SAP S/4HANA Reviews

My general opinion of SAP S/4HANA is that it is a simplified and faster application. It is robust, with embedded analytics and an inbuilt native mobile app, eliminating the need for a front-end application. I believe that the tool is one of the leading ERPs. Its architecture, security, user experience, and database performance are fantastic. I have not seen any other ERP that can compete with it.

Only SAP payroll products can handle data management in IT and HR, processing millions of payrolls monthly for big organizations. S/4HANA payroll can manage massive volumes of data, process payroll in minutes, and provide outcomes. Other applications cannot process more than 4000-5000, but SAP S/4HANA payroll has been proven for 30-40 years.

The tool's most valuable feature for our operations includes its finance, sales and distribution, procurement, and time management applications modules. It supports various industries with specific solutions such as oil and gas, student life cycle management for education, IS retail for retail, IS agriculture for agriculture, and chemical solutions for the chemical industry. Additionally, it offers SAP Media. Essentially, S/4HANA provides solutions for any industry and business.

The solution offers real-time analytics. The user interface, Fiori, is excellent. Fiori replaced the SAP NetWeaver portal and serves as the front end. It's a very solid front-end application that allows extensive customization and extensions. You can tailor it to your needs, making it a robust application.

User adoption has been smooth with Fiori. We have various methods for adopting the application, such as SAP Build Work Zone and SAP Fiori Launchpad. Fiori provides a simplified user experience. For example, creating a sales order involves minimal fields and is straightforward. Users don't require training to use the applications as they are user-friendly, similar to downloading and using a mobile app. Any technical changes are managed by the IT team, but overall, the adoption is very easy for users.

Integrations are made very easy with S/4HANA, so you don't have to struggle much. However, we face timelines, cost, and budget challenges. We are confident in customizing and delivering requirements if something is impossible as part of the standard. There are situations where certain features are not available in other platforms like SuccessFactors, which can lead to challenges in implementation. However, with the product, we have confidence that we can provide value-added solutions and deliver them, even if there are some limitations compared to on-premises or cloud solutions.

The tool's accuracy is 99.9 percent. 

S/4HANA is like a ready-made suit, but it could be improved by adding more customization options, such as different colors and attractive themes in Fiori. From a functionality standpoint, there's always a workaround solution, and we've been working on SAP for the last 18 years.

I expect more functionalities related to cloud applications and integrations with third-party applications in the next release. Given the complex architecture and data storage in the SAP database, simpler plug-and-play integration methods would be beneficial. While SAP S/4HANA currently ranks second in cloud comparison integration models, easier integration methods would be a valuable improvement.

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten.

The solution's pricing depends on customers and how much discount they can get. However, the list price is expensive. 

I rate the overall product a ten out of ten. 

The tool has improved our company's financial processes as it gives us a systematic way to look at data. Based on the analytics offered by the tool, users can judge if they want to spend money on something or not. Based on data or analytical data from ERP, you can easily make judgments, like whether you want to purchase something commercially or not. With the tool, we can see the transactions and everything in one place.

SAP offers very good ERP software. As ECC is into SAP HANA, SAP has already improved it, and now SAP is in the process of going with RISE with SAP. Everything has already been captured in the tool, and everything is as per the worldwide industry standard process, and the ERP solution is something that is based on it.

The tool's high cost is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have experience with SAP S/4HANA.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

It is a scalable solution.

Around 200 to 500 people use the tool.

If you divide the workload between the projects and clients, then it can definitely be very costly. If your organization is not more than 10,00,00,00,000, I would say it is not okay to go with SAP S4/HANA.

For technical support, we are dependent on the consultants only.

I cannot say whether the product's deployment process is complex or straightforward, as it depends on the company where it is being deployed.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

A minimum of ten to fifteen people are needed to deploy and maintain the tool.

The solution can be deployed in five to six months.

A company's resources can't deploy the tool. You need specific people to deploy the tool. It's not a person but a team you require to deploy the tool. Consultants are needed to help one deploy the tool.

The ROI part cannot be judged, and it is something that is based on how much a person uses the tool. If your company is small, but when it comes to process orientation, the ROI is always good. ROI is not dependent upon the size of a company.

The tool is expensive.

SAP S/4HANA is a very decent product for our main business. My company is into mining and production. The tool is a process-oriented product. If you train people, then the product is very likely to be used, and it is defined as a tool that offers a systematic industry standard process.

Speaking of whether the tool has significantly increased our company's operational efficiency, I would say that it would be an injustice in areas like manufacturing, material movement, HR, production planning or quality assurance since each and every part is connected with each other.

The real-time analytics capability impacts our decision-making process and can be very quick if you have the right data. With just a few clicks, you can get everything.

The tool's Fiori UX has improved user suggestions, productivity, processes, and real-time data in our company.

I recommend the product to those companies that have a capital of 10,00,00,00,000.

SAP S/4HANA is a good product, provided it is used in a proper and realistic manner. Training is also required for the tool's users. You may go for SAP S/4HANA, but you need to decide if, as per your company's costs, you don't mind spending too much money or if you are capable of spending some money. You can take any ERP solution since there are many solutions available nowadays. SAP is very expensive, I feel.

To those who want to buy the product, I would say that they need to prepare a plan and should ensure that they have the right people to deploy the tool and create a strategic planning process, after which the process of choosing the right consultants should be carried out. The right consultants are the people who feed with the fact that the deployment processes carried out are done for life long. It is not possible to stop anything midway.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

We've integrated SAP S/4HANA into our implementation projects for customers, not internally. We use SAP S/4HANA for real-time analytics and decision-making. 

It helps us provide customers with better visibility, forecasting, and smart data for decision-making. This streamlines our business processes, enhancing operational efficiency, saving costs, and providing a 360-degree view of our business processes.

We leverage the finance and add-on modules of SAP S/4HANA, including Alibaba integration, CRM integration, and production planning. These features are highly configurable and provide excellent visibility into our systems. While I appreciate the introduction of in-memory computing as a feature, I haven't had the opportunity to delve deep into this feature. 

It would be beneficial if the pricing structure could be made more flexible and adaptable to suit the needs of different organizations. Besides this, the scalability also needs improvement.

I believe support could be improved by providing more specific and detailed answers rather than generic responses.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for the past six years. 

It is stable.

The scalability could be made easier. While it's theoretically scalable, there are practical challenges and complexities that could be addressed for better flexibility and scalability.

The technical support needs to improve. 

Neutral

The installation is not very simple, rather complex and dependent on the systems. The maintenance can be challenging due to frequent product changes and a lack of subject matter experts for quality support. It's essential to have a strategic approach to understand product changes before implementing them to ensure stability.

SAP S/4HANA has its pros and cons like any other product. It offers a lot of features, particularly the robust finance module and supply chain capabilities. However, there are areas like HR processes that could use improvement. Overall, it's a good product that competes well based on factors such as pricing, flexibility, scalability, and configuration options. I will rate it seven out of ten.

Customers reach out to me when they have challenges related to licensing and contracting costs associated with it.  

Customer choose this solution because they want to transition away from Oracle or because they are compelled to go for SAP.

Oracle has its own data center, hardware, virtualization layer, and database. They offer a complete solution, which SAP currently can't match. This is a weak point in SAP's proposition.

I have been using this solution for the last 20 years.

It is a stable solution. 

It is a very scalable solution. We have enterprise-level businesses using this solution. 

The customer service and support are average. There is room for improvement in response time. 

Neutral

It is easy to install. Our clients deploy it on the cloud or on-premises.

It's quite expensive. However, it can be expensive to maintain the solution. 

The licensing varies because I serve multiple customers, and there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. There are additional costs for technical support and consulting

I have a background in Oracle, I'm making a few comparisons between Oracle and SAP. I fully understand SAP's strategy to move their customers to S/4HANA. However, when we consider the developments in ERP suites in the cloud, especially Oracle's approach compared to SAP's,  I lean more towards Oracle from a solution perspective. Oracle provides a native cloud solution that integrates everything seamlessly. 

On the other hand, SAP, especially if you're using the right solution, essentially involves deploying older on-premises SAP software on a hyperscaler, which we refer to as a "cloudified" solution. This, in my opinion, isn't as strong in the overall proposition.

I would recommend thoroughly evaluating other options and ensuring a clear understanding of the associated risks and costs before making a decision.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there is always room for improvement and SAP lacks a native cloud solution.

We use the solution to import master data. We use classic resolution to collect local US company material masters and align HQ material masters' numbers. We import FI/CO/MM/PP/SD IMG and opening posting accounts and stock. 

We use it to import transactional data. We collect purchase orders and sales orders into S4H 

We also use it to import security. We collect user roles and permission objects.

We provide training requirements for logistic modules for sales orders to intercompany purchase orders and make production orders for goods issued and goods received. Finally, we run production order confirmations for cost variants. 

We removed gaps for MRP planning, forecast data, and PIR purchase orders. We integrated overall sales commission collections and sales profits management. 

It's helped with business aspects and improved material planning and RMA processes.

It's helped with service aspects and improved customer service and spare parts management.

It's good for HQ FICO aspects. We consolidated P/L statements, cash flows, and income statements.

For supply chain aspects, we integrated the last puzzle piece for material control.

We found the solution integrated with HQ and local material number for batch orders to split several partial orders. 

For customer service and RMA views, material alignment or aggregate is evolving. The US can assign sales forecasts to distribute Asia-built finished parts. This business model can accumulate mass stocks for replacing parts and labor maintenance services. If sales order to shipment can align with the ERP platform, the materials to order can support visibility across Asia/the US/the EU. The integration not only speeds up order processes but also controls solid stocks and costs.

During parallel preparation of go-live processes, SAP B1 and S4H transactional data alignment can be difficult to track. The approach is to have the same sales order amount and quantity to compare the correctness so both sides are matched, according to FI concerns. For project purposes, we need to figure out if there is any solution or approach when considering data migration for sales orders and purchase order imports. Any resolution for an add-on program to validate reports can be useful. 

I spent six months in a S4H project implementation, including SAP business - one migrated into an S4H 1809.

We did not previously use a different solution.

We did not evaluate other options. 

Our company implements the solution for customers. It is used for order management, finance, purchasing, and manufacturing. We currently have two customers using the solution. 

The solution's new UI called Fiori is user friendly.

The solution is very easy to integrate.

The solution is complex technically because both an old and a new path exist. Some more development work is needed for Fiori before a complete switchover can happen. Right now, they are enhancing and developing Fiori. In two to five years, things may change because Fiori will be finished and in the market. 

I have been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

Technical support could be better so I rate it a five out of ten. 

Neutral

The setup is complex. We were given instructions but setup was not easy. 

We implement the solution for customers. Implementation can take between six months to two years depending on the scope and customer. 

The pricing model is based on an annual license. 

I recommend the solution for big companies because they have a lot of SAP users and can handle the specs of implementation. I do not recommend the solution for mid-sized or small companies because there won't be enough users or support. 

Because two systems are being used within the solution as it iterates over to Fiori, the system is currently very technically complex. A lot of workarounds are needed and this creates a bad experience for customers. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I'm an architect. S/4HANA is an intelligent enterprise. When an organization needs an application or software to run its operations, S/4HANA comes into play. SAP is the market leader in ERP. S/4HANA is not a traditional ERP anymore, but an intelligent enterprise. That's the power of S/4HANA.

The integration capabilities of SAP S/4HANA and AWS are excellent.  SAP S/4HANA is an intelligent enterprise. It can harness data and provide the right data at the right time for decision-makers to carry forward the operations. 

For integration, you have SAP BTP, a platform as a solution that can work with S/4HANA. There are also other tools like SAP CPI and SAP Process Orchestration. So, there are a lot of tools available for SAP to integrate with the outside world.

AI capabilities are good with SAP S/4HANA. When WE combine SAP S/4HANA with SAP BTP, there is a use case in the healthcare industry where it can detect yearly symptoms and save lives. This is referred to as SAP Business Technology Platform.

S/4HANA is a very large application. There is no one specific tool I can pick. It depends on the customer, the use case, and what the business needs. Different industries will find different business functions helpful. 

If it is a construction industry, probably something related to the construction function will help you. If it is a logistics industry, if it's a logistics function, it's a separate one. So, depending on the type of industry, you will have a different business function that will come into place.

Most of the Fortune 500 companies use SAP S/4HANA, so I don't think it's unfit for any particular industry. But if a customer has limited requirements, like only sales activity, then they can choose Salesforce. They don't need SAP S/4HANA. It's not a proper comparison because we can do a lot with S/4HANA, like HR, sales, distribution, production planning, quality management, transport management, and more.

In future releases, I would like to see more availability zones and VPCs so customers have more freedom to choose. Also, more training so customers can utilize the training enablement.

I have experience with S/4HANA for around seven or eight years.

AWS is premium. From a cost perspective, AWS might be on the higher side. The users have to check if the required availability zone is available in the customer's region. Sometimes, only Azure is available. I don't see any issues of that sort. It's very mature.

The customer service and support are very good. There are options for SAP called RISE with SAP. You can make a note of it. With RISE with SAP, customers can choose their hyperscaler. It can be SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP, or even Alibaba. When it comes to support, you can go with a single contract with the RISE with SAP option, so you get one support contract.

The support comes from SAP, not AWS. The support is the same for AWS or Azure. Some customers will enter into an exclusive contract, while others will go with a generic contract. For the sake of an answer, I can give it an eight out of ten.

Positive

Every implementation has its challenges. Sometimes, the challenges are with the project timeline, sometimes with resource availability, and sometimes with the business process meeting the requirements of the business. 

Especially with a product like SAP, such a big project, there are challenges, and that's when project management comes in to make sure the project is delivered successfully.

We have multiple deployment options. We have S/4HANA on public cloud and S/4HANA on private cloud. Depending on the customer's appetite, we can choose which one they want. 

Even within the private cloud, we have options like greenfield, which means we implement from scratch; brownfield, which means we convert an existing system; or bluefield, which is loosely related to a data migration approach. So, it depends on the customer's appetite.

SAP S/4HANA is a solution, and AWS is just an infrastructure provider. Some customers might prefer S/4HANA on Azure or Google Cloud. It depends on the customer's requirements.

Customers will have access to the latest innovation from SAP and will be updated with the business process libraries. They can stay ahead of their competitors in the market because of the innovations provided by SAP. 

They also have lots of tools or options available to integrate with the outside world.

I would recommend using it. Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

We use SAP for business processes.

SAP S/4HANA has significantly improved processes by enabling a more intelligent enterprise. With tools like SAP Business Technology Platform services and AI scenarios, data processing and decision-making have become much smarter and efficient.

The features that I find most helpful in my day-to-day operations with SAP S/4HANA are primarily related to data management. Real-time data analytics has significantly enhanced decision-making processes by providing instant insights into business processes and trends. The user experience with the SAP S/4HANA interface has also seen notable improvements, particularly in terms of a more friendly and personalized UI.

There is room for improvement in areas such as security features within SAP S/4HANA, which could further enhance the overall usability and effectiveness of the platform.

To make SAP S/4HANA better, there's a focus on enhancing responsiveness and reducing operational costs. This includes improving automation within the system to address strategic needs and accommodate users who primarily speak English, which is an ongoing effort.

I've been working with SAP for around seventeen years, specifically focusing on SAP S/4HANA since around 2015. I work with SAP as a partner.

In terms of stability, I would rate SAP S/4HANA at around nine out of ten. 

The initial setup of SAP S/4HANA was challenging, but it's vital to understand the manual innovations, tool design, and integration, especially with new features and core aspects. Learning and staying updated with new innovations is crucial for IT professionals, as it provides valuable insights into business processes and concepts. The duration depends on specific business requirements, typically taking around four months to complete.

I would rate the pricing at around six to nine out of ten depending on the edition and deployment type.

SAP S/4HANA's integration capabilities are highly impactful on the IT ecosystem due to its seamless integration with both SAP and non-SAP systems through the integration suite. I would recommend SAP S/4HANA to anyone who needs an efficient ERP system with a user-friendly interface, strong security features, and the flexibility of deployment options. For those concerned about security, on-premises deployment is recommended, while for others, a hybrid approach with cloud integration can be advantageous. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.