SAP S/4HANA Cloud Reviews

In my consulting work, clients commonly use SAP S/4HANA Cloud for finance and logistics. Some integrate additional applications through the Business Technology Platform, while others streamline manufacturing processes with Digital Supply Chain functionalities.

The most valuable aspect of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is its ease of deployment and the reduced hassles of infrastructure support. Compared to the earlier on-premise ECC version, upgrading is now much smoother, eliminating the challenges that used to appear during version upgrades. One significant advantage is that SAP handles infrastructure support and downtime directly when the system is hosted in its environment. This not only saves time but also mitigates the challenges associated with managing infrastructure independently.

There is room for improvement in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, particularly in enhancing the application's response time. While it is not problematic, any improvements in this area would be beneficial. Additionally, despite the availability of the BTP for integration, there is a potential for increased flexibility. A more adaptable environment from SAP in terms of integration would be highly valuable for optimizing processes and workflows.

I have been an SAP consultant for over 20 years, specializing in supply chain and order fulfillment. 

I find it to be a highly scalable product. The ease of deploying patches and upgrades from SAP contributes to its scalability, provided that users maintain a clean system. The seamless integration suite facilitates the incorporation of non-SAP applications into the landscape, making it a straightforward solution for deployment and accommodating the continuous addition of new functionalities by SAP. Overall, scalability is a strong point for this product. I have worked with setups having around 200 to 400 end users concurrently using SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

While I haven't needed support frequently, the times I did, the response from the SAP technical team was good. The support provided was helpful and responsive, particularly within the Indian ecosystem. Although instances requiring assistance have been infrequent, the overall experience with SAP's technical support has been positive.

The initial setup of SAP S/4HANA Cloud has been relatively smooth in my experience. Compared to earlier on-premise versions of SAP, the process is notably more efficient, particularly in the context of public or private cloud deployments, like SQL HANA on the cloud. I would estimate that the initial deployment is about 40-50% percent more streamlined than it used to be in the past.

For SAP S/4HANA Cloud the return on investment is significant. 

While SAP S/4HANA Cloud may be on the higher side price-wise, it is a worthwhile investment.

In my experience of nearly two decades in the ERP field, I highly recommend choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud. SAP is a reliable and user-friendly ERP, and its integration with the public cloud ensures continuous updates without the hassles of migration or upgrades. It offers ease of deployment, a user-friendly interface, incorporation of good business practices, preconfigured solutions, scalability, and straightforward upgrade and management processes. Overall, I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud as an eight out of ten.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is very powerful compared to previous versions regarding enterprise process management, data retrieval, and reporting. SAP S/4HANA Cloud is way better than the previous versions because of the data architecture and new technology adopted by SAP.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud's robustness in data accessibility and reporting, GUI change, end-user experience, and accessibility on mobile have improved our organization. The traditional layout change of SAP is improvised on SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

The reporting that we are doing from SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a valuable feature. Also, SAP S/4HANA Cloud has improved the data retrieval time, system speed, user accessibility, and user experience.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud's customization can be improved. 

SAP S/4HANA Cloud can incorporate basic procurement, material management, and HR-related functionality like in other cloud-related services, such as SAP Ariba. The incorporation of these additional features could be a very good offer.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA Cloud for the last five years.

I would give SAP S/4HANA Cloud an eight out of ten rating for stability.

I would give SAP S/4HANA Cloud an eight out of ten rating for scalability.

The initial setup is a bit complex.

We do see a ROI with the use of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

The pricing of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is on the higher side. Traditionally, SAP is always a heavy product for any organization.

We currently use a free version. We started with a very basic version around five years back and then did two upgrades. Around 2,0000 people are using SAP S/4HANA Cloud in my organization, and we have plans to increase the usage in the coming years.

My advice would be to evaluate whether your organization needs this kind of product because it is a high-end product and may not be relevant for a small-scale or medium-scale organization. Your business processes should be standardized instead of adapting the tool because we normally believe adopting the tool is the solution to our business processes or business problems. First, fix the business process-related issues, streamline and standardize them, and then go for this implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. When I compare SAP S/4HANA Cloud on-premises with SAP RISE, I feel there must be some more control available on SAP RISE.

Overall, I rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud an eight out of ten.

We're a manufacturing company that uses S/4HANA for managing finances and other business processes. 

I like S/4HANA's automated features, readymade processes, and user interface. It supports various processes required by large international companies, like logistics, procurement, payments, sales, etc. All of these features were available in previous SAP solutions, but HANA has an updated user interface and improved integration with other systems. The readymade processes make HANA a good option if you're adopting a greenfield approach.

S/4HANA isn't ideal for managing contracts and subscriptions. There isn't a feature to notify us when a contract for a service we need is approaching its end or a product is no longer supported. You need a separate solution for that.

I have used S/4HANA for the last eighteen months.

S/4HANA is stable, but it needs resources. 

S/4HANA is scalable. 

I have contacted SAP support in Germany and Spain many times and also SAP partners. SAP support is excellent, but the support from partners varies depending on who you get. Some are more experienced than others. 

I have used other SAP ERP solutions that were more appropriate for small and medium-sized companies, like logistics warehouses. They didn't have good enough support. S/4HANA is easier to use and suitable for large, complex organizations. 

You need to prepare before deploying S/4HANA. You need to do a feasibility study and have a team analyze the current processes. It involves several groups of employees, like testing, configuration, and interface teams. Before implementing, you need to know what resources are needed. It's easier if you are adopting a greenfield approach. It can take two years or more for a large company to deploy S/4HANA company fully. It's at least one year.

The system requires ongoing maintenance. You need people who can code and understand SAP logic. It's hard to maintain if you have to change something.

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.

You take the whole system and pay your monthly fees. S/4HANA can define licenses based on roles, series, etc., but there are so many kinds of licenses and fees. It's more complicated than the licensing for Microsoft Dynamics or other SaaS ERP tools.

I rate SAP S/4HANA eight out of 10. Before implementing an ERP tool, you should understand your needs, processes, and business requirements. 

We have some interim back-end systems that we want to protect. We plan to bring in an API management system to take care of all the traffic and everything. This way, the consumers will not have direct access to the back-end system. We are evaluating what makes the most sense because, in our organization, there are multiple technologies. However, our principle is to keep the API gateway closest to the back-end gateway.

Currently, our organization is using SAP S/4HANA Cloud extensively for core back-end processes, and we have plans to increase its usage in other areas as well. Looking at the trends, it is processing more than ten million transactions per month or per day. So, the probability is it may go up to ten times.

Our organization's core back-end is on-prem SAP, and we are on a journey of transformation. Since SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a SaaS application, it is already providing a lot of standard out-of-the-box features, which is interesting. We don't have to build in a lot of bolt-on customizations.

I'm just discovering SAP S/4HANA Cloud right now. Although, in the next release, I would like to see a feature where it allows integration with more platforms.

I have you been using it for one year. I am using the latest version, which is 2.28.

The on-prem solution is very stable because we have used it for the last two decades. The public cloud version is something that we are currently evaluating for transformation. However, with the pilot implementation, it is stable. There are around 1000+ users in my organization using this solution.

Scalability is pretty good. It runs on AWS again. So it has auto scalers. Therefore, scalability-wise, there are no issues.

Customer support is very quick.

The setup is straightforward. Since it is a SaaS application, it is fully managed by SAP. However, the customer also has some shared responsibilities, but a careful guide would be provided to make it user-friendly.

If those who are still on the on-prem version of it, then I recommend they start looking towards transforming into the cloud-based version. Because the on-prem version will be out of support by 2030, it's the right time to start looking at the validity stuff and try to move to the cloud-based version.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud has been used in manufacturing, for niche industries, such as automotive utilities, higher education, and oil and gas.

The most valuable features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud are the detailed solution costing, integration, and built-in analytics.

The integration with third-party vendors could improve.

I have used SAP S/4HANA Cloud within the last 12 years.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a stable solution.

The scalability of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is great.

It is difficult to receive the correct answer from the support.

I rate the support from SAP S/4HANA Cloud a four out of ten.

Neutral

Other ERP solutions are significantly easier to implement, but SAP S/4HANA Cloud has its merit.

The length of time it takes to implement the solution depends on the environment. I have done 15 implementations.

I rate the initial setup of SAP S/4HANA Cloud a six out of ten.

The maintenance of the solution can be outsourced, done in-house by a selected team, or a hybrid of the two. Most companies have hybrid maintenance programs.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is not one of the top solutions when evaluating other solutions on the market. This solution is a bit rigid. 

I rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud an eight out of ten.

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.

The scalability of the solution could improve.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA Cloud for approximately two years.

The solution has high availability.

I rate the stability of SAP S/4HANA Cloud a seven out of ten.

I rate the scalability of SAP S/4HANA Cloud a seven out of ten.

The support I have received from SAP S/4HANA Cloud has been good.

I rate the support from SAP S/4HANA Cloud an eight out of ten.

Positive

Those who want to implement this solution need to determine the purpose for which they want to use it. It makes the most sense if they have their entire system based on SAP, they can opt for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. It is a highly advanced application. I would recommend that the team make their decision based on their specific needs and use cases. 

I rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud a seven out of ten.

S/4HANA is an ERP solution that is distributed in various modules. We have modules for financial business processes and a controlling module that manages costs. The materials management module handles purchasing and inventory management, while the production planning module addresses manufacturing business processes. 

There is a whole sea of modules for HANA, but I am an expert in only the materials management module. On the technical side, we have two kinds of consultants. One takes care of the cloud and on-premise infrastructure. We also have ABAP consultants who are programmers who define the logic. In S/4HANA, we have the technical side, which I'm unaware of, and the functional side. I am on the functional side. 

I'm the solution architect here, so I deal with the solutions proposed by the consultants. I am utilizing the S/4HANA, but my role is different. I'm not designing the solutions. I am managing the solutions the consultants propose and ensuring the quality of the solution.

I come from a functional consultancy background, and S/4HANA provides excellent procurement solutions for inventory management. One of S/4HANA's best features in the manufacturing module is the ability to calculate product costs.

SAP has substantially improved the analytics component of S/4HANA to provide business intelligence. S/4HANA is increasingly recognized globally as the best analytical tool available. You can connect S/4HANA analytics with cloud solutions like Ariba and SuccessFactors, so you can integrate S/4HANA upstream and downstream.

The user experience has some room for improvement. S/4HANA covers various scenarios based on the best business practices, but users complain about its user experience. It is not a user-friendly ERP solution. I rate the current UX seven out of 10.

I started my career as a functional consultant.

I rate S/4HANA eight out of 10 for stability. S/4HANa becomes increasingly stable over time if you properly define your SOPs and hire the right IT staff experts to stabilize. It takes time, but you can make it stable with the right infrastructure and talent. 

I rate S/4HANA 10 out of 10 for scalability. Scalability is the best part because you can cover the entire enterprise. 

S/4HANA is expensive, but the return on investment is high. The benefits you derive from S/4HANA are far better than the cost. 

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.

 I rate SAP S/4HANA 10 out of 10. It's a strong product that is globally recognized as the best ERP solution. If you plan to implement S/4HANA, you have to build your SOPs and know your business. I'm coming from a functional consultancy background, and the first thing we do is gather requirements from the business. However, they often don't know their own businesses or what they need. It's clear why S/4HANA fails in organizations like these where change management is an issue.

You need a clear roadmap to understand what you hope to get from S/4HANA. Are you buying it for the brand? The key performance indicators must be well defined and you need the right staff. S/4HANA is like a Mercedes. You must have an expert driver who can actually drive that Mercedes. If you want to drive a Mercedes like a Toyota Corolla, it won't help you.

I use SAP to manage an entire company. It is an ERP system that helps me streamline and integrate various business processes.

Public cloud deployment is preferred, as I do not have to take care about infrastructure, security and upgrades.

What I like the most about SAP S/4HANA public cloiud is how reliable and powerful it is.

SAP S/4HANA public cloud could improve by adding more features because the current set is a bit limited. I need more options for enhancing the system, especially compared to the features available in the on-premise version. Additionally, the initial setup can be quite complex and still requires deep SAP expertise.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA public cloud for five years.

Very stable, no issues.

I would rate the scalability as a seven out of ten. It is fairly scalable. We have approximately 250 users at our company. Scalability inviolves potential subscription price increase. Adding extra features very often require AddOn subscriptions that you can hardly predict at the start of the project.

My experience with SAP's technical support varies a lot. It depends on the person handling the ticket; if you are lucky, you might get someone knowledgeable, but sometimes it is not so great. It is a bit hit or miss. I would rate the support as a five out of ten.

Neutral

SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA (on-prem). 

The initial setup is complex. It takes at least four to six months to deploy the solution, depending on scope.

SAP S/4HANA is very expensive. You need to compare the TCO, which is hard in some cases. Of all SAP ERP solutions, public cloud is still the most affordable.

My advice to new users is to pay serious attention to the standard feature set analysis (Fit 2 Standard workshops). If you don't, you might find out later that you need something not in the standard features, and there is no way to add it afterward. Overall, I would rate SAP S/4HANA public cloud as an eight out of ten.