Microsoft Dynamics AX vs SAP S/4HANA comparison

Microsoft Dynamics AX is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed to support the business processes of organizations in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, retail, and professional services. The solution offers a comprehensive set of tools and features to support financial management, supply chain management, human resources management, and project management, among others.

With Dynamics AX, organizations can manage their financial operations, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management. It also offers tools for managing the supply chain, including inventory management, purchase order management, and sales order management. Dynamics AX also supports human resources management, including employee self-service, benefits administration, and payroll. Overall, it is a flexible and scalable platform for organizations of all sizes.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Features

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

• Financial management: Microsoft Dynamics AX offers tools for managing financial operations, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management.

• Supply chain management: It supports the management of supply chain operations, including inventory management, purchase order management, and sales order management.

• Human resources management: The human resources management feature includes tools for managing human resources operations, including employee self-service, benefits administration, and payroll.

• Project management: Microsoft Dynamics AX has tools for managing projects, including project tracking, project billing, and resource management.

• Manufacturing: The solution supports the management of manufacturing operations, including product configuration, production planning, and quality management.

• Retail: Microsoft Dynamics AX offers tools for managing retail operations, including point of sale (POS), merchandising, and customer management.

• Professional services: The solution’s professional services include project management, time and expense tracking, and billing.

• Reporting and analytics: With Microsoft Dynamics AX, business intelligence and reporting capabilities help organizations gain insight into their operations and make data-driven decisions.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Benefits

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

• Comprehensive: Microsoft Dynamics AX integrates with other Microsoft solutions, such as Office 365 and Power Platform, to provide a comprehensive and integrated solution for business management.

• Streamlined operations: The solution helps organizations streamline and automate their financial, supply chain, and human resources operations, improving efficiency and reducing manual effort.

• Customization: Microsoft Dynamics AX is a highly customizable solution that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a wide range of industries and organizations.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are its UI functionality, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.

"The most valuable feature I've found is the UI functionality,” says Navnath B., Head IT and CIO at Mutual Automotive Pvt Ltd.

Another PeerSpot reviewer, Timpa A., IT Manager at an energy/utilities company says he like the solution because "It is flexible and cost-effective."

Shahzad I., ERP Project Manager & Managing Consultant at Liwa Education, Iranfava, explains, “It's good for retail businesses. It expands a lot and constantly brings on new features. It's got a lot of competitive features.”

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.”