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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

"The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is all the functionality of the modules together. It is a full-featured solution."
"The most valuable features of the solution revolve around the fact that it is easy to deploy and scalable and is not resource-intensive."
"The ability to link documents to accounts, partners and events via the Golden/Yellow Arrow feature is very useful."
"All parts for inventory control, project budget, accounting, and business information are valuable. It is very friendly to obtain information. It is also very easy to make the changes that we need. We have a developer with us, and he can make the required changes or rules."
"The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is its user-friendly and useful business module."
"SAP Business One has valuable and helpful features for standard utilities, such as sales, purchasing, inventory, and finance, including Indian localization. Additionally, it is strong in the area of production. It has enhanced capabilities in advanced production planning, maintenance, and other features as needed through the use of add-ons provided by partners. These add-ons run within the solution and can be provided to customers based on their specific production needs."
"The document search feature is very good."
"SAP Business One has many valuable features. It is highly flexible and has a solid background in accounting that is localized in a lot of countries. This makes it very user-friendly for a lot of different situations."
"We were migrating from our in-house ERP solution to the solution, which was a more corporate-centralized solution. My role was to lead the team in mapping our processes with the central team. We aimed to find synergies and learn how to handle processes that weren't directly covered."
"SAP S4HANA Cloud has improved the efficiency and visibility of business operations, leading to potential cost and time savings."
"It is a straightforward solution."
"It is stable and scalable. In the S4HANA plain version, they have new dashboards and things like that."
"With the newer update, there are more funnels as well as ample opportunity to customize the solution. With the SAP Optimizer, companies are using about five to ten percent of the product as-is while the other ninety to ninety five percent is customized to automate and standardize processes."
"It was easy to implement."
"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."
"For supply chain management, we are using WMS. When you go to public cloud, you get a full-fledged EWM."
 

Cons

"In terms of business processes, the production could use improvement."
"Lacks ability to integrate with other tools."
"SAP Business One could be improved if SAP creates one platform to integrate different solutions, particularly having a multi-company concept rather than having different databases. The solution could be similar to SAP S/4 Hana and the SAP Business ByDesign concept."
"In SAP Business One, customization can be made easier...I would tell those planning to use the solution that though it is a good solution, it might not be a complete solution since there are some missing features in it."
"I'd like to see the solution become more user-friendly."
"Improvements are required in the support for partner-delivery add-ons, functional graphs, user development, and BI since certain shortcomings exist in these areas."
"There are only a few standard reports available and if you want more then they either have to be downloaded or built."
"The analytics data capabilities could improve which will provide businesses with much more insight into how their companies are performing."
"Analytics could be improved."
"It's a huge software, and they need to make it look less complex and more user friendly. They need to work on user stories and user experiences."
"The solution's speed and dashboard could be improved."
"The pricing is high."
"The integration with third-party vendors could improve."
"SAP S/4HANA Cloud's customization can be improved."
"The price is mainly suitable for larger companies, even then, there may be other, cheaper solutions. Additionally, this solution is the result of multiple acquisitions leaving room for there to be issues with performance."
"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

"Its price is reasonable. We have about 200 licenses. We have to pay every year for the license."
"The price of SAP Business One is not expensive for the features and the benefits it provides."
"Business One is reasonable considering the functionality."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"Its licensing model is good. There is a one-off payment for the software license, and after that, you only need to pay the annual maintenance fee. Compared to other cloud-based systems, this cost model is quite reasonable for SMEs."
"I rate the price of SAP Business One a seven out of ten."
"I rate the solution's pricing a six or seven out of ten since it is expensive."
"I rate the product pricing structure at around six out of ten due to currency fluctuations posing challenges."
"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."
"The solution's costs have significantly increased, and we have not seen any anticipated cost savings."
"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."
"Its pricing is way over any of the other ERPs. I'd rate it one out of ten in terms of pricing."
"This is a pricey solution that best serves large enterprises. Be sure to ensure that your company's requirements need to be fulfilled by SAP. There are many other ERP's that are cheaper yet highly functional. However, it is still cheaper than some of the competition (i.e. Oracle, ESD, etc.)"
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution’s pricing is very high."
"The licensing process for SAP S/4HANA Cloud has worked well."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Educational Organization
6%
Construction Company
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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