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Friedhelm Lefting - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at GESTRA AG
Real User
Top 10
A stable and scalable solution that provides a high level of integration
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution provides a high level of integration."
  • "The production system must be upgraded."

What is our primary use case?

We use the FI, CO, SD, PP, and MM modules. We also use GTS.

What is most valuable?

The solution provides a high level of integration. In my previous company, we were working with Oracle, and there were a lot of reconciliation issues. We do not have such issues in SAP because everything is integrated. GTS provides a lot of value.

What needs improvement?

The production system must be upgraded. The PP and APO modules need improvement. PP has not been upgraded much, and we look forward to a new one. We do not have extended warehouse management. We are in the process of setting up a new site for a new factory, and we need the extended warehouse management functionality.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution since 1985.

Buyer's Guide
SAP ERP
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP ERP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We do not have issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool provides the scalability we need. We have around 250 users.

How are customer service and support?

We use a third-party vendor for technical support. The support is good. It's not always easy to get the right counterparts immediately. Sometimes, there’s a waiting period because people are busy.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We want to move to S/4HANA to take advantage of the improvements in finance. New GL provides much functionality for profit analysis, P&L, and all kinds of automation. Our S/4HANA conversion plan has a schedule of 15 months from start to finish.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment is quite complex. The preparation, setting up of all the systems, and the tests are complex. We need a lot of involvement from the key users. The maintenance of the product is easy if we have the right people for the modules. We work with third-party providers. The product works fine if they know what they are doing and we have the right links inside and out. We also need knowledgeable key users in the departments.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

SAP is quite expensive. It's a premium system. The other ERP systems are either similarly priced or cheaper. We pay a quarterly license fee for the product.

What other advice do I have?

We have a registered number at SAP for our SAP system. We are end users. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Mariia Gondal - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Consultant at FG Business Consultant
Real User
Top 20
Numerous solutions suitable for any company
Pros and Cons
  • "SAP is more reliable in terms of data quality than other systems."
  • "Sometimes the cost is not reasonable, such as in the case of budgeting."

What is our primary use case?

I mostly work with SAP implementation projects as a project manager.

How has it helped my organization?

Implementation of a new ERP system usually does not give you immediate measurable benefits, but it helps you to evaluate how the company functions and improve internal business processes, this is where most benefits can be seen. Plus long-term effects in data quality and transparency, better-balanced decision making, higher satisfaction and motivation of employees, and internal and external image of the company. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features depend on the company's needs and area of expertise. For example, PP is quite an important module for industrial companies, but FI-CO is the most useful module for any company.

What needs improvement?

SAP is more reliable in terms of data quality than other systems, but it still has room for improvement. If it is planned well, it can really help users avoid mistakes. However, sometimes the cost is not reasonable, usually, it is the case of smaller companies.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for many years, since 2014. We are currently using S/4HANA, which we use on-premises, but we plan to move to the cloud soon.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is quite high. I would give it an eight out of ten. Sometimes the connection depends on the infrastructure and other things that are not exactly SAP's responsibility if we talk about on-premise solutions. Possible issues with stability could be partially resolved when moving to the cloud based solutions.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, SAP offers quite a high grade for organizational change possibilities. It's manageable to plan organizational changes, and there is a lot of information available and SAP consultants on the market who can help with this.

How was the initial setup?

In general, every SAP project is quite unique. It depends on how well we understand the requirements and what is expected from this implementation. The success of the whole implementation is actually meeting these expectations or maybe lowering expectations somewhere. I have participated in several end-to-end implementations, but the time varied for each deployment process and the processes differ in each company.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing depends on the implementation functions. I work with implementations, and the cost varies depending on whether it's an internal or external team and the contractual basis or employees involved. Typically, it could start from 100,000 EUR and go up to 1 mio EUR and be much higher if we include more SAP solutions, locations, and cycles. The cost would vary greatly based on the specific requirements.

What other advice do I have?

In comparison to others on the market, I would rate SAP ERP a nine out of ten. There is still room for improvement, as nothing is ideal. But it's one of the strongest on the market I have worked with.

It's good to learn from the best in this industry. And keep learning new things because sometimes you could be not aware that there are new solutions available to help you with your everyday tasks. And being in the area of professionals helps a lot.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP ERP
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP ERP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1996392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Systems Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A good solution for standardizing across processes but customizations are expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution can easily be standardized across processes."
  • "Customizations are a bit expensive."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses the solution within our European branch for ERP functionality such as configurations for sales, purchases, and production. 

We have 15,000 users across various departments including IT, sales, and business development. We are planning to upgrade to the newest version soon. 

What is most valuable?

The solution can easily be standardized across processes. 

What needs improvement?

Customizations are a bit expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for fourteen years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution's stability is perfect across our 15,000 users. 

Any stability issues are likely caused by manual configurations that do not have correct master data to run properly. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is not very good so I rate it a seven out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Infor but switched because we needed a global solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup is difficult so implementation consultants are needed. 

What about the implementation team?

We utilized consultants for our first implementation and it took eighteen months. Our internal team included ten IT specialists and ten business development staff.

Typical rollouts include a team of 20-30 people. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive so I rate cost a five out of ten. 

What other advice do I have?

To save costs, use the standard solution with few customizations and ensure your data is good quality.  

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director of Transformation SAP at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Scales well and the claim management feature is useful
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the claim management."
  • "There are a lot of manual tasks that are used by a lot of people, so it is a very good candidate for RPA."

What is our primary use case?

We are a consulting company and SAP ERP is one of the products that we implement for our customers. Our primary role is to advise them on tools and strategy, including business use cases that they want to transform.

With ERP, we are working with customers who are looking for S/4HANA transformation, mainly from a greenfield approach. For RPA, we want to add some value in the business case because the business case of the S/4HANA transformation is not so easy to find. So we use some techniques like RPA to find more money around this transformation.

Right now we try to automate some functionality, which is not yet really good, within ERP. We really want to connect via API to the RFP tool to S/4HANA in fact.

We do business consulting or IT consulting, and do not provide support. We do advise them on tools and strategy, including business cases that they have to transform. We work with them up to this point and do not do the implementation.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the claim management. We also find the automation for the process within the "purchase to pay" can be valuable as well. We know that SAP already has an RPA solution to automate the reconciliation between the invoice and the orders, so we don't think that we can find a lot there. We would like to have some use cases with logistics and so on, but we don't have much right now.

We have a "purchase to pay" process, which is in SAP Ariba but mainly within the ERP. We would like to have more around purchasing because with purchasing we have a lot of money to gain and it could be very good for the business case.

What needs improvement?

There are a lot of manual tasks that are used by a lot of people, so it is a very good candidate for RPA. SAP says that if you want to extend the solutions, you need to use some solution outside of SAP for RPA, on a platform as a service or whatever. So, if SAP could have some option, but this not the tool or the best platform that is in the market. So we try to find some solutions to better convince our customers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I began working with SAP in 1992, about 28 years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have experienced no problems with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability has not been an issue for our customers. Our smaller clients have between 2,000 and 3,000 users, whereas a large company has between 10,000 and 20,000 users.

How was the initial setup?

Normally our customers are in retail, the chemical industry, and energy companies. The setup is usually quite complex. When we want them to transform to S/4HANA it has been mainly customized. There are a lot of specifics because their processes are generally not straightforward.

The deployment will take perhaps two months, on average.

What other advice do I have?

When it comes to financing or accounting, SAP is quite enormous. When a company has to produce on every quarter, the numbers that would be in the SAP report, it is quite good. It has very long, long, long life behind it. Logistics, it's still okay. But for the rest, we just started G-Cloud first with a software as a service application. For HR, you have Workday, for instance.

For key purchasing, maybe go to SAP Ariba. If you are looking for Salesforce automation, for instance CRM, maybe you will go to Salesforce. It really depends on which process you want to clone and you want to target, but for the core finance, S/4HANA is a good solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Wael Elsagh - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at EJADA
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Beneficial financial module, useful pre-reconfigured setup, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of SAP ERP is the financial module, pre-configured packages, and plenty of features. The solution is updating and adding new features that are helpful."
  • "When there is a system error it provides an error code and a lot of times these can be complicated. The support team could have more knowledge to be able to assist with these situations more promptly."

What is our primary use case?

We are using SAP ERP in the public sector for manufacturing and R & D.

The solution can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of SAP ERP is the financial module, pre-configured packages, and plenty of features. The solution is updating and adding new features that are helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP ERP for approximately seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There can be some stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SAP ERP is scalable. You are able to add administrative modules to increase the features. There are many other modules that can be added, such as the Linux framework and the business technology platform.

For an on-premise deployment, there needs to be administration monitoring of all services. This is because there can be a lot of resources being used that have to be monitored on the server. We have found some instances of overloading in the reports.

The cloud deployment is managed by the cloud provider and it is highly scalable.

I have approximately 10 clients using this solution.

I rate the scalability of SAP ERP a nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

When there is a system error it provides an error code and a lot of times these can be complicated. The support team could have more knowledge to be able to assist with these situations more promptly.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of SAP ERP can be simple because there are pre-configured setups. This allows for similar implementation for clients. Cloud deployment can be easier. The on-premise takes more time to build the servers and systems.

We followed the active SAP methodology for the implementation of the solution. We then gather all the details needed for the business to complete the implementation, such as realization, customer training, and integration. We then support the customer for a few months after we deploy it.

A typical project can take seven to eight months to finish implementation.

What about the implementation team?

We do the implementation of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a one-time license that is needed to use the solution. The support is what is needed to be renewed annually.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution.

I rate SAP ERP a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
Mohamed Nabih - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Technology at OSHCO group
Real User
Useful integration, helpful support, and plenty of modules
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of SAP ERP are the integration between all departments, such as purchasing, finance, trading, and sales."
  • "The initial setup of SAP ERP is complex and it took a lot of time."

What is our primary use case?

We are using SAP ERP at a manufacturing company for a production system, material management requirements, and materials planning.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of SAP ERP are the integration between all departments, such as purchasing, finance, trading, and sales.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP ERP for approximately 14 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SAP ERP is a very stable system. It's made in Germany so it's a very stable system and received updates all the time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have hundreds of users that are using SAP ERP.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from SAP ERP is very good.

I used technical support a few times over two years because of the cable system. We are only using them in emergencies or urgent matters.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have only used SAP ERP.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of SAP ERP is complex and it took a lot of time.

What about the implementation team?

We used approximately seven people for the deployment of the solution. There are plenty of modules and for each module of the solution, such as material management, we have an expert that helps us. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license needed to use this solution.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to any company.

I rate SAP ERP a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ra456it - PeerSpot reviewer
Digital Business Solutions - Key Account Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Reseller
Comprehensive, perfect for utility service providers, and capable of scaling up to meet the needs of large organizations
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a utility-focused solution, and the deployment is very much aligned with utility service providers. If you look at the supply chain and the overall business model of a utility service provider, SAP is something that fits very well. That's because the company has invested tremendously in creating appropriate workflows pertaining to this segment or domain."
  • "It could always be cheaper. There is no doubt about it."

What is our primary use case?

Primarily, I'm the account manager for an account that has the largest SAP implementation in the world in the utility segment. It is being used by a national utility service provider, and they use everything SAP, except for SAP SuccessFactors.

We primarily have on-premises solutions being sold in this region for the utility companies. In UAE, there are a lot of data residency regulations because of which cloud solutions are not preferred. Companies prefer on-premises solutions.

What is most valuable?

It is a utility-focused solution, and the deployment is very much aligned with utility service providers. If you look at the supply chain and the overall business model of a utility service provider, SAP is something that fits very well. That's because the company has invested tremendously in creating appropriate workflows pertaining to this segment or domain.

What needs improvement?

It could always be cheaper. There is no doubt about it.

In terms of features, it is as good as it can be. It cannot be anything more with its current structure. When a new challenge comes up, they're going to scale up to meet that challenge.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with this solution for quite a number of years. It has probably been more than 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I am absolutely satisfied with its stability and performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. There are only a few companies that can actually deliver an ERP or the overall business model solution at this scale. There are not a lot of players. We have SAP, and we have Epicor and others too, but we know that Epicor can never scale up to what a national service provider would need. We are talking about serving 80,000 or 85,000 people on a daily basis, so a different type of business scalability is required. Overall, we have about 10 clients who use this solution.

How are customer service and support?

We have dedicated support from SAP, and there is nobody more knowledgeable than SAP when it comes to SAP products.

If we need to change anything, we can just call up SAP, and they would come down and do it for us because we are not an SME. If it were an SME, then obviously, SAP, Oracle, or other big companies will not be able to do a change for us, but because of the size that we have, if we need to make a change, SAP will go ahead, invest, and make the change in the application itself.

How was the initial setup?

It is an extremely complicated deployment. The deployment is completely customized for my customers here, and it could not be made simpler. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It could always be cheaper. They don't have a very easy model of licensing, but large entities would get the upper hand in negotiating the license.

What other advice do I have?

For a large organization, SAP is the best way to go. It is also perfect if you are into manufacturing, oil and gas, natural resources, utilities, etc. If you're into finance, you can go with Oracle. If you are a small and medium business, you can go with Epicor or something else. It depends on the business requirements you have and the scale of your organization, business operations, customer base, etc.

I would rate it an eight out of 10. It is definitely up in the top three. No product will ever reach a 10 because the landscape keeps on changing in terms of the requirements within the business and the requirements of the customer. So, there is nothing that can be 100% aligned to meet all business requirements. We are in an evolving, constantly changing business environment, so it is not something that is practical. You can keep on striving, and you can keep on trying to improve your processes, tools, technologies, and the people who work on them, but at the end of the day, when you're looking at an ERP system, it is not about 100% alignment. It is about going for the best-fit approach, and in my opinion, SAP is a good fit for customers.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
reviewer1759518 - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM HR at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Enables continuity in our company but needs to be more intuitive
Pros and Cons
  • "Continuing to use it enabled continuity of business."
  • "SAP needs to be more intuitive."

What is our primary use case?

When the company merged, we decided that we wanted to continue using SAP ERP because all the processes were much more mature, especially when it came to finance. The main value was the convenience for finance to run and manage the business.

The finance team was more comfortable using SAP, so that's why it was decided not to change the solution.

How has it helped my organization?

I wouldn't say it has improved the organization. The company was already using it before we merged.

Continuing to use it enabled continuity of business. It eliminated strife or angst for the employees in terms of experiences since they were already using SAP ERP.

What is most valuable?

We're using the main database. We're using the leave modules and transfers.

What needs improvement?

SAP needs to be more intuitive. It should be easy to use, mobile, and employee-friendly. You need to know the transaction codes. You need to study it to be able to use it. SAP needs to change that. They need to be more intuitive. Like how Facebook is so easy to use, or Uber. No one teaches you to use these apps, but they're intuitive and you're able to use them. So the HR applications need to be the same way.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it since 2018. Before that, I implemented SAP ERP in my previous job and used it for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable.

There are currently 8,000 users who use SAP in my company. Our IT team maintains it.

We do not have plans to increase usage. SAP has said that they are dropping the ERP part. They advise moving on to SuccessFactors for HR. SAP themselves has said not to go forward with more usage, but to change the system.

How are customer service and support?

It has good support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Oracle. When the company merged the new finance team preferred SAP, so HR also had to move along with the finance team. 

How was the initial setup?

The company was already using SAP ERP when we joined, so I didn't have to do any setup here. But in my previous job, we did set it up.

It wasn't straightforward. We had to first align the HR processes. IBM was the implementation partner. We had to speak with SAP and also IBM. They understood our processes and they proposed the best solution. Some parts we did not agree to, so there were workarounds, but it went through. Once the design architecture was finalized, the implementation was smooth.

The deployment took six months.

What about the implementation team?

IBM was the implementation partner.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale from one to 10, I rate SAP ERP a five. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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