In our company, we utilized SAP HANA to manage various types of information, for example, inventory, employee information, and accounting-related tasks, such as billing and employee surveys. The majority of our employee information was stored in SAP HAHA.
Database Administrator at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Useful user administration and server management, but lacking user-friendliness
Pros and Cons
- "As I only worked part-time on SAP HANA, I did not have the opportunity to explore the advanced features of the solution. However, I did work with basic features, such as user administration and access controls for the accounting department. The feature that stood out to me the most was the Single Sign-On and user administration, backup, and server management. My experience with SAP HANA was mainly focused on basic server improvements."
- "In my limited experience using SAP, the process of granting access to different modules is difficult. Specifically, the requirement to assign roles and key codes to users rather than being able to assign them individually made the process more complex. It would be beneficial if there was a way to assign key codes separately, rather than having to create multiple roles. This would make managing access easier."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
As I only worked part-time on SAP HANA, I did not have the opportunity to explore the advanced features of the solution. However, I did work with basic features, such as user administration and access controls for the accounting department. The feature that stood out to me the most was the Single Sign-On and user administration, backup, and server management. My experience with SAP HANA was mainly focused on basic server improvements.
What needs improvement?
In my limited experience using SAP, the process of granting access to different modules is difficult. Specifically, the requirement to assign roles and key codes to users rather than being able to assign them individually made the process more complex. It would be beneficial if there was a way to assign key codes separately, rather than having to create multiple roles. This would make managing access easier.
The grid could be made more user-friendly. While it is functional, it is not as user-friendly as other databases or accounts. In particular, I find that SAP HANA is a bit more complex for users to navigate. This could be improved to better serve the user.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP HANA for approximately one year.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable tool. On and off, there were some issues, but overall the experience was good and we didn't have any sort of trouble using the setup or any other users complaining about anything.
I rate the scalability of SAP HANA a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have approximately 70 users using SAP HANA in my company. We had some shared applications which were another approximately 30 users using the solution.
The solution is scalable.
I rate the scalability of SAP HANA a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We provided support to our clients and we did not resolve ourselves we did not go to the vendor for an answer we looked online at the community support for our needs.
I rate the support of SAP HANA a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When comparing SAP HANA to other solutions in the same category, such as MySQL and Denodo, there are several differences. MySQL is more user-friendly than SAP HANA. Additionally, MySQL does not require a license to use, whereas SAP HANA does. However, SAP HANA does have its own advantages, such as being faster than MySQL and it is better suited for applications that require higher processing power. Ultimately, it depends on the specific needs of one's business and what they are trying to accomplish with their database which is the better solution. I find MySQL to be easier to work with than SAP HANA.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is an annual payment needed to use the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SAP HANA a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jan 21, 2023
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Senior Data Warehouse Consultant at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Mature and fast with excellent graphical calculation views
Pros and Cons
- "It's very convenient and very innovative."
- "You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables."
What is our primary use case?
We have a full landscape for SAP. Currently, my customer is using it. We are using the native HANA for the non-SAP sources.
We have our data nodes for different business domains. The data is coming from non-SAP sources. The data is coming from different systems. We have a database warehouse approach.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very fast in terms of memory. It's very convenient and very innovative. It's very good at handling the input and output of the data. There is no lag.
It has become the base of building graphical calculation views.
It is very convenient when you are working with Postgres or Snowflake. When you have modeled everything correctly, it's easy to translate the model.
With the way native works, it builds a good platform. It's not just a database. It's much more.
It has an inbuilt smart data integrator which you can use for sourcing, researching, and loading the data. It's included in the web IDE version of the web HANA deployment.
This is a very mature product. The performance is very good.
What needs improvement?
I cannot think of any features that are missing at this time.
In the calculation views, the functions that have been provided to build the graphical views should be enhanced and could be made more flexible. There should be more functionality available.
You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables. You have to do it in a four-node. You have to join them one by one instead of joining everything together in one step.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The performance is good. It is mature and stable. I've never experienced any issues like crashing or freezing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is very good. I'd rate it 8.5 out of ten in terms of ease of scaling.
This is a good solution for enterprise solutions.
How was the initial setup?
In terms of the initial setup, I do not know how to install it on the server itself. I don't handle the technical aspects since I am a consultant. I don't directly handle the setup process. Likely, it is installed on Linux.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While my understanding is the product is likely expensive I do not handle the pricing. I don't know the exact costs.
Smaller companies may not be suitable as the pricing is quite expensive. Even medium-level companies would have trouble affording a full SAP stack. An enterprise would have the budget to take this solution on.
The cloud may be more affordable, however, on-prem would be very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a consultant.
In terms of relational databases, this is the best option.
If you are going to work with HANA, make sure to use the latest version. It has the latest approaches.
Users should utilize the HANA platform to the fullest extent. Get the most out of it by using all of the tools, as much as possible. Don't just use it as a data model database.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Mar 12, 2023
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September 2023

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IT Application Manager at TransBuisness
Reliable, stable, scalable, and can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by businesses
Pros and Cons
- "What's most valuable in SAP HANA is that it covers the business process systems of my company. The solution also helps because it makes almost everything automated. Another valuable feature of SAP HANA is that it can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by the company."
- "What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area."
What is our primary use case?
We use SAP HANA for our BW system, which is the system we use for our BI tools and BI reports.
What is most valuable?
What's most valuable in SAP HANA is that it covers the business process systems of my company. The solution also helps because it makes almost everything automated. Another valuable feature of SAP HANA is that it can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by the company.
What needs improvement?
What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area.
Right now, what I need is already covered by SAP HANA, so I have no additional features in mind for it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SAP HANA for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable and reliable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for SAP HANA is good. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating SAP support five out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for SAP HANA isn't complex. It would depend on what you need, but it's easy because you just need to define the business process and blueprint, get approval from your business team and technical team, build the structures, get approval, then configure, assign, and get approval again so you can start working on SAP HANA.
The total time it takes to deploy SAP HANA would depend on the gathering of information, checking what prevails, arranging it correctly, getting the approval, then proceeding with the deployment. You should have a plan regarding the timing, the processes, the resource, the budget, etc., for the deployment of SAP HANA.
On a scale of one to five, I'm rating the implementation of SAP HANA as five out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SAP HANA is more expensive than other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I'm working on data selection, upgrading database engines, and updating database versions. I'm the IT Application Manager, so I assist in those areas.
I'm working on the latest version of SAP HANA.
My company has an SLA contract with SAP for the maintenance of SAP HANA, which means that the SAP team will take care of the maintenance. You also have the option to cover the maintenance yourself if you have a team of SAP HANA consultants and seniors.
In my current organization, a total of five hundred people use SAP HANA.
I would recommend SAP HANA to others, particularly for business process needs. You need to make sure that the solution is already defined for your organization's business process. For example, if you're in the manufacturing industry, then SAP HANA should be defined for manufacturing. You shouldn't have to make many customizations to it. This is what you need to check first. SAP HANA should cover all and automate your business processes without needing a lot of customizations.
My rating for SAP HANA is nine out of ten.
My company is a customer of SAP.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Customer Success Executive at Thal Limited
A product that offers multiple modules while serving as a stable and scalable database
Pros and Cons
- "It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
- "The only downside of the product is that it is an expensive solution that needs to consider lowering its prices to improve the product."
What is our primary use case?
There are no primary use cases of the solution in our company. We use SAP HANA as a database in our company because of the expiry deadline of our hardware, which is in January next year.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefit of SAP HANA can be observed from the fact that my entire organization depends on the solution since we use around nine to ten modules of SAP, including finance, inventory management, and SCM.
What needs improvement?
There are no weaknesses in the solution. My company tries to improve its different applications, making it one of the major reasons for us to move from SAP HANA to S4 HANA while also considering the fact that SAP may discard SAP ECC 6.0 by 2027. After that, SAP will provide us with the liberty to upgrade the product.
The only downside of the product is that it is an expensive solution that needs to consider lowering its prices to improve the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP for twenty years, and my company started using SAP HANA as a database for the past three years. My company uses the on-premises version of the solution. My company currently uses SAP ECC 6.0 EhP8 and SAP HANA as a database. My company is an end user of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
My company has around 290 users using the solution 24 hours daily.
My company has only one SAP administrator and one more person who provides support.
How are customer service and support?
Before getting support from TMC, my company used to get support from SAP Pakistan. Within the company, my team is well-equipped to look after SAP, and because of this, we don't need to opt for additional support. If there are any changes, my company approaches sAP directly. We're not dependent on the local vendors for support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company has been using SAP since 2004, so I don't know the other products used in the past.
How was the initial setup?
Speaking about the initial setup phase, my company is still in the planning phase, and because of this, there is no dedicated person involved to look after the initial setup process.
The solution is deployed on-premises, but we plan to move to AWS in the future. We will start the migration process in the next month or after two or three months.
What about the implementation team?
The vendor takes care of the product's implementation part.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Price-wise, the product falls on the higher side of the spectrum. There is no need to pay for maintenance and support additionally. Support is available for bug fixes in the product.
What other advice do I have?
As there is no alternative for SAP in the market, I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Aug 24, 2023
Flag as inappropriateSenior Technical Specialist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Has a primary and secondary node, is stable, but uses a lot of memory
Pros and Cons
- "Anyone currently using SAP will be transitioning to HANA."
- "I give the scalability of SAP HANA a six out of ten."
What is our primary use case?
We are consolidating SAP HANA into our environment as one of our primary projects. This is not a greenfield implementation, but rather a conversion from our current environment to the consolidated project, where multiple databases are combined into one. So far, this has been going well, and the major advantage of SAP HANA is that it can read both rows and columns at the same time, unlike other databases. Despite this progress, we still need to evaluate its performance as it has not been as fast as we initially anticipated.
This database for SAP is deployed on-premises, and it supports over 40 SAP applications in our environment.
How has it helped my organization?
I provide the infrastructure support for data centers and databases, and I can see that the background jobs run much faster with SAP HANA than with Oracle or DB2. Furthermore, SAP HANA has fewer licensing issues, making it cheaper than Oracle. Additionally, the support for SAP HANA is the best we have seen.
What is most valuable?
The best part of our multi-node system is its ability to help us a lot. This system consists of a primary and secondary node, which is a database, and it works effectively.
What needs improvement?
SAP's HANA database is said to be the fastest database, with simultaneous reading and writing of rows and columns. However, we have not seen the promised improvement in speed. Additionally, shutting down a large database of 6 TB can take up to 30 minutes, whereas databases of other types are much faster to shut down. The long recycling process of HANA can be quite frustrating and has room for improvement.
When there is blocking occurring on the database level, the process responsible for it should be killed automatically. We have not seen any CPU or memory increases, but often the memory is almost completely utilized in Linux environments where HANA is installed. As HANA cannot be installed on any other OS, the memory usage should be checked to determine why it is almost entirely taken up.
The cost of the solution is high and has room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for almost five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I give the stability of SAP HANA an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I give the scalability of SAP HANA a six out of ten.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is good and that is why we are moving ahead with the transition.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives. Therefore, we must transition to HANA databases by 2025.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a six out of ten.
Anyone currently using SAP will be transitioning to HANA. Those who wish to implement SAP will also be using HANA, as it is the only supported platform for SAP applications, not for any other applications.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Feb 5, 2023
Flag as inappropriateIndependent Consultant at Bosch&Cia
Great documentation, a good interface, and simple to implement
Pros and Cons
- "The UX experience is very good."
- "The relationship with a partner that sells SAP could be better. We depend much more on our own development, and the partner is for selling us the solutions, so we need them to be able to supply help and answers. The partner isn't very helpful, and we have to rely on our own knowledge and research."
What is our primary use case?
SAP Business One works with SQL or HANA. My experience in HANA is configuring and administrating the database. We will also use it for the virtualization of all of our machines.
We use SAP Business One and HANA as they have the same platform and databases.
How has it helped my organization?
It is in the internal control system and with the most important decisions for the management of the enterprise, the process of decision-making. We are much more able to analyze the information we get from the software and analyze why it works and whether it's good or bad. It also assisted us with internal control.
What is most valuable?
The solution has a pure interface. The UX is very good. That's the most significant feature.
Working with KPIs and ERP is easy.
There is too much documentation, and SAP has open SAP courses that are very useful. It depends a lot on what I, as a consultant, am interested in.
When you understand the software, the setup is simple.
It is stable.
The product scales well.
What needs improvement?
Perhaps the access to learning could be improved, although it is also very good right now.
The relationship with a partner that sells SAP could be better. We depend much more on our own development, and the partner is for selling us the solutions, so we need them to be able to supply help and answers. The partner isn't very helpful, and we have to rely on our own knowledge and research.
It could use more organizational functionality. for example, treating and analyzing stock items. I have to work a lot to organize the information, the articles, groups, subgroups, families, and so on.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good, and a lot of useful documentation is available.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't too hard if you know SAP software.
In an enterprise with 150 end users, you might need two to three people to deploy the solution.
What was our ROI?
I don't measure the ROI. With all the processes and changes in business it isn't easy, and we don't pay much attention to that.
What other advice do I have?
I am a client as well as a consultant. In both enterprises that I am responsible for, we bought SAP Business One for HANA.
We are in the process of installing HANA 2.0.
It's a good investment.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
ICT Consultant at Spring Training & Consulting
Beneficial interactions with suppliers, reliable, and improves organization
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the interaction it provides with external suppliers and clients."
- "When we are using SAP HANA we have some difficulty with the customization. We would like to be able to add and make customized menus."
What is our primary use case?
We have used SAP HANA to do some tendering through the supplier management system. We have our own servers that are hosting the solution.
Primarily we use SAP HANA to manage suppliers, they can upload the tender documents. We are then able to do prequalification based on the preset requirements. We then know who is qualified and who is not. Additionally, it has helped us send notifications to the suppliers.
How has it helped my organization?
Using SAP HANA has reduced a lot of paperwork that we would typically be doing and the communication we have with our suppliers. Additionally, it has improved our organization and approval process.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the interaction it provides with external suppliers and clients.
What needs improvement?
When we are using SAP HANA we have some difficulty with the customization. We would like to be able to add and make customized menus.
In a future release, there should be a way to cancel or delete, for example, a tender document. The deleting or canceling of documents is sometimes confusing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP HANA for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SAP HANA is good.
We have more than 500 people using the solution plus the suppliers we have. We can give suppliers accounts.
How are customer service and support?
I have used the support from SAP HANA. We have expectations some of our problems should be fixed in 24 hours but they are not fixed for 48 hours. It's not that the support does not know how to do it, but sometimes it takes a little bit longer for them to have our solution.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used previously Oracle and Microsoft Innovation. We switched to SAP HANA because the cost was more favorable than Oracle and it was more user-friendly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of SAP HANA was gradual, it took us approximately six months.
What about the implementation team?
We used consultants, project managers, and our team to do the implementation of SAP HANA. The solution is stable and we do not have to do a lot of maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is an annual license to use SAP HANA.
I rate the price of SAP HANA an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is for them to do a lot of research and training before they decided to go live with the solution.
I rate SAP HANA an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Analista de sistemas at Audaces
Stable, faster than its competitor, and suitable for ERP
Pros and Cons
- "What I like best about SAP HANA is that it's faster than Microsoft SQL Server."
- "The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use SAP HANA for ERP in the manufacturing and delivery industries.
What is most valuable?
What I like best about SAP HANA is that it's faster than Microsoft SQL Server.
What needs improvement?
The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface.
Nowadays, you'll see more no-code tools in the market with a drag-and-drop feature, and that's what I want to see in SAP HANA in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SAP HANA for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable product. Its stability is eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SAP HANA is a six out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company used to work with Oracle Database version 10.2, but migrated to Microsoft SQL Server and now also using SAP HANA because Oracle Database is expensive, plus it requires users with a higher level of experience on Oracle Database.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for SAP HANA is so-so. It's not easy, yet it's not so difficult. I'm rating its setup as six out of ten.
The total time it takes to deploy SAP HANA depends on the type of integration. I have a lot of integrations where one integration gets deployed within thirty minutes, while another takes more than two days to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for SAP HANA is high. It was expensive. You have to pay a lot, and it's the highest-priced solution in the local market, though when you compare it to other tools in the global market, the price is similar.
You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons.
I'd rate SAP HANA licensing fees as two out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
My company uses SAP HANA.
My company has SAP Business One version 9.3 that integrates with SAP HANA, but I haven't worked much on SAP HANA yet.
I'm a user of SAP HANA, not a partner.
Around thirty people, mostly technicians, work on deploying SAP HANA. The solution requires five to six engineers for maintenance.
My company has eighty-eight SAP HANA licenses used mainly by the end-users, for example, managers.
I'd tell anyone looking into using SAP HANA that it's a good tool but expensive for smaller-scale companies.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate SAP HANA as ten because it's a good tool, and I like its technology.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jan 12, 2023
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