SAP S/4HANA Reviews

It has been used across various verticals, including billing, sales, business, and pharmaceuticals. It has been implemented in different business verticals.

Apart from the core business processes, the performance has been drastically improved. The speed of executing reports has increased significantly. We no longer need day-minus-one business processing.

In the past, we had to extract, transform, and load data (ETL cycle), and only then would we get critical dashboards and reports the next day. Now, it's available in real-time data, within the same instance, on a single click. This is a major improvement.

Everything is available in S/4HANA. It's really good. There might be some restrictions in the public cloud, but in the private cloud, anything you can think of can be made available. That is the best part of S/4HANA.

S/4HANA stands for high-performance analytic appliance. 90% of activity is done on the hardware side, as it supports fast memory executions.

Initially, it was SAP ECC 6.0, but then they introduced faster execution processes and best practices for different verticals. It gives an advantage on top of what is being used across different businesses. They have introduced best processes altogether.

The implementation time has also been reduced drastically. We start by showing the customer the best practices and configurations. This is a major difference from before when we used to understand their "as-is" process and then design the "to-be" process.

Now, we get acceptance on the best practices early on and only do customizations where necessary. Most customers prefer this approach because they are changing their business to match best practices rather than us changing the software to match their business.

Additionally, there are public and private editions of the product. The private cloud is owned by the customer, giving them full control over customizations. The public cloud is controlled by SAP, which offers only best practices that customers accept, knowing they align with industry standards.

One disadvantage is the introduction of multiple products. In older versions, everything was in a single package. Now, we need separate licenses for different functionalities: S/4HANA Cloud for human capital management, SuccessFactors for talent management, and Ariba for procurement. For advanced components, we need S/4HANA for enterprise portfolio and project management. 

Additionally, if we purchase SuccessFactors, we also need to add integration tools like SAP Cloud Platform Integration. So, it's like buying a basic bundle (starting from 65 or 25 FPUs) and then adding more components and integrations later, each with its own license fees. Essentially, they have changed the model to introduce multiple products with new license fees.

Everything is available and works well in S/4HANA. There might be some restrictions in the public cloud, but in the private cloud, you can make anything available.  

I am a consultant; we don't use it in-house. We work with SAP. It has been almost nine to ten years since we started with S/4HANA side.

The private cloud is 100% stable. The public cloud still needs some time; it's 90% stable, but 10% still needs enhancement.

Private cloud is ten out of ten, and public cloud is nine out of ten.

It is a very scalable solution. 

The customer service and support are good. 

Positive

S/4HANA deployment is easier than previous versions.

Deployment time:

The deployment time depends on the complexity of the business. 

For a public cloud implementation with standard business processes, it takes three to four months, with the fifth month for support. 

For a private cloud implementation, it may take five months or more, depending on the customizations and configurations needed. The number of consultants and the complexity of the business processes are the most important factors.

Moreover, the maintenance is easier now.

Integration into existing infrastructure: 

 There are multiple options for integration depending on the products. For SuccessFactors, you can either use SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) or the SuccessFactors Integration Suite. 

In the Middle East, where I work, there's a government-mandated e-invoicing system that requires integration with S/4HANA. 

Like Ariba, that also needs to be integrated. In this version, integration options have been expanded. Previously, it was only SAP Process Orchestration (PO) that handled integration, but now there are more options available.

For a private cloud implementation, a team of eight or nine people: six consultants for the core modules, one basis consultant, one technical consultant, and one project manager. 

For a public cloud implementation, the number of consultants is reduced to six.

ROI has multiple aspects. In the initial days with ECC, costly hardware with depreciation cycles was necessary. Moving to the cloud reduces those expenses. Within three to five years, ROI is very good. 

Additionally, the need for data centers, DR sites, and skilled maintenance teams is eliminated, drastically reducing costs within five years compared to SAP ECC.

It's expensive when opting for a private cloud but cheaper on a public cloud.

For private clouds, the price could have room for improvement. It is a bit on the higher end. 

The license is subscription-based. The users can lock in licenses for three, five, or even seven years. The agreed-upon pricing on day one applies yearly for the chosen duration. This is available for all SAP products.

Clients don't have to pay extra for support, maintenance, or other things. So, the subscription includes everything.

For S/4HANA, my recommendation is that finance is very strong. They have improved. SD (Sales and Distribution) in finance has been strong since day one, but now they have also improved the purchase cycle significantly. They have introduced multiple products like IBP (Integrated Business Planning), which has improved their planning for production and the entire manufacturing process. 

Considering this, I would recommend S/4HANA Private Cloud as of now. SAP is working very hard on S/4HANA Public Cloud as well, so in one or two years, the public cloud might be the best option.

Overall, I would rate the product a nine out of ten. 

SAP S4HANA is used as an enterprise resource planning solution.

I have been using SAP for more than 13 years and the new SAP S4HANA was not only a simple upgrade, they have made a lot of improvements. They have simplified a lot of the functions, the all-new interface gives users a better experience. The database itself is quite efficient in nature and it provides effective data queries. It is a good upgrade from the previous version of SAP R/3.

I have used SAP S4HANA for approximately two years.

This solution is stable. The application runs on hardware and if you are using cloud architecture it is stable. However, there are too many factors to clearly say this solution is stable because it depends on the environment. For example, where are you hosting the solution and how are you accessing it can impact the stability. If one of these many factors is not suitable then the solution as a whole could be determined to be unstable. 

It is simple to implement SAP S4HANA. If you are already in this type of environment, then the transition is not very complex. However, if you do not then it can be difficult.

It does not matter what ERP you are using, whether it is Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or others, and even locally made or customized solutions, it is always the change management that takes all the effort. It is never technology that comes in between as the bottleneck because whatever technology you choose, configure, design architect, it does the job. The issue is the mindset of people, how to change people, how to train them, how do you make them efficient, how they will become more fluent and adapt to this change? That is the challenge, it is never technology that falls in place as a bottleneck.

I have evaluated Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and other solutions.

When trying to improve, you either implement something new and then try to improve your internal process, or there is a change in business, market, product, or scenario altogether, or maybe a merger equation that you need something which is not there. It is always a gap between the demand and supply and that is the reason the flow happens. Otherwise, if everything is saturated, then it becomes fully stable, there is no need for any movement or change anywhere. 

There has been a lot of changes in businesses recently with COVID, the entire way we do business has changed from the way we used to do business earlier. For example, in a manufacturing company, they could have had everything configured in a certain way, and then suddenly no one was able to attend the offices or building. This pandemic has placed a lot of restrictions and yet you have to manage everything, such as productivity, people, and their time. There have been tremendous changes over the past year and a half. If you look at any supply chain or any transport company, there is a change in requirements, reporting, monitoring, and objective analysis of each and every function. It is a process that is going on that will transform the industry, the outlook, the way of we are going to be working with people. Operations are shifting from a physical presence to remote working and virtually managing. Time, demand, and businesses keep changing, and then the software and different upgrades, functionality, will change too.

I am completely agnostic to any particular solution or vendor. My advice is if you choose SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, or another solution, all of them are equally good. They can be configured and can be customized. There is never a one size fits all solution, you will have to find what solution fits your particular business and use case. One solution might be the best for one type of use case but not work well in another. 

I rate SAP S4HANA an eight out of ten.

SAP S4HANA is a product that can be used for any hyper-scale, such as AWS, Google, or Azure. It can even be used on-premises.

SAP S4HANA is part of an Intelligent Enterprise and the solution is used for various things.

The most valuable feature is the inbuilt standards included in SAP that customers can adopt easily. It can be customized based on the specific requirements.

It has evolved over time with the feedback provided by various customers.

Another benefit is in the delivery, it offers an explorative approach to simplify it for the customer.

As an end-user, this solution offers what is needed.

The dashboards are great. The platform is very intuitive, and in terms of communication, the interface is very interactive. 

The initial setup could be simplified. It needs improvement.

I would like to see the AI included to help from a data standpoint.

I have been working with SAP S4HANA for more than six years.

I am using the latest version.

It's a reliable solution from a technical and business standpoint.

It's a scalable solution. In terms of the number of users that are using it, it scales well.

The range of customers who use this solution can be from less than 100 to more than 3,000.

SAP S4HANA can be customized to be very scalable. It can be adapted for large enterprises.

In our organization, our customers are from medium enterprises to large-sized companies as well.

SAP supports this solution well when there are any bugs or glitches in the solution.

Initially, we had a hiccup. We contacted technical support, they were supportive and helped resolve the issue.

I am not using an alternative ERP.

Depending on various factors, the initial setup can be completed in as little as six to nine months or it can take as long as one and a half to two years.

The initial setup can complex.

Licensing works on a subscription model for the cloud version and it's a one-time fee for the on-premises version.

We are happy with the pricing because it is dependant on the number of users who are using the solution.

I feel the pricing model is fair. It is also very flexible.

I would definitely recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

This solution is suitable for small to large enterprise companies and can use the pricing model. 

They can adopt the solution in less than a month and use the standard that SAP offers.

I would rate SAP S4HANA a nine out of ten.

The features you have access to when using this solution depends on which format or version you use. If an organization uses the SAP ECC version, this is an older version and multiple things would be the same at a process execution level and architecture level. However, S/4HANA offers a lot of additional capability with respect to performance due to its built-in architecture for many functions including finance, production, quality, manufacturing, inventory or sales distribution and logistics. SAP offers many capabilities with respect to enhanced functionalities, process improvement and better analytics.

SAP has introduced a lot of management functionality from a sales distribution perspective. The finance module offers a lot of reports as well as the offering of Fiori, which is a UI5 based tool which can be installed in each and every handheld devices for the purpose of approvals.

In the transportation module, which is a part of the sales distribution, SAP offers modifications and enhancements.

SAP offers a lot of products now and all the capabilities are available from one service provider. However, the knowledge needed for the implementation of these capabilities isn't widely shared and so product knowledge in the market isn't comprehensive. This makes it challenging to fully take advantage of all the capabilities. We would like to have access to tutorials. 

The integration could be made a little simpler in terms of design and implementation. SAP should integrate easier with other third party systems. Industry specific retail or FMCG related industries can't directly rely on SAP with respect to the POS integration or the eCommerce integration. 

I have used this solution for ten years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution but some companies face challenges in terms of migration when it comes to the material ledger, COPA cockpits or the introduction of the actual costing. It again depends upon the expertise of the consultants who are doing the implementation but is not part of a product bug.

We have consulted directly with SAP when it comes to completing the initial implementation. When it comes to going live and if we encounter any major issues which cannot be resolved by implementation partners, then we contact the platinum consultants at SAP. 

There is an option to pay for managed services and support from SAP.

The complexity of the setup depends on the organization. If the organization is using ECC then the setup is straightforward. If the organization is using another product like Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics, it is a big change migrating to SAP S/4HANA.

The size of an organization and volume will also impact the complexity of the setup. A mid-size organization would require an in-house team for maintenance. This maintenance is important as lack of specific activities or tasks could cause mishaps in the entire system. 

SAP is a costly product in terms of maintenance for an organization who has reached a particular level. For organizations, like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, they rely heavily on this solution and cost is not as issue for companies of that size.

I complete a comparative analysis when an organization is running on a legacy ERP. We provide the review services and pre-implementation services where this is a very common question. We complete a feature comparison analysis for Oracle versus SAP or Microsoft Dynamics 365 versus SAP. The most common outcome is that SAP is the best product overall. 

This solution can be implemented in multiple ways. One is the on-premise model where the organization has to manage servers and administration related activities on their own. The second is the cloud deployment model that requires some kind of public cloud or private cloud. There are multiple service providers who can help with cloud deployment. The third option is a hybrid model. You can complete a cost benefit analysis and have a mix of this kind of development.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

SAP S/4HANA helps build features and functionalities that help companies integrate their end-to-end departments. A company has different departments, such as sales, finance, and marketing. The solution helps us integrate the data for each of these departments. It also helps the management team get dashboards for different reports.

C4C is a good application of SAP S/4HANA, and it helps many companies. Since the solution is now on the cloud, it has many interesting features.

The solution’s pricing could be reduced and made more cost effective.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for eight years.

SAP S/4HANA is a stable solution.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

Our clients for the solution are mostly medium-sized businesses.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for scalability.

The solution's after-sales services and technical support are really good compared to other ERP tools in the market.

Positive

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight out of ten.

The solution's implementation takes approximately eight to 12 months. It really depends on the features and functionalities the client is looking for.

The solution's license cost is on the higher side. Sometimes, many companies are unable to afford SAP S/4HANA and look for cheaper solutions like Oracle and Microsoft.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.

The real-time analytics of SAP S/4HANA supports our clients' decision-making processes. I would recommend the solution to other users. It has features and functionalities that help organizations grow and make good decisions, especially on the management level.

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

We use the solution as an enterprise application. 

The tool's most valuable features are ease of use, high availability, and connectivity. 

The product should improve its cost. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

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

I rate SAP S/4HANA's scalability a seven out of ten. My company has 2000 users who use it daily. 

I rate the tool's ease of deployment an eight out of ten. 

A third-party consultant helped us with the deployment. 

SAP S/4HANA is expensive. 

We evaluated Oracle before SAP S/4HANA. 

I rate the overall product a six out of ten. 

The tool is like a spinning desk mechanism where a lot of data comes from multiple sources of multiple applications using a kind of main single source or an index from a single source through a system of record. For multiple applications holding all their data that pertains to a certain piece of data that is housed in a different application database over here, SAP S/4HANA builds models to basically collect all that information and figure out how to build reports out of each of the applications based on their datasets with a key from one of the datasets. If I have a transaction, but my transaction originates in the system over here, and the system has a lot more information, then the transaction makes its way into our system of record, after which it pulls data from the system of record, but it also pulls information from the other system to get more context to the application.

The most critical feature of the product for my company's operations would be the conglomerate business modeling which is good. I think the clients I work with are very concerned about their own data and the data of others, so they do need things in real-time, but they need more context around it and why it is being used, but otherwise, it is just a bunch of numbers.

I think that the cost is a big area of concern, considering what users get out of the tool. I believe there are some tools and even some cloud-based kind of data modeling tools, which once you start putting applications to the cloud and sharing search services in databases, I think that can kind of buy you what SAP used to put together years ago to sell, and it can be helpful for the power of what you are trying to do with it. In our company, I don't think we are building models constantly, like the real-time decision-making AI models right now with the current tool. In our company, I don't think we will ever be able to get to the aforementioned point with the use of the tool.

I have experience with SAP S/4HANA.

I have no issues with the stability of the product, as everything seems to be fine.

The product's scalability is very good, but again, I think our company's clients don't use it for what it is made for, specifically in terms of its cost. I think it is a more powerful tool than our company's clients need.

For support purposes, my company used to approach the main vendor of the product who helped us with the implementation part.

I work more on the functional side, consisting of reports in Power BI.

In terms of the product's initial setup process, I would say that my company is in a very unique situation with our clients. The product's initial setup process is pretty difficult to handle. On a scale of one to ten, where ten means it was easy, I rate the setup phase a three.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution deployment took a few months because only a few experts knew how to do it. A lot of people were involved in getting the information ready and requirements done, but only a few experts could manage it.

The product is expensive. On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest price and ten being the highest, I rate the product price as seven or eight.

A few of the products that my company uses are from SAP. My company mostly prefers an application-based or platform-based environment, so we are not on a single source platform. I think we are moving to Azure's cloud services, which will help enable our company to use some of the aforementioned areas. My company uses some NetApp tools to help with our data integration needs, especially since our systems are integrated. There are some API integrations with various applications that we use in our company.

There are some people in our company who deal with SAP S/4HANA set, and then what they do is they replicate data through the models and then expand that to Microsoft Power Apps and Power BI to create reports for everybody.

The tool must handle a lot of analytics and reporting areas like financial information, location information, and other things to support our company's core business processes.

I think because of the size of the data and some of the network support that my company has had on the tool, I can say that many of it wasn't in real-time. The tool hasn't really lived up to what it needs to be, especially from a cost perspective; it is too much, considering what our company gets out of it.

Migrating to SAP S/4HANA has affected our company's data management and reporting in a positive way. The tool gave better access to the information that can then be either viewed or manipulated externally through a different BI or utility. It did give more flexibility in building models. I think we had old warehouse mechanism information many years ago, so I believe that there is a need to do data mining of old transaction journals, which would take a long time, while SAP S/4HANA definitely has helped to speed up the process and actually regenerate the reports. I think sometimes making changes to the tool has been a problem because certain things that are not are just not built the way you want them to be, and so there can be bad information available inside out. I don't think our other tools feed SAP S/4HANA system to have the data in order to actually make it usable without some intervention.

I rate the tool a six or seven out of ten.

Many companies are currently going for SAP S/4HANA because the maintenance for their SAP ERP or SAP ECC will be over the next year. Even their extended maintenance will be over by 2028. Some companies have gone for mergers and acquisitions and want common processes across their entities. Hence, they chose a good ERP system like SAP S/4HANA.

The solution's most valuable features are performance and processes. Following its integration with cutting-edge modern technologies like SAP BTP, the solution is now better positioned to cater to most of an organization's functions.

The solution’s pricing could be reduced.

The solution has provided good stability to some of our customers. The stability of the solution during one of the big projects we did in 2022 was phenomenal.

About 90% of our customers work with SAP S/4HANA.

The solution's technical support team is fast and knowledgeable.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

I would recommend the solution to other users. It is generally a good option to migrate from non-SAP to SAP solution. Using a comprehensive product like SAP S/4HANA provides many benefits, such as best processes and integration with other technologies.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.