SAP S/4HANA Reviews

We use it for the internal SAP database, for the information, multiple portfolios of products of SAP. It addresses the issue of managing extensive data resources.

Its analytics capabilities are valuable as they enhance data analysis and insights.

It could be improved by focusing on user-related challenges, as end users might face certain difficulties.

I worked with SAP S4HANA for two years.

The stability can be rated as eight out of ten.

The scalability is also rated at eight out of ten, indicating good scalability.

The quality of technical support from SAP can be rated as eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup was difficult, presenting challenges for users.

The implementation was handled by a third party, and we did not perform it in-house.

We have observed a good return on investment, with calculations based on a five-year ROI plan. Most cases have shown positive returns.

The pricing of SAP S4HANA is high, however, it's higher compared to similar peer solutions.

I would recommend SAP S4HANA because it is a known solution that is stable and widely used by customers, thus making it reliable.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use the solution as an ERP system for our retail operations and manufacturing. 

The core accounting model is robust, so we don't have any issues with it. It has industry-specialized modules like retail, hospitality, and manufacturing. Many industrial-specific modules are very helpful. It's a very robust, reliable, and simple-to-use product. In my experience, it's straightforward.

From a benefits perspective, the main advantage that SAP S/4HANA brings to our organization is that we can have one system for everything. It is used for retail, distribution, and manufacturing engineering. Having a single system allows us to meet our total requirements.

I would like to see improvements in the graphical user interface and core modules in SAP S/4HANA. Even after 20 years, there haven't been developments in these areas. The purchase order, sales order, and core modules like CRM have remained unchanged. The financial data and modules have also stayed the same. Fiori is available but hasn't brought many changes to the core modules.

I'd like to see more features in the core ERP module to make it affordable and manageable for small and medium-sized companies. Big companies can handle additional modules like CRM, but smaller businesses struggle to afford and maintain these.

The solution's implementation cost is high.

I have been using the product for two years. 

The solution is easy. 

Our current number of users for the product is 200, but it will increase. We have it implemented across multiple locations and departments. Our environment spans different countries with various currencies and services. For example, we operate in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, each with its own SAP instance and currency. The solution is easy to scale. 

We have support from an internal team as well as SAP. Its support is good. 

Positive

The tool's deployment is easy. 

The product's ROI is good. 

I rate the overall product a ten out of ten. 

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.

The solution supports our business transformation process.

The features related to finance are beneficial for our day-to-day operations. It is easy to integrate the solution with other systems.

The initial setup was difficult.

I have been using the solution for three years.

We did not face any problems with the product’s stability.

I rate the product’s scalability an eight out of ten. We have 500 users in our organization. We use the tool daily.

The deployment took one year.

A third-party integrator helped us with the deployment. We needed 40 people for the deployment and three people for maintenance.

The product is expensive. The price must be improved.

I will recommend the tool to others. It is a good solution. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.