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SAP Head at Smart World Developer
Real User
Top 20
Has an efficient real-time data storage feature, but the user interface of the SAP ticketing portal needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The product's most valuable features include its real-time data storage and integration capabilities through SAP connectors."
  • "We have encountered challenges with integration projects, particularly between SAP and non-SAP systems, which have caused delays."

What is our primary use case?

We use the product for handling configurations and managing user requirements across different modules.

What is most valuable?

The product's most valuable features include its real-time data storage and integration capabilities through SAP connectors. These features have enhanced operational efficiency by allowing seamless data processing and connectivity.

What needs improvement?

We have encountered challenges with integration projects, particularly between SAP and non-SAP systems, which have caused delays. While these issues are being gradually addressed, I recommend improving the user interface of the SAP ticketing portal. Making it more user-friendly and searchable would help submit tickets more effectively and ensure they reach the correct team for resolution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with SAP S4HANA Cloud for approximately three years.

Buyer's Guide
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have encountered issues with updates and delays in receiving timely information regarding component readiness for updates. 

I rate the stability a four out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the platform's scalability as seven out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

Support tickets are often unresolved for extended periods, and the support team needs more understanding.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is moderately difficult, with the deployment process varying depending on the complexity of the development. 

Complex developments can take hours, whereas simpler ones can be completed in minutes.

I rate the process a six out of ten. 

What about the implementation team?

The product implementation was handled through a vendor team.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment has been lower than expected, as the rising costs have not translated into proportional gains.

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

The solution's costs have significantly increased, and we have not seen any anticipated cost savings.

What other advice do I have?

I advise those considering the solution to ensure proper training and support. Having a well-informed front-end team and receiving regular updates to address customer needs is crucial. 

I rate it a five out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Frnçs Dubuis - PeerSpot reviewer
Transformation Consultant at Dr. Pascal Sieber & Partners AG
Consultant
Top 10
A highly stable and exceptionally scalable ERP system
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
  • "It is a complicated solution. So it should be easier to use."

What is our primary use case?

Speaking about use cases, it is a whole ERP system for a medical tech company.

What needs improvement?

It is a complicated solution. So it should be easier to use.

For how long have I used the solution?

At the moment, I'm not using the solution, but as a consultant, I'm looking at or evaluating ERP systems for customers. So, SAP S/4HANA is the last one, which I evaluated for one of our customers. Also, my customers chose the solution. So, I am a consultant for my customers. I provide consultations in a totally neutral manner for all the products.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution.

In one of the projects I know, there are around 400 to 500 users using the solution.

How was the initial setup?

It's a hybrid solution. So a few things are on-premises like the local data is on-premises, and the rest of the software is in the cloud.

The biggest problem if you are involved in implementing SAP S/4HANA is that you are not working directly with SAP, meaning that you are dependent on implementation partners. The implementation partners receive the incentives only if they are selling cloud solutions. So they are cherry-picking in the market. So this means that the transaction phase will go much longer, and the companies with the most needs and the biggest backlog will be the latest ones in the last ones of the transformation, which will spread some competitive disadvantages.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to those who are already working with SAP.

I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Principal Information Technology Consultant at NTT DATA
Real User
Top 20
Provides easy database access and fulfills all the custom applications and custom business requirements
Pros and Cons
  • "SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides easy database access."
  • "The user interface of SAP S/4HANA Cloud needs to be improved because it is not as good as other applications."

What is our primary use case?

We use SAP S/4HANA Cloud for claims portal applications in more than 25 countries. It is used to work on customer complaints after the sale order has been created. Once the customer or distributor raises their complaint, it goes into different levels of approval. Then, based on whether the different levels of approval have been accepted or rejected, an order gets created in the back end of the SAP system, and a cash memo or part exchange is given to the customer. Before the final approval, different approvals and IDs are created in the SAP cloud database instead of the SAP on-premise database to help reduce the number of users.

What is most valuable?

SAP S/4HANA Cloud can fulfill all the custom applications and can fulfill custom business requirements. SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides easy database access.

What needs improvement?

The user interface of SAP S/4HANA Cloud needs to be improved because it is not as good as other applications.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. Nearly a thousand users are using the system.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is neither easy nor difficult. I rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud's initial setup a five out of ten. The deployment of the solution takes two years. Ten people are required for the deployment, which includes two engineers, one system architect, and four developers.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is deployed on a private cloud. People can access the public cloud using all the necessary authentication. So we have both private and public service applications. We are working in parallel with OutSystems, which is far better for SAP.

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A unified platform that helps with real-time analysis, but it's very expensive and hard to integrate
Pros and Cons
  • "Finance aspects of it and transportation management, asset management, and inventory management are valuable."
  • "The pricing is way over any of the other ERPs, and the bank integrations are not perfect. There are a lot of costs for other implementations and integrations with Salesforce and other systems. Rather than being a fully-fledged system on its own like most of the other ERPs, it relies too much on developed integrations by the implementation partner."

What is our primary use case?

Its use cases are related to financial management, asset management, ERP, logistics, and sales.

How has it helped my organization?

It's a unified platform for finance and all the other fields, so it allows the finance team to control the other operations a lot better. It helps with real-time analysis of all the information of the company in one location.

What is most valuable?

Finance aspects of it and transportation management, asset management, and inventory management are valuable.

What needs improvement?

The pricing is way over any of the other ERPs, and the bank integrations are not perfect. There are a lot of costs for other implementations and integrations with Salesforce and other systems. Rather than being a fully-fledged system on its own like most of the other ERPs, it relies too much on developed integrations by the implementation partner.

In terms of additional features, the parent portal is a major miss out. There are no HR systems. I don't think any ERP is complete without an HRMS offering, but that's a separate system in SAP. It's missing in the public edition, and only in the private edition, it's available as an optional add-on. It's a huge limitation in the ERP system, and it was almost a deal-breaker for us.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been looking at the evaluation of it for about six months, and we just finished implementing it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The platform itself is quite decent. It's relatively stable, but because it relies a lot on customizations, a lot of the customizations are sometimes not very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable. We have around 40 users working with this solution.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't contacted them yet. We were working with an implementation partner, and they also had an implementation team from SAP directly, so many of our queries would be answered by them directly. We've just now entered the post-handover phase where we would have to reach out to technical support.

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

We had Tally and Zoho. We switched because Tally was just not a full ERP. It was just a basic ledger similar to an Excel sheet. Zoho was suitable for the manufacturing or trading industry. It was not suitable for a large organization or any complex organizational structure. It definitely was not suitable for all the things that we needed or anything beyond what a very small shop would have.

How was the initial setup?

It was extremely complex and painful. We had to work with partners who had consultants in each of the modules being implemented, such as asset management, finance, and operations. There were over eight different consultants, even on the smallest project, and it was extremely painful compared to any other ERP system and platform.

It took us around three months. We initially contacted a partner who helped us with our requirements. We spent a couple of weeks just looking at our requirements before we signed the contract. After we signed the contract, we had two to three weeks for document review and evaluation of the current solution for the migration. It took us another month or so just to implement these modules. After that, it probably took us two weeks to migrate all our data over to the system, and then the changes required took another week or so. We had to make changes or do customizations where it just wasn't working for us, and then it took us another month just for the go-live of the final solution with full features.

In terms of maintenance, there is no real maintenance to be done because it's a SaaS product, but we have to maintain our integrations with banks and other things, which, in general, are quite difficult to maintain. Because a lot of the product relies on customizations, it's very difficult to maintain those integrations and customizations across platforms. In general, it's no different than Office 365, where they do updates themselves and maintain the software updates, but it's still a pain for us to maintain the customizations.

What about the implementation team?

There were eight consultants. We had one consultant for each of the modules, and they were all on the payroll of the implementation partner. There were also resources involved from our company side. It took up way too much of our finance and executive team's time. IT was involved, but way too much of the finance and executive team was used. It was to an extent that it almost didn't let them complete their own job well, and they were spending way too much time with just the ERP consultant.

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

Its pricing is way over any of the other ERPs. I'd rate it one out of ten in terms of pricing.

What other advice do I have?

Get a very good implementation partner because the prices of the subscription itself vary depending on the partner, and the price of the implementation, which is more than the price of the subscription for the first two years, would also vary significantly. The implementation partner does a lot of the work of implementing the system and making a lot of customizations, which are implemented automatically in a general ERP but need to be done in SAP. So, if you have a bad partner, it will be painful for you.

I'd rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud a six out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Hisham Ismail - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Operations of Support / co CEO at Snag Free
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Stable application which supports both standard and customized integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "Both standard and customized integrations work well with no issues."
  • "Difficult to install and difficult to test. Testing needs to be improved. Scalability of this solution also needs improvement."

What is most valuable?

One of the advantages of this product is integration. It has a really fantastic integration. I always have a one-to-one with my integration consultants: doing the success factor integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, or doing other types of integrations. We have a lot of methods for integration: standard integration and customized integration with third parties. The integrations work well with no issues.

What needs improvement?

SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs Oracle: In Oracle, for example, you can easily install even Oracle 19c or the latest version in your laptop. You can test it, get it certified, and even look for the application, but it's really difficult to install Hana. It's really difficult to reach any testing environment. It's difficult to test the version.

I'm struggling to hire in my team. While I was with Oracle for 15 years as a senior manager for their support solution center in Smart Village, I didn't face that much of a struggle in hiring like what I'm facing now in SAP. This is because Oracle (like Microsoft) made their products available for downloading, testing, etc., but for SAP, it's difficult.

I've had sufficient time to evaluate ByD. It is going on the right track in terms of improvement: technical-wise and featurewise. There's nothing you need to improve in this solution's performance. There's nothing major in its essential or core features: in the FI or supply chain or procurement through the cloud. It's doing a great job.

Testing is the main thing I'd like to see improved.

An additional feature I'd like to see on SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the production application or module. For small to medium businesses, there's only a finance module and the standard non-finance module, e.g. supply chain, but there's no production planning. That is a factor. We need to use the smaller version of production planning with the smaller version of quality management. I hope to see this feature in the cloud application.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I see this application as really stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

They need to improve SAP S/4HANA Cloud's scalability and make it like Oracle's. They need to do more about scalability. This is a major issue and they need to put more effort into it, but I think they are improving.

How are customer service and support?

I don't have complaints about the support. They were able to point out the problem.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Oracle.

What other advice do I have?

I don't have much information about AWS, but it's booming. I hear a lot of customers moving to AWS because they say it's stable and has no major issues with it. I have more experience with SAP S/4HANA Cloud though, and it's fantastic. It's going very well. Most of the small to medium companies are now moving to business by design. This is a very great application.

Hana hosting vs AWS: It is the same in Hana, but on cloud. I'm talking about the cloud application, e.g. ByD. This is great.

This solution isn't resource-intensive. It's a low-key solution.

S4 Hana on cloud vs on-premises: It's been years since on-premise deployment has been applied. All should move to the cloud version. You will be forced to move to the cloud version. No more on-premise will be available for this solution.

I've been working in the last five or six years focusing on SAP cloud applications, even the on-premises ones. It ranks number one from my point of view. The other products in the market are also doing fine, but from the integration point of view, especially in the production and manufacturing industries: It's the number one application in manufacturing, so this gives a great advantage to SAP.

I would say to every CEO or to any company that they should start looking into moving their applications and their database. They should move everything to cloud before they are forced to do it because of limited time. They need to be proactive in this direction because there's a lot of benefits from the cloud from a performance perspective. It helps people to focus on data analysis, reports, and maintenance of cloud environments. It requires less effort on the IT people, so we can use them to start focusing on other current digitalization requirements. There's a lot of challenges and they need to sprint all of their work e.g. field work, work related to hardware and networking switches, etc.

I'm giving this solution a score of eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Business Intelligence Consultant at Deloitte
Real User
Top 5
Offers good analytics capabilities but is costly
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to access and analyze data in real-time has significantly improved our reporting efficiency."
  • "One thing that could be better in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, especially in the public cloud, is how easily you can make changes."

What is our primary use case?

SAP S/4HANA Cloud streamlines my client's business and, with the move to the cloud, it is more flexible and efficient.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is its analytics capability. The ability to access and analyze data in real-time has significantly improved our reporting efficiency.

What needs improvement?

One thing that could be better in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, especially in the public cloud, is how easily you can make changes. Clients, especially those with a lot of existing processes, feel a bit restricted in adapting the system to their specific needs. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with SAP S/4HANA Cloud for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability as an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the product is not at the highest level, but it is certainly above average. The number of users for SAP S/4HANA Cloud varies depending on the project. We have worked with small to big businesses.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support for SAP S/4HANA Cloud as an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is relatively straightforward. As a partner, getting SAP S/4HANA Cloud up and running involves a few steps. We work closely with SAP, and they handle some initial activities before we jump in. The whole process usually takes about three to six weeks, during which we set up the environment and get everything ready to start working.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment for SAP S/4HANA Cloud usually becomes clear after about five years, depending on the business case. It is not immediate, but over time, the benefits start to show.

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

I would rate the costliness of the product as a seven out of ten. It is on the expensive side.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud as a six 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
Fatih Güner - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP PP Consultant at Spectrum
Real User
Stable solution with improved computational power and speed
Pros and Cons
  • "SAP S4HANA Cloud is stable, and its computational power and speed have improved in later versions."
  • "SAP S4HANA Cloud's production planning screens could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use SAP S4HANA Cloud for production planning.

What needs improvement?

SAP S4HANA Cloud's production planning screens could be improved. In the next release, I would like SAP S4HANA Cloud to include a project team management tool.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using SAP S4HANA Cloud for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SAP S4HANA Cloud is stable, and its computational power and speed have improved in later versions.

How are customer service and support?

SAP's documentation is really good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

I strongly recommend using SAP S4HANA Cloud as it's much better than competing ERP products. Also, if you have in-detail production processes, I would strongly suggest using the PP/DS module. I would give SAP S4HANA Cloud a rating of nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Lead Solution Engineer at DSM Business Services
MSP
Top 10
Good scalability and provides a lot of standard out-of-the-box features
Pros and Cons
  • "Since SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a SaaS application, it is already providing a lot of standard out-of-the-box features."
  • "I would like to see a feature where it allows integration with more platforms."

What is our primary use case?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is very quick.

How was the initial setup?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

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