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reviewer1876326 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Development, SAP Solutions at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Copes very well with high volumes and provides good integration
Pros and Cons
  • "The product handles high volumes very well and provides good integration."
  • "The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to custom build features. We are customers of SAP HANA and I'm a solutions manager working for a retail company in Finland. 

What is most valuable?

The product handles high volumes very well and provides good integration. HANA has great databases and we're able to have a lot of custom-built features. I think this is the best solution for us given our high file volumes.

What needs improvement?

The SAP ERP processes are quite complex for us and it's a challenge. I don't like the presentation layer tools on the analytics side, it's too complex. I'd like to see a consistent analytic system as those tools and their capabilities are not easy to select. An alternative could be for them to offer the option of access to other solutions.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think the solution is relatively stable but in some cases, it can depend on the service provider and their capabilities. We handle about 40 promoters, all in Finland and dealing with high volumes. Our market set is very high here.

Buyer's Guide
SAP HANA
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think it is highly scalable but it comes at a financial cost. We currently have around 1,000 users. 

How are customer service and support?

We use the support when we need it but we have quite good capabilities ourselves. If we're having some challenges then it can take time to have them resolved or to find the root cause of the problem. We've had some ongoing challenges that have taken quite a while to resolve. 

How was the initial setup?

If you have some experience, the initial setup is quite easy. 

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

We are always discussing ways to optimize memory usage and hence our licensing costs. The solution is quite expensive but we also get a lot of value-added because of the high level of integration. I think it's worth the money but it's a fine balance. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend SAP HANA solution for ERP but not necessarily for analytics. There is no other solution that can provide the value added that we get from SAP, despite the challenges. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Development & ERP Technologies Department Manager at Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.
Real User
Very fast, good memory, and very good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast."
  • "Unlike other databases, it lacks management features that legacy databases like Oracle or SQL servers have. They need to make the solution easier to manage and offer tools that make management more effective. A lot of things you have on traditional databases you have to develop into HANA."

What is our primary use case?

We are primarily using the solution for the BW system of SAP. We also use the legacy reporting, which is very good.

The solution is quite fast.

How has it helped my organization?

We hoped to move all our BI systems to work with HANA, unfortunately, there are a lot of performance issues, even after remodeling the BW models.

What is most valuable?

The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast.

What needs improvement?

Unlike other databases, it lacks management features that legacy databases like Oracle or SQL servers have. They need to make the solution easier to manage and offer tools that make management more effective. A lot of things you have on traditional databases you have to develop into HANA.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about 3 years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is less stable than traditional databases. We have encountered several cases when the database just flows. For some reason, that database took a lot of memory, and when we opened a case with SAP, we had to send a lot of logs, which did nothing because at the end, they couldn't find the root cause for this issue. This happened in several cases. We had production down and that's not acceptable for our business.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. We have about 10,000 users.

Each of those is not connecting to the database per se, but we are using HANA to take all the data and a lot of users. Several other software applications are also connecting to it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is okay, but not great. It seems like there are a lot of SAP support packages that are coming out and lots of versions. For me, this indicates that the product is not quite ready or stable enough.

We've contacted technical support in the past and did not get good results. Eventually, we just created some parameters that we have configured into the system. We solved the problem by ourselves by creating a workaround that avoided the problem. SAP never gave us a straight answer about what we should do in our case.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite complicated. We had to do a migration, so it wasn't a fresh installation. We had Oracle as our legacy system and had to move everything over to HANA. We had to do half a year of testing and had to do several cycles of tests and migrations before deploying. Once that was done, we deployed over a weekend.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd advise others to wait until the software will be much more stable before implementing it.

I'd rate it eight out of ten. If it was more stable and more manageable, I'd rate it higher. If people could have the ability to do things on their own within the solution, to read the software logs on their own, and get the root cause of any problem, and not just send it to the support, it would be much better.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP HANA
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Chief Executive Officer at Redment
Real User
Excellent performance, scalable, and great for large-scale projects
Pros and Cons
  • "The performance is very, very good. It's one of the best aspects of the solution."
  • "There's an issue in the partition. When you record more than two million records, partitioning does not work well. In Oracle it's easy. SAP must resolve this issue in order to be more competitive with Oracle."

What is most valuable?

The memory capabilities are great.

The performance is very, very good. It's one of the best aspects of the solution.

I've used Oracle for ten years, and yet, I find SAP better than Oracle. Oracle is more cost-based.

What needs improvement?

Oracle tends to have better features than SAP HANA. They should work to add the kinds of features clients expect from Oracle.

With Oracle, you can install their cloud and that enables you to see more of the database and multiple accounts. This is better than what SAP has on offer.

SAP could really work on its monitoring capabilities.

There's data aging that needs to be dealt with on the solution. It's not ideal. You might have a lot of raw data and aging can really affect it.

It would be help if the solution had a graph database. They're lacking that right now.

There's an issue in the partition. When you record more than two million records, partitioning does not work well. In Oracle it's easy. SAP must resolve this issue in order to be more competitive with Oracle.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about five years at this point. It's been about half a decade.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is pretty good. We don't have any problems in that area.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've dealt with technical support in the past. It wasn't that good. Sometimes the information we received from them wasn't accurate. It's a difficult solution. I would say, to be fair, that their support is better than Oracle's.

In the case of Oracle, I had an issue once with Oracle GoldenGate. It took two weeks to resolve the issue. That's far too long. SAP is much more responsive. It's never taken two weeks to resolve anything.

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

We also used Oracle. We find SAP to be very fast. It's much faster than Oracle.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was five years ago, so it's been a while. However, I do recall it being straightforward. We typically install a version on Linux. While it can be difficult, at the moment, it's pretty good. Things have changed a bit, and they've improved the setup a bit. It's not really that unsimilar to Microsoft's SQL server.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with SAP.

We're using the latest version of the solution.

We use an on-premises version and e have a private cloud in our company.

I'd recommend the solution. If you have, for example, a huge project that's kind of a unique, scalable database I recommend SAP HANA for it. It's easy to use and handles more RAM.

I'd rate the solution nine 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
Pierre CAHAY - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Deloitte
Real User
Top 10
Multi-layered solution with good scalability, but lacking in feedback availability
Pros and Cons
  • "We have found that the Fiori Apps are particularly good."
  • "I would like to see improvement on the feedback from the road-map; it is currently extremely hard to get insight in this area."

What is our primary use case?

We are currently using the solution for planning, sourcing, and ordering from a contract perspective.

What is most valuable?

We have found that the Fiori Apps are particularly good.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see improvement on the feedback from the road-map; it is currently extremely hard to get insight in this area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is extremely good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have found it to be extremely scalable.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex, but this was due to the nature of the current project which is large and complex. However, for smaller projects, it has been more straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was carried out in-house, and we also implement the solution for our customers.

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

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.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten.

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: Partner
PeerSpot user
Owner at LAVORO AUTOM INF E COM LTDA
Real User
Offers advanced features, helps reduce hours, and makes it easy to find what you need
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution offers advanced features that the company was struggling to implement."
  • "A documents preview could be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

I was using the product for some research in technical drawings - in terms of making some drawings, the different parts, and the structure of the machinery. I don't know if it's available in the SAP HANA, however, there is a model for this to schedule the maintenance. The company wasn't using it. Sometimes the product furnishes a lot of insights, cultural insights that the company still is not ready to implement.

What is most valuable?

The solution offers advanced features that the company was struggling to implement. For example, in terms of parts, you can't implement a lot of structures of the machinery, however, you still need to use the codes. They're not related one to another, which makes them hard to find, typically. That means every time you need it to buy an entire assembly of parts, you need to know exactly which one you had. You have to use a drawing, a technical drawing, that specifies each code that you need. SAP saves you from asking to bring an entire assembly with a lot of parts. That's a powerful aspect that could help to reduce hours of work that are wasted in this way.

What needs improvement?

A documents preview could be helpful. Today we have a lot of documents, for example, in PDF formats, which we would like to preview. We'd even just like to click on an icon and have it open another tab. That way, I can see the document directly inside SAP HANA. In the company I was working with, we had a parallel system which meant we needed to go to SAP, see the code, see the drawing number, and then go to another system that is finished by Autodesk, and then find the drawing and open it. This is a lot of work.

I really would like to just have it inside this app. 

I'd like the product to have more mobile aspects. Many younger users want mobility and flexibility.

The solution can be expensive. In Brazil, many companies still do pretty much everything in Brazil, and, if they want to try a new solution, they want to try it at zero cost. Many, therefore, will look for open-source solutions before they even consider SAP.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution over the last 12 months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. Sometimes it gets a little slow, however, that might be a company issue. When it came to the internet the entire site wasn't that good. Sometimes you had too many people connecting and the company was using a lot of Google solutions. You noticed that when a lot of people are in virtual meetings, we would have internet connections affected.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm not sure about the scalability.

I don't know if you can use it in a Docker or if you can scale it in SQL and you can maintain the speed, or if you are talking about, for example, big data. The infrastructure of the company seemed to be weighed down, for example, when there were a lot of virtual meetings and it affected the internet. I can't speak to if this problem would also affect being able to scale the product.

How are customer service and support?

I would describe technical support as good. It's always worked for me and therefore I have no complaints. 

How was the initial setup?

I didn't handle the initial implementation. The company furnished all the equipment needed for me to work. They gave me the computer, which Red Hat was installed on. They just give me access and showed me where to access what I needed and where to put the ID and password. I didn't do anything.

Typically there are six people that are available for maintenance tasks. They're IT technicians.

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

SAP solutions are typically quite expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a partner and consultant. 

I'm not sure which version of the product I am on.

I'd advise new users that it's important to first find a solution that can understand the culture that's involved inside this solution. Sometimes people think that ERP software like SAP are magical things that you just install it and it makes life easier. It doesn't work like this. You need to have the culture, you have to have this knowledge. You need to understand how it works and how much it requires from you. It requires more than you think. It doesn't work like magic.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It's very good, however, there's always room for improvement. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1353810 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer - Data at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Needs more integration capabilities and support for other programming languages but is pretty flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "Its in-memory capabilities are good, which is why many companies still use it."
  • "SAP HANA is a very proprietary tool and there's not as much support available for it as there is for an SQL Server (which is more popular)."

What is most valuable?

What is good about SAP HANA is its simplicity and its flexibility. 

Its in-memory capabilities are good, which is why many companies still use it. 

What needs improvement?

SAP HANA is a very proprietary tool and there's not as much support available for it as there is for an SQL Server (which is more popular). 

It requires some internal SAP knowledge to work with the tool and it's a completely graphical modeling kind of a system. You can't come in cold with no knowledge or understanding of the solution and think you can jump in and start working.

You have to work with the very few tools that are given to you. It could probably increase its flexibility and there could be more components added, which would make it more versatile. They could improve the solution by adding more components and by making it more feature-rich and including typical features that other more popular tools have.

There needs to be better support from the SAP support team. There needs to be more support for other programming languages like high-level C++, Java, or Python. That could be another improvement. 

HANA needs more integration with open-source tools, and with general reporting and analytics tools that are out there on the market. Once again, more integration on so many levels would be amazing. It's very SAP-centric and very proprietary right now. There are ways to connect SAP HANA with many tools already, however, in particular with open-source tools, if there could be even more integration, that would be helpful.

There needs to be more data transformation and more ELT features that can be implemented in the view. 

For how long have I used the solution?

While I'm not exactly sure how long the company itself has used the solution, I've been dealing with it for four years at this point. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, I can't comment much. It depends on the underlying system and infrastructure, and it has the same kind of stability as any other on-premise solution. It doesn't have any cloud features such as multiple replication and multiple locations, et cetera. In that sense, it has the same stability as any other on-premise solution and does not guarantee any SLA. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it's quite scalable. We've used it for production solutions very often and from any number of users. Generally, there are a few hundred users or so. I have not really worked on an implementation that uses thousands of users or anything that big, so I can't really comment on massive scaling. However, if it's for enterprise applications that have a few hundred internal users, it's good. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The community support needs to be better. I haven't been impressed with it. In general, it just needs better support.

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

I have only worked on SAP and I haven't worked on other solutions.

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

I don't have information on the pricing, as that is an SAP and corporate-level agreement, which is not really known by all the in-house teams. I'm not really aware of the pricing. On the internet, I couldn't find much information about the cost of SAP HANA. I have heard that it is an expensive option. Being an enterprise-level solution, however, I don't have exact numbers. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm not really part of the decision making team or the architecture team. I do not know if my organization has a business relationship with SAP or not.

I'd rate the solution five out of ten.

In the case of enterprise projects, I've heard that SAP HANA is used very widely. I would say, in general, it would be good to explore other alternatives, and not just go with HANA. It would be good to explore big data alternatives that are out there. They might be a better fit. Databricks these days seems to be quite popular. It might be an interesting alternative for some organizations. Depending on the use case, I'd recommend that other alternatives should be considered. If it's a reporting solution that people are building, which is using a lot of SAP internal data, then SAP HANA is a good option. Otherwise, other alternatives are out there.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
George Mukira - PeerSpot reviewer
ICT Consultant at Spring Training & Consulting
Real User
We can get more tenders because of the lower cost while providing a better product or service
Pros and Cons
  • "The most value for us was in terms of using it to issue tenders online. We host our server, but it is open to the public, so clients who want to buy those tenders were able to go online, put their tender documents up, and we could evaluate them using SAP."
  • "The interface is a little bit hard to customize. You almost have to consult the SAP original developer to change it."

What is our primary use case?

We are using on-premises, but I have also done some research in the last six months trying to go towards the cloud. We want to upgrade it because we also did the same thing with another company we are working with which is using the Sage X3 Cloud. We started with Sage Evolution, but now we are also moving to Save X3 Cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

It helped us because some of the people who are busy supporting us are not local. We opened SAP HANA more for the management. We even got some tenders that we were able to submit documents online and sending it to our servers. The key value is that we can get more tenders because of the lower cost while giving a better product or service. This is possible only because of our use of SAP HANA.

What is most valuable?

The most value for us was in terms of using it to issue tenders online. We host our server, but it is open to the public, so clients who want to buy those tenders were able to go online, put their tender documents up, and we could evaluate them using SAP. We were basically able to do pre-qualifications using SAP. After that, we could send notifications to people who qualified and go through the non-qualified people using SAP. That feature is very effective in terms of supplier relationship management. We can issue tenders and people put their big documents through SAP HANA, which helps with communication and gives them notifications.

What needs improvement?

One is the menu. There is a part of the menu where the button should be "reject." The interface is a little bit hard to customize. You almost have to consult the SAP original developer to change it. Now we have to consult SAP just to do some interface changes. You expect it to be easy to get into the menu, but you can't. Instead of changing the console you wanted to reject it, for example, if a tender that does not meet a specific qualification. Basically, the customization of the interface needs to be more friendly.

I think we are also going towards mobile technology, so I would like to see the integration of a mobile app.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using SAP HANA for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's quite stable. There haven't been many cases of bugs, crashing, or freezing. It has been quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is good, in terms of meeting our needs.

How are customer service and technical support?

I think technical support is okay. They should be more focused on updating the knowledge transfer for people who have experience with SAP in general but need to transition their knowledge to the local client. This part is a little bit challenging.

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

We used another solution, but it was more of a client-oriented system, where you get developers to make and customize them for you. It's more local or in-house than regular IT systems. When you only have one company developer to make some products for you and he is the only one who can support you, it's a little bit of a challenge. With SAP HANA, if you get stuck somewhere you can call any other SAP HANA partner.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy for us to set up, because we had that QA code, in terms of the system analysis and system requirements. Once we got the system requirements, we were able to connect to the hardware and software. We could make sure before we did the implementation that we had the right environment.

What other advice do I have?

The main lesson is the importance of ERP capability, stability, and speed. The other lesson is about knowledge transfer because that is how you learn. 

At the end of the day, I like it because it's one of the affordable ERP systems. I would rate is as eight of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Joyee Sen - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP Service Delivery Manager at SoftwareONE
Vendor
Top 5Leaderboard
Feature-rich with excellent performance and capable of integrating with most applications
Pros and Cons
  • "A very feature-rich solution with excellent performance."
  • "This is an expensive solution."

What is our primary use case?

This is an in-memory database. It's designed to leverage the use of new generation, multi-threaded CPU architecture. We are service providers.

What is most valuable?

This is a very feature-rich solution with excellent performance. It's capable of integrating with most applications on the market. The stand-out feature of SAP HANA is that all data resides in memory. Processing is significantly faster, and the need and size of databases drop because there is no need to create and maintain tables that hold historical data.

What needs improvement?

As with all electrical products, this is an expensive solution and we'd like to see licensing costs reduced. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for 10 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is very knowledgeable and provide good service. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup doesn't take more than a few hours. The on-premise version can be installed on public cloud and SAP now have their own version on private cloud. Installation is just a matter of preparing the operating system that has certain prerequisites, patches, and networking requirements that need to fill parameters.

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

The hardware to run a HANA database requires extremely big servers, makes this an expensive solution. 

What other advice do I have?

There aren't many options available and this is a good product. I rate SAP HANA eight out of 10. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user