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Anaplan vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Cloud ERP (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and SAP S/4HANA Cloud aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.7%, down 16.1% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 11.7% mindshare, down 15.2% since last year.
Business Performance Management
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
Majid-Mustafa - PeerSpot reviewer
Good Fiori interface and business processes and uses its own database, not relying on third-party applications
ECC is almost finished. SAP will support it until 2027, and S/4HANA is the long-term solution, supported until 2040. S/4HANA provides more features using the Fiori interface and business processes. We can use the GUI, SAP Fiori apps, and web browsers. It is accessible online from anywhere in the world. It is a more user-friendly environment and faster than ECC. The major feature is that it uses its own database, not relying on third-party applications. The cloud aspect of SAP S/4HANA: It uses its own database, HANA 2.0, and because it is its own database, it works very smoothly and quickly. S/4HANA is stable, and there is no chance of data redundancy, making it fast and responsive for the client.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Anaplan integrates well into my clients' core systems. The ability to aggregate the forms within the dashboarding is also useful. Only one of my clients has implemented workflow. Their usage has been very light. Dashboarding capability is probably the biggest one. My clients like having the ability to aggregate, slice and dice, and dynamically adjust things in the dashboards."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"The most valuable feature of Anaplan is machine learning. The solution is constantly evolving from feedback. Additionally, there is a wide range of training material online."
"Where we're seeing the opportunity in the market is at the Fortune 100 companies that have far more complex modeling type scenarios where you need to be able to have a lot of people collaborating together, and you need a lot of information all at everyone's fingertips. This is where you see the big advantage of a solution like Anaplan."
"Anaplan provides 130 GB of cloud storage for organizations to use as part of their license."
"I am impressed with the tool’s real-time calculations and intuitive interface. The tool’s user interface is the best compared to other software that I have worked with. I also find the tool’s management reporting feature valuable."
"This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable."
"Anaplan's strongest feature is that its GUI is very modern and user-friendly."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the seamless integration of different modules into one solution."
"Finance aspects of it and transportation management, asset management, and inventory management are valuable."
"It is good in data analytics and helps in data analytics."
"We like the web portal or interface, which is great. The user experience is much better than the current traditional SAP landscape."
"Real-time data analytics capabilities and the ability to integrate external tools like Qlik Sense are some of the most valuable features."
"The SAP S/4HANA Cloud has greatly improved our business processes. With SAP hosting the backend, database (HANA), and the application, we get all new features and security patches seamlessly according to SAP's schedule. Everything, including certifications and integrations, stays up to date for the customer. We achieve almost zero downtime, which is very important. The cloud setup provides redundancy, so if something happens at one site, it's seamless to switch."
"The integration between SAP EWM and S4HANA Cloud is seamless."
"The most valuable features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud are the ease of use from the cloud, CapEx analysis report, and everything being connected together well."
 

Cons

"Space and integration are a problem."
"One area of improvement is conditional formatting. It's not very practical, and you need to specify additional formatting."
"The cloud engine slows down when working with a large dataset. It still lacks a powerful engine."
"The tool needs to work on its integration with MS Excel and MS Word. The tool does not allow data analysis in spreadsheets which is possible on other platforms. I want the solution to be more collaborative to facilitate decision-making in organizations."
"One key area of improvement is pricing."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"There are workspace issues, like the limitation on model sizes."
"Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module."
"The implementation time for S/4HANA Cloud could be reduced."
"Difficult to install and difficult to test. Testing needs to be improved. Scalability of this solution also needs improvement."
"Integrating SAP with other products like payroll solutions should be smoother. I wish there were some tools a consultant could build according to the client's requirements. For example, say I want to process debit and credits. In SAP, we have to follow SAP terminologies and patterns. I need a template to deploy my structure according to the client's requirements. There is no structure available in SAP that a consultant can mold."
"The proposition by SAP does not match the value realization."
"Generally, there's not much noise or many issues, but we sometimes open tickets. These are mainly due to underestimating business needs at the beginning of deployment or sudden changes in the business. For example, when we suddenly open branches in other countries, add many users or the business grows fast, we might need more memory or disk space. We sometimes underestimate our needs from the cloud. This isn't a problem with the cloud or the vendor but more about our estimation. We raise tickets for things like increasing memory, dealing with one-time errors, or issues with space utilization. We might need to increase resources or improve performance."
"The only thing that could be improved would be the complexity of the initial setup."
"It's not easy to facilitate the solution between us and SAP, so we have had to leave those issues open."
"I don't recommend it for very small enterprises."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"I'm not directly involved in the pricing discussions; it's more of a concern for the finance team."
"The license for S/4HANA is expensive, and the licensing structure is hard to understand. The admin license is something like 500 euros per user. Other ERP solutions allowed you to pick only the modules you need. The SAP ECC version requires you to take all the modules even if you are not using them."
"S/4HANA is an enterprise solution that many can't afford. You must invest a lot to get the most out of it. It isn't cheap. I rate the price seven out of 10."
"The pricing of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is on the higher side."
"The pricing is competitive with other products at that level in that category."
"Its pricing is way over any of the other ERPs. I'd rate it one out of ten in terms of pricing."
"I feel the solution is expensive when it comes to what can be obtained with open source software."
"It's very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
6%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
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?
The system is very heavy and requires a lot of resources and a dedicated team. It is costly to maintain, demanding trained professionals, which adds to the expenses. This makes the overall cost ver...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.