings, the different parts, and the structure of the machinery. I don't know if it's available in the SAP HANA, however, there is a model for this to schedule the maintenance. The company wasn't using it. Sometimes the product furnishes a lot of insights, cultural insights that the company still is not ready to implement.

The solution offers advanced features that the company was struggling to implement. For example, in terms of parts, you can't implement a lot of structures of the machinery, however, you still need to use the codes. They're not related one to another, which makes them hard to find, typically. That means every time you need it to buy an entire assembly of parts, you need to know exactly which one you had. You have to use a drawing, a technical drawing, that specifies each code that you need. SAP saves you from asking to bring an entire assembly with a lot of parts. That's a powerful aspect that could help to reduce hours of work that are wasted in this way.

A documents preview could be helpful. Today we have a lot of documents, for example, in PDF formats, which we would like to preview. We'd even just like to click on an icon and have it open another tab. That way, I can see the document directly inside SAP HANA. In the company I was working with, we had a parallel system which meant we needed to go to SAP, see the code, see the drawing number, and then go to another system that is finished by Autodesk, and then find the drawing and open it. This is a lot of work.

I really would like to just have it inside this app. 

I'd like the product to have more mobile aspects. Many younger users want mobility and flexibility.

The solution can be expensive. In Brazil, many companies still do pretty much everything in Brazil, and, if they want to try a new solution, they want to try it at zero cost. Many, therefore, will look for open-source solutions before they even consider SAP.

I've used the solution over the last 12 months. 

It's very stable. Sometimes it gets a little slow, however, that might be a company issue. When it came to the internet the entire site wasn't that good. Sometimes you had too many people connecting and the company was using a lot of Google solutions. You noticed that when a lot of people are in virtual meetings, we would have internet connections affected.

I'm not sure about the scalability.

I don't know if you can use it in a Docker or if you can scale it in SQL and you can maintain the speed, or if you are talking about, for example, big data. The infrastructure of the company seemed to be weighed down, for example, when there were a lot of virtual meetings and it affected the internet. I can't speak to if this problem would also affect being able to scale the product.

I would describe technical support as good. It's always worked for me and therefore I have no complaints. 

I didn't handle the initial implementation. The company furnished all the equipment needed for me to work. They gave me the computer, which Red Hat was installed on. They just give me access and showed me where to access what I needed and where to put the ID and password. I didn't do anything.

Typically there are six people that are available for maintenance tasks. They're IT technicians.

SAP solutions are typically quite expensive.

I'm a partner and consultant. 

I'm not sure which version of the product I am on.

I'd advise new users that it's important to first find a solution that can understand the culture that's involved inside this solution. Sometimes people think that ERP software like SAP are magical things that you just install it and it makes life easier. It doesn't work like this. You need to have the culture, you have to have this knowledge. You need to understand how it works and how much it requires from you. It requires more than you think. It doesn't work like magic.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It's very good, however, there's always room for improvement. 

We use this solution for our CRM, and for our ERP, inventory, and supply chain management. It's basically used to run the majority of the company. We are customers of SAP HANA and I'm an account executive. 

SAP is great for what it does. There are likely better solutions out there but I'm not aware of them. It's a solution for big companies and in that sense it makes management of the databases much easier for higher-level people to know what's going on. 

The user interface and CRM need to be more user-friendly, it's abnormally painful. I'm a frontline user of the CRM, and it requires lots of clicks that are unnecessary. Less is more on the internet and quite often I'm clicking five, six, seven times to get where I need, and that's not effective. When an item in a certain category is not done properly, it can either lock up a system or not complete the process. We see it on a daily basis and we have to figure out a workaround to solve it. It's a technical issue that SAP's had since the beginning, and it hasn't yet been solved. With SAP everything has to be categorized. If it's not, it causes system issues and then you have to decipher the issue to try and undo it. It's an algorithm argument flaw. In the near future, I'd like to see better user interfaces and better connectors between modules.

I've been using this solution for about eight years. 

The solution is rock stable now. We have an SAP team and five or six people fixing day-to-day issues with up to 30 people working on it all the time. There is an additional team that implements new functionalities. 

It can scale infinitely. We have 12,000 users internationally and we use the product extensively. 

I have previously used Salesforce and I don't like it. It runs like a 1980s webpage in the current era.

The initial setup was painful and required a lot of work. Systems would go down all the time because there were initial errors with the SAP system. but once it was up and stabilized, things were good. It still has flaws but it's a good solution as a whole. They've implemented extra modules from SAP. If you don't implement it properly you'll feel the pain. It probably took around six months to solve all the issues because SAP is so big and so integrated and so integral, it can take a while to fix the problems. You can limp along until things are solved and find workarounds, but it takes a lot of effort. SAP helped us with the implementation. 

SAP is expensive but it's a good solution for what it does. You're going to get a $20 answer, for a $20 product. For all the functionality it offers, the cost is worth it.

It's important to plan and then plan again before implementing. If you don't plan properly, you will fail. The solution requires planning the implementation, making sure your company is the right size for the product. If you're an SMB, this might not be the right product for you. It might cost you more than you think. If you're enterprise size, you should look at getting into SAP, because it is the right solution. It's a solid product despite some minor issues - if SAP were to fix them it would raise the level of the solution. 

As a user, I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

We work with the latest update.

We use the solution as a database. We primarily use it for the SAP application. Some of the use cases involve CDS Views, which provides a quicker processing of the report and the application.

The in-memory database is a good and valuable feature.

Since we use BW, we are required to use an SLT tool to carry out the data for generating the reports. But, when it comes to in-memory database in respect of the realtime reporting, I do not see why this report cannot be made available from the system itself. This would allow for some partitioning of the database, so that there would not be a need for the EMP in respect of the realtime data.

The initial setup was complex. I am talking about how the data is replicated to the site. We had an Oracle Database and did replication to the VR site. Yet, when it comes to HANA, we are forced to work out the method for ensuring that this replication works as it should. It is at this point that the solution becomes stable. 

Technical support could be better. When we have requested this, the tendency has been to instruct us to implement a note and keep them apprised. In reality, there is no one who helps us with actual troubleshooting of the problem. 

The pricing is a bit on the high side. 

While I would definitely recommend the solution, I would caution that one should employ the proper resources that are geared towards the system. Unfortunately, SAP does not provide a structured training program, which means a person must rely on multiple system integrators and some service providers.

We have been using SAP HANA for more than three years.

The stability is very good and we have encountered no issues regarding it. 

The initial setup was complex. I am talking about how the data is replicated to the site. We had an Oracle Database and did replication to the VR site. Yet, when it comes to HANA, we are forced to work out the method for for ensuring that this replication works as it should. It is at this point that the solution becomes stable.

The solution is easy to scale.

Technical support could be better. When we have requested this, the tendency has been to instruct us to implement a note and keep them apprised. In reality, there is no one who helps us to actually troubleshoot the problem. 

We had already been using SAP when we switched from it to Oracle, because all of the innovations were taking place on HANA. 

The initial setup was complex. I am talking about how the data is replicated to the site. We had an Oracle database and did replication to the VR site. Yet, when it comes to HANA, we are forced to work out the method for for ensuring that this replication works as it should. It is at this point that the solution becomes stable.

The deployment lasted six months. 

We deployed with the help of a vendor.

No real maintenance is required. Data volume management is needed and all the reports are available, based on which the maintenance is easy. 

The pricing is a bit on the high side. 

The use of hardware does not incur additional costs. 

There are 40,000-plus users making use of the solution in our organization.

I rate SAP HANA as an eight out of ten. 

The client is using the solution for supply chain management, and at the same time, our enterprise uses it to track the businesses' performance. The rest of our regions are going to be using SAP ECC. We are the first region to go with HANA. We were shortlisted to show them the roadmap and guide them. Supply chain management and tracking raw materials were areas of concern.

The IBP module was the most useful followed by the FI/CO and CNMM modules.

The product could be improved in several ways.

First, before carrying out a project with this environment size, a POC needs to be carried out, for which you would have access to various environments. And those environments are something that SAP should invest in and others should provide. That would be an improvement.

Second, some good amount of handholding, guidance, or other validation or certification from SAP at different levels.  

Third, access to tools for a longer period than the pre-defined trial version license. That's something that we can ask our friends from SAP to extend or make available in a different licensing model at zero cost.

I have three years of experience with the solution.

The solution is very stable. We would rate its stability as eight out of 10.

We would rate the scalability of the solution as eight-plus on a scale of one to 10.

The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP. Migration was an especially painful task, but we managed to sail through it thanks to the support of our customer. We delivered it within the timelines. We managed a few escalations. We worked with the customer. We had a weekly stand-up with the customer and various workshops and sessions to educate them and highlight the challenges. 

Implementation was completely in-house with a team of around 18 to 22 people and a couple of people from SAP, who looked at the overall program management level, providing guidance plus certifying that best practices were being followed and implemented. 

The deployment, moving from Oracle to SAP HANA, took around eight months

The customer took care of all the SAP license costs. Our scope was primarily implementation and migration support.

Oracle ERP had the flexibility, but it didn't have the functionality that the customer was looking for.

We would give the product an overall rating of nine out of 10.

We have an entirely SAP family, which makes it easy to manage and support. The customer opened its first, and we are doing multiple instances of SAP ECC implementations for the rest of the small countries in APAC, the Middle East, and Africa.

Around 175 to 250 people use the solution at every level of the customer's organization.

We will be providing maintenance for the next five years.

My advice would be to explore and play with the different systems available in the market. But, ultimately, look for a system with a brand, broad user usability, and support. For instance, my customer wanted to explore an open-source ERP. We persuaded him to go with SAP, primarily because they have the expertise. They adhere to the best policies. They offer support, etc. 

If you don't have all this, don't explore freebies. Go for a licensed version, recommended globally, and highly rated by Gartner or various research and consulting firms.

We use HANA mostly for any live reporting directly from the ECC box or S/4HANA box. We also do some of the operational reports, where it is difficult to do or apply the logic directly in the ECC box. It's better to bring the data, do your logic in SAP HANA and do your reporting out of it. Or you can also push your data to BW as well, by doing all your logic, and you can also expose your HANA calculation directly to SAP Analytics Cloud as well as Power BI.

The maintenance is quick. It's analytics directly out of the box. You do not need storage. You bring the data, do your calculation, and do your reporting. That said, if you want to store it, there's a cost involved. However, if you just want to report out of it, you don't have to move your data to any other place. I won't call it a data warehouse; it's more about quick analytic reporting out of SAP.

The speed at which it gets the data is great. There's a quick response time and quick reporting.

Most of what we need is already there. 

The initial setup isn't too difficult. 

It's a scalable product. 

It's still improving there, still improving a lot. Most of the extractors that are now. Most of the standard things don't satisfy the requirements in order to go for the custom build. More standards would help in the future.

I've been using the solution for five years. 

There are always stability issues. However, that is why we have SAP. I'd rate the stability eight out of ten. It's reliable. 

The solution can scale. I'd rate it nine out of ten in terms of the ability to expand. Of course, it comes down to cot. While it can scale, it will cost to do so. We have six users dealing with the product right now. Everyone in the organization is on HANA, whether it S4 or BW.

While I haven't dealt with support in the past year, they are usually pretty good.

Positive

You do need resources specifically dedicated to the solution. However, it's not that complex. I'd rate the ease of setup around six to seven out of ten.

It is pretty quick to deploy. Deployments happen weekly or biweekly. 

One resource is enough to handle deployment, and three for maintenance.

We have witnessed a very good ROI since you don't have to install a separate box. 

The main concern of every customer is the cost of the product. However, the pro is maintenance. You do not have to do a lot of maintenance on it. The number of results that you need after go-live would be less compared to any other data warehousing tool. You don't need a bunch of data engineers or data scientists, you just need a couple of business resources and a couple of analysts. In that sense, it costs less.

We're working with the latest version of the solution. 

I really like SAP. It's the best ERP tool. If you want to implement analytics, go with HANA. Go with SAP Data Warehousing if you want to implement a data warehouse.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

We are solution providers. We are a supply chain organization and we deploy and supply chain solutions for our customers.

We have a host of solutions and for each of our customers based on their environments. We customize their platform and deploy it.

SAP HANA is one of our database endpoints.

It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good.

The main issue that we are facing is with the connectors. The JDBC connectors are very slow. We have been trying to connect with our SAP HANA database to our customers.

It's a simple Java driver and there is no proper documentation available anywhere with clear steps. We have to rely on several documents which creates confusion.

The initial setup could be simplified.

Also, we don't have to option to pull up the data from the object structure in SAP HANA. We can only pull up certain objects. It doesn't provide you with a comprehensive list.

There are limitations in connection with SAP HANA. There has to be a better or easier way to connect the databases with other platforms, maybe using Java code or other types of code. It would be very good to have the documentation on how to connect.

I would like to have flexible connecting mechanisms for connection with Java or different types of solutions to SAP HANA on cloud or non-cloud solutions.

They could come up with something similar to the SAP HANA Studio type of modeling.

I would also like to see the capabilities to extend the API. If they had specific APIs, it would be easy for us to connect.

My company has been using SAP HANA for ten years.

We are using the latest version.

It's a stable solution.

It's a scalable solution. Because it's an on-premise infrastructure and SAP this is the best support for most of our customers, scalability is taken care of.

We are an SAP house. We have more than 1,000 people who use this solution.

I have not interacted with the technical support. Other teams may have, but my involvement is more with the integration. 

The initial setup was a bit complex. We were told to download it from the marketplace, but when we tried, it didn't work. We may have been doing something wrong, but we did not have a clear understanding of how it should be done. We also had difficulties with the trial version, it was not working.

There are two options:

1. Download SAP HANA then import it
2. Go to the marketplace and download the connector

For testing purposes, if they could provide us with clear documentation, it would be very helpful.

Licensing is on a yearly basis.

We are using the paid version. We pay $200 on a monthly basis.

I am not an expert in HANA. I build the enterprise bus that integrates with SAP HANA as well as other systems. We have built our own integrated platforms.

The recommendation of this solution would depend on the use case and the requirements, and the price will be considered.

I would rate SAP HANA an eight out of ten.

We are primarily using the solution for the BW system of SAP. We also use the legacy reporting, which is very good.

The solution is quite fast.

We hoped to move all our BI systems to work with HANA, unfortunately, there are a lot of performance issues, even after remodeling the BW models.

The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast.

Unlike other databases, it lacks management features that legacy databases like Oracle or SQL servers have. They need to make the solution easier to manage and offer tools that make management more effective. A lot of things you have on traditional databases you have to develop into HANA.

I've been using the solution for about 3 years

The solution is less stable than traditional databases. We have encountered several cases when the database just flows. For some reason, that database took a lot of memory, and when we opened a case with SAP, we had to send a lot of logs, which did nothing because at the end, they couldn't find the root cause for this issue. This happened in several cases. We had production down and that's not acceptable for our business.

The solution is very scalable. We have about 10,000 users.

Each of those is not connecting to the database per se, but we are using HANA to take all the data and a lot of users. Several other software applications are also connecting to it.

Technical support is okay, but not great. It seems like there are a lot of SAP support packages that are coming out and lots of versions. For me, this indicates that the product is not quite ready or stable enough.

We've contacted technical support in the past and did not get good results. Eventually, we just created some parameters that we have configured into the system. We solved the problem by ourselves by creating a workaround that avoided the problem. SAP never gave us a straight answer about what we should do in our case.

The initial setup was quite complicated. We had to do a migration, so it wasn't a fresh installation. We had Oracle as our legacy system and had to move everything over to HANA. We had to do half a year of testing and had to do several cycles of tests and migrations before deploying. Once that was done, we deployed over a weekend.

We handled the implementation ourselves.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd advise others to wait until the software will be much more stable before implementing it.

I'd rate it eight out of ten. If it was more stable and more manageable, I'd rate it higher. If people could have the ability to do things on their own within the solution, to read the software logs on their own, and get the root cause of any problem, and not just send it to the support, it would be much better.