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SAP BW4HANA vs SAP HANA 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 BW4HANA
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (9th)
SAP HANA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th), Relational Databases Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

SAP BW4HANA and SAP HANA aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SAP BW4HANA is designed for Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 4.2%, down 4.5% compared to last year.
SAP HANA, on the other hand, focuses on Embedded Database, holds 7.7% mindshare, down 13.3% since last year.
Data Warehouse
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

Csaba Grünblatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities
SAP BW4HANA improved data reporting processes significantly. Performance on HANA database is good. Well-built data models ensure consistent and fast reporting. Reusable models enhance efficiency, even for SaaS services. In-memory computing, especially since HANA, has greatly improved performance in data analysis tasks. It eliminates the need for complex optimizations like creating indexes or aggregates. Queries that once took minutes now run in seconds, enabling real-time reporting, especially for SAP ECC on HANA. SAP BW4HANA's integration capabilities are streamlined with a simplified architecture and more virtual layers. You can directly load data into optimized layers, reducing the need for extra storage. The introduction of Open ODS Views allows for additional logic and master data inclusion, making integration faster and simpler. The learning curve for SAP BW4HANA is much faster now compared to ten years ago, thanks to abundant free resources like documentation, videos, blogs, and learning journeys provided by SAP. It is simpler to learn with these resources available compared to the past when you had to attend courses and rely on books. I would recommend SAP BW4HANA to users looking to implement it, especially if they want to keep their systems on-premise and already have SAP systems. Those with BW on HANA have two choices: BW4HANA or DataSphere, depending on their cloud strategy. If they are advanced in their cloud strategy and want to migrate off-premise, DataSphere is a good choice. However, for a robust solution on-premise or in a private cloud, BW4HANA is an excellent option. Overall, I would rate BW4HANA as a nine out of ten. It performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities. We use it traditionally, with complex transformations and models but with less emphasis on real-time processing and third-party sources.
Jayarami Reddy Pujeri - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive system with real-time analytics for versatile industry applications
Our primary use case is working with various clients in industries such as pharmaceuticals and other services. We support clients as implementers of SAP HANA, providing expertise in functionality, finance, logistics, and processes The solution is very user-friendly and supports all kinds of…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The UI is completely new, beautiful, and user-friendly. There are some other helpful features like global filters and advanced tools. We can perform custom calculations easily From a technical perspective, the performance has been enhanced and optimized for a limited number of flows. The content settings are more advanced, and there are so many other features that I can't name them all."
"The ability to instantly pull data is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that the infrastructure is easy to understand."
"Its direct approach is the most valuable. You get more real time and capabilities than BW."
"The solution is useful for connecting with external systems."
"You can do hierarchical alert slicing and dicing out-of-box, which is not available in other solutions. I haven't come across that in Oracle or any other software provider."
"It is a stable solution."
"We can get good visualization and less redundant data."
"Eases management of databases."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is easy to manage enterprise resources and the reporting and analytics are including. It is good for company growth and all module are managed well."
"The data in HANA is stored in columns rather than rows, which speeds up searches and aggregations."
"The speed at which it gets the data is great."
"All features are valuable."
"It is very flexible to integrate with SaaS components."
"The most valuable features of SAP HANA include its user-friendliness, flexibility, and extensive support for various functionalities like finance, logistics, and workforce processes."
 

Cons

"From a technical perspective, it could be even more related to legacy systems. The connectivity requirement is quite high and requires systems that are up-to-date."
"We cannot integrate with third-party tools like Python or advanced integration options. You can't fine-tune tables within BW or generate specific views or reports."
"The speed of operations could be a little faster."
"The solution is not scalable. It does not have a data streaming feature as well."
"The monitoring for the remodeling feature is very difficult to understand."
"It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support."
"If I want to have good reporting, then I have to buy a separate license."
"The solution does occasionally get a few bugs, but this is typical for any product."
"The challenge right now is all databases are on S4 HANA architecture. You're running it for HANA, but not all the functionalities are available. If they can speed up getting all the databases on S4 HANA that would help."
"The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."
"The releases need to be more stable. It's surprising to still encounter significant bugs after ten years of the product being available."
"The solution's development platform should be more flexible and scalable to adapt to other solutions."
"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."
"It's a complex initial setup."
"You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables."
"They should develop and improve the solution's data management system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of ownership is higher. It's resource-intensive, and naturally, that increases costs."
"The tool is affordable."
"We started as early birds from the SAP side. We got this entire suite for free. I cannot really talk about the price because we didn't have to pay anything."
"It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure."
"For the on-premises version of the product, the solution offers a perpetual-based licensing model to its users. In general, SAP offers a monthly subscription-based licensing model to its users."
"It is an expensive product."
"The price is high and currently only affordable for large organizations."
"Price wise, this solution is on the higher side."
"The price of this product is good."
"The tool is expensive compared to other products, like Oracle R or Microsoft, but it offers a range of all the company's functions."
"The pricing for SAP HANA is high. You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons."
"The price of licensing is dependent on the size of the project, however, we have found that there is scope to negotiate the cost. If the solution is implemented on-premises there may be some extra costs for hosting etc."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"SAP HANA is very expensive for small to medium businesses."
"The tool has a high price. I rate the solution’s pricing, one on a scale of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap."
"People who are technical will accept the cost, but financially they will assess whether this solution will bring them revenue or not. People often ask, how will I profit when the cost is so high?"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP BW4HANA?
One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integrati...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BW4HANA?
We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses.
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done.
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP BW/4HANA
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
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