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SAP Business One 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP Business One
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
ERP (5th)
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

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP Business One is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 3.7%, down 6.4% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 19.2% mindshare, up 12.4% since last year.
ERP
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Ijlal Naqvi - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy but needs to improve in the area of BI
If I speak about a feature in the tool that helps with financial management, I would say that of all the products I have ever worked on, used, or implemented, the finance part is pretty much the same in all ERPs and bookkeeping software tools. Finance is a regulated thing. It has to generate financial statements related to all the accounts. All financial management systems will look into the ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. Generally the tool has two models. If the tool's in-house model is opted, then just one person is needed to maintain the product as an ERP administrator. If it is through a partner, then we usually have managed services, so you get access to a whole bunch of resources, technical, functional, finance, manufacturing, supply chain, or resources that you can have as part of the managed services contract. My company does not use much of AI with SAP Business One since it is pretty much manual now. It's still pretty much manual for business process enhancements and it still requires more of a consultative approach with more of a human touch. With SAP S4/HANA, there is a process navigator, process data mining tool that does help users since with the use of AI it provides answers to their questions. Recommendations are subjective to the requirements of the users. I would not recommend SAP Business One to a financial services institution or a bank. I would most definitely recommend it to a small family-owned business with about 20,000,000 of revenue, and that too in the area of discrete manufacturing. I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
Sajid Farooq - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides seamless integration of different modules in one place
Certain add-ons like quality control, payroll, and HRMS are not part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud. SAP S/4HANA Cloud doesn't provide a quality control module. SAP S/4HANA Cloud does not have its own payroll and HRMS system. The partners develop their own cloud and integrate with the solution. There are certain modules specific to some industries, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud doesn't deal with those modules. Every partner of SAP S/4HANA Cloud has to develop its own and then integrate and certify with that solution. We can't say that these modules are part of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. There is a little area of improvement that SAP has to opt for particular types of solutions like QC, payroll, and HRMS. The graphics of SAP S/4HANA Cloud are not user-friendly. They don't look like they belong to a branded solution that costs too much. The solution's user interface is not appealing or user-friendly. On a scale from one to ten, where one is bad and ten is good, I rate the solution's user interface a five out of ten. SAP S/4HANA Cloud has built-in reports that are hard-coated. We have to alter or modify built-in reports in different marking segments, but there are no options for that. We have to build complete reports from scratch, and SAP-developed reports are not used in the market. SAP should provide a tool for customizing its developed reports so that there should not be a process of reengineering or reinventing the process.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is an all-in-one ERP solution for small businesses. Everything is linked. Once you have this, you have all the features available in SAP. You have PR, inventory items, journal entry, and project management features."
"The Material Requirements Planning (MRP) feature of SAP Business One has been most beneficial for our reporting needs."
"It's simple to use and very direct."
"We have been satisfied with the technical support."
"SAP Business One is pretty streamlined, with tight integration and standard best practice flows."
"It is quite simple, and it is suitable for medium and small businesses."
"The efficient Intercompany sales to purchase order conversion is great."
"The solution has all the basic features that are required for us."
"The solution is versatile with various integrated tools such as connecting with finance modules, controlling parameters, and creating universal journals."
"The most valuable feature of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the uptime it provides from being on the cloud. We do not have to manage the solution. All the infrastructure management is done from their side."
"We are a well-established enterprise with a century-long history, and we recently transitioned from an older version to the current support system. This move has allowed us to fully leverage the advantages of the new system, facilitating efficient management of our business processes, including those related to manufacturing and other aspects of our operations."
"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."
"It is good in data analytics and helps in data analytics."
"SAP is an extremely powerful ERP. In my past company, we used it on a massive large scale, and it was amazing."
"SAP S4HANA Cloud has improved the efficiency and visibility of business operations, leading to potential cost and time savings."
 

Cons

"The reading and retrieving of data are slow in the system."
"SAP Business One could improve by automatically inputting exchange rates in the software. We currently have to enter them manually to find the appropriate exchange rates from a website. If it could be done with one click it would be helpful and more straightforward."
"There is no dependency, the integration between the other applications."
"Our company is expanding to different countries, and business is growing. We feel that it is not good enough for the huge volume of the business. On-premises setup is not good enough for the overseas office. We have our onsite premises in Hong Kong, but we have a major sales office in the US. We are looking for a more efficient setup to fulfill our requirements and needs. It can have portals for vendors, suppliers, and customers. I know that they have this feature in version 10, but it still has space to improve."
"SAP Business One could improve project management, quality assurance, material management, forecasting, full costing, and quality control. Many modules are missing in this solution."
"The solution needs to have comprehensive visibility into the entire sales-to-purchase cycle, enabling businesses to monitor SO-PO relationships, track order progress, and generate insightful reports."
"The standard SAP Business One is sufficient for the Indian region. There is no need for further enhancement as custom solutions can be designed and developed to meet specific needs. For example, HR and payroll is not a standard feature of the solution, but they can be created as a separate custom solution. However, payroll is not a standard function due to the varying norms and regulations across India's 29 states and union territories. Therefore, a standard payroll solution cannot be provided by SAP to add utility and features. Adding it would lead to different versions of the solution and more complexity in managing them. However, it would be useful to have addons to cover the other states which have different regulations."
"SAP Business One lacks solutions for some specific use cases, particularly in HR functions and production planning, which require a lot of customization."
"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."
"Their revolving AI should should be better improved."
"The solution is expensive. That can be an issue for clients."
"They can improve the interface. It has a client-server kind of interface, which is kind of old."
"The reporting aspect needs improvement, specifically in integrating the EWM and MM modules into a single report."
"Analytics could be improved."
"Difficult to install and difficult to test. Testing needs to be improved. Scalability of this solution also needs improvement."
"I'd like to share my experience during the migration from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA in the cloud. My primary challenge in this migration was the requirement to open a ticket for every request during the project phase, not during operational or post go-live phases. Despite this, I must acknowledge that overall, SAP has proven to be very reliable. To clarify the issue, after migrating to SAP S/4HANA, I opted to host my SAP solution on the private cloud by converting the license to SAP Cloud. The drawback I encountered during the project phase was the insistence on opening a ticket or service request for any issue or query I had within the project's activities. Looking ahead, I hope that SAP streamlines and simplifies this process for future customers, making it more user-friendly and efficient than my experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SAP Business One is moderately priced."
"If you are in the US or Canadian the costs of SAP Business One could vary per license, it can be anywhere between $2,000 tor $5,000."
"We compared the Microsoft solution with Oracle NetSuite, as they have a price decrease. It is, however, not that much cheaper, and the price is comparable to SAP."
"We feel that the licensing fees are a bit on the higher side."
"If the client's budget is low, they go for SAP Business One."
"The price of SAP Business One is not comparable to other solutions. SAP is a well-known brand, and its price is on the higher side. However, if the solution offers the right fit for an organization the price is not a major concern for those who choose to use it."
"The price of SAP Business One is high for smaller businesses to afford. The currency plays a large part in the fluctuation of the solution's price when we convert the USD to our local currency. $1,400 is for a limited license and $3,700 is for a professional license."
"SAP Business One is a cost-effective solution. The price is good and we pay for a subscription annually."
"Pricing wise, SAP S4HANA Cloud is very expensive. The licensing cost can be 100,000 euros per year, depending on the number of users in your company."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable."
"I'm not directly involved in the pricing discussions; it's more of a concern for the finance team."
"I feel the solution is expensive when it comes to what can be obtained with open source software."
"Its pricing is way over any of the other ERPs. I'd rate it one out of ten in terms of pricing."
"The pricing of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is on the higher side."
"It's very expensive."
"The price of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is expensive. However, the benefits are good. We did not purchase any upgrades."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
6%
Educational Organization
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 do you like most about SAP Business One?
It's user-friendly and comes with comprehensive manuals. So, it is easy to learn to use SAP Business One
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business One?
The pricing model of SAP Business One is average. It is neither too good nor too bad, and there is room for more flexibility in pricing.
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

Business One
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ego Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
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