IFS Cloud Platform vs Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management comparison

IFS and Sage are both solutions in the ERP category. IFS is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while Sage is ranked #23 with an average rating of 7.0. IFS holds a 2.5% mindshare in ERP, compared to Sage’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of IFS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sage users who would recommend it.

IFS Cloud Platform

Read 30 IFS Cloud Platform reviews

2,277 Views
1,449 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Sage Business Cloud Enterpr...

Read 5 Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management reviews

595 Views
316 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IFS Cloud Platform

Sage Business Cloud Enterpr...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management and IFS Cloud Platform both compete in enterprise management solutions. IFS Cloud Platform has the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, whereas Sage is noted for its pricing advantages and customer support.

Features: Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management offers robust financial management and effective supply chain capabilities. It provides excellent tools for inventory management. IFS Cloud Platform provides end-to-end ERP solutions with strong asset management, service management, and manufacturing functionalities. IFS features a broader industry-specific feature set that differentiates it from Sage.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management has a straightforward deployment process and strong customer support praised for simplicity. IFS Cloud Platform, while more complex, offers flexibility and supports customization, making it adaptive and comprehensive in customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management generally involves lower initial setup costs, providing a reliable ROI with cost-effective solutions. IFS Cloud Platform may have higher initial costs but justifies this with enhanced functionalities and a strong long-term ROI perspective.

To learn more, read our detailed IFS Cloud Platform vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IFS Cloud Platform vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IFS Cloud Platform

Ranking in ERP

12th

Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM (21st), Customer Experience Management (7th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (11th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (2nd), Local Government CRM (6th), IT Asset Management (10th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (10th), License Management (3rd)

Sage Business Cloud Enterpr...

Ranking in ERP

23rd

Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software

9th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the ERP category, the mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 2.5%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

ERP

Featured Reviews

Brendan Fisher

IFS Applications Consultant at Zest Business Process Management Ltd

Robust, customizable, and modern

IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.

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Muhammad Uwais

Functional Consultant at RFR Group

An elastic, multi-company structure that naturally parameterizes and adapts

The best feature is the solution's elastic, multi-company structure. You can expand or add companies at any time while retaining the same architecture and flow with minimal affect on your wallet. The solution is parameterized so you don't need a lot of customizations because it naturally has the ability to parameterize, configure, and adapt to various organizational procedures. You don't have to stick to some standard way of doing things because the solution adapts to your way of doing things. The approval and audit engines are very powerful. The built-in development component allows you to customize and develop without depending on third-party factors. Across six years, 80% to 85% of our use cases are completely managed within the solution because of its architecture.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users."

"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."

"What I like about IFS Applications is that it's easier to use and implement than SAP. I also like that the IFS Applications team is more flexible than the SAP team."

"The main reason for the ERP project was to bring together our fourteen sites, which had until then worked in separate silos."

"One of our favorite features is the "Info-Zone", which provides operational intelligence in flight and in context to guide both business users and support teams to productivity."

"The workflow of the solution is very good."

"The solution overall is very versatile and flexible, especially compared to other products."

"The most valuable features of IFS Applications in the latest version are the new user Arena interface. It's from Apps 9, but it brings more flexibility in usage, especially around different devices, such as mobile usage, which doesn't restrict you from using a computer. We are it for the HR side, and it's proving quite good. It has a new modern feel to it similar to a standard cloud application which enhances the user experience."

More IFS Cloud Platform pros

"Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management has helped by making processes such as calculating costs, accessing inventory information quickly, validating offers, and extracting data easier."

"The most valuable feature of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is the business intelligence module. Additionally, report consolidation, cloud access, and analysis are useful."

"The accounting part and the procurement part are most valuable. It is a very good system with workflows and notifications."

"The solution is parameterized so it naturally has the ability to parameterize, configure, and adapt to various organizational procedures."

"The interface is rich in features, allowing efficient management of business operations."

"The initial setup is not complex. The deployment process was relatively straightforward."

Cons

"We would like to see AI-driven CSI functions built into the tool that would allow us to quickly tie our improvement goals to metrics and activities, so Assyst will suggest the next steps to help us get closer to our goals."

"We have upgraded to the latest version right now. We have issues with the quality. We tried to enroll in their Evergreen program which was meant to help us adopt any service update or anything that the tool’s providers come up with."

"Customization needs to be improved."

"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."

"IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI."

"Aspects of HR and payroll could be better."

"There are certain digital features that need to be incorporated, such as IOP."

"Documentation-wise, they need more."

More IFS Cloud Platform cons

"The solution does not have a solid, out-of-the-box API architecture that is supported."

"Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management could improve the search functionality. For example, if I was to search for a transaction from last year it would be difficult to accomplish. I have to scroll through to find what I am looking for. The approach should be more similar to Quickbooks where when you search for something it takes you directly to the searched item."

"Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved."

"Its implementation process is kind of complicated. If the person implementing it doesn't know what he is doing, the system can have many issues. Sage X3 is just an accounting system. As compared to Oracle E-Business Suite, it does not cover a lot of functionality. It doesn't have the payroll, lease management, and HR modules. Oracle E-Business Suite is better than Sage X3."

"It is not suitable for corporate or manufacturing companies. For example, it's challenging to use it for a manufacturing company."

"Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."

"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."

"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."

"There's an additional yearly cost for support."

"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."

"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."

"There are varying license levels that you can purchase."

"The product is reasonably priced."

More IFS Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"The price of this solution is expensive. However, it depends on the number of branches used. The price can be upwards of $40,000 annually."

"It is very cheap. There are no additional charges, but the problem is that you have to acquire an additional supporting system such as a budgeting system. You will have to implement the integration and maintain two systems. So, you need to pay for the license of that budgeting system and this one. You also need to pay the license for the payroll and integration. There are all these integrations that you have to pay for."

"The cost is not expensive."

"The solution delivers the same capabilities of SAP or Oracle at about 30% to 40% of the cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Energy/Utilities Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

24%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IFS Applications?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?

The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IFS Applications?

I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?

The initial setup is not complex. The deployment process was relatively straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?

The pricing of Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management is high compared to other solutions like Bitrix.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management?

Integration with other tools like BOM or Cisco BlueQ could be improved. The importation of configurations like BOQs is challenging as each line has to be added individually, which is time-consuming...

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP ERP vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Maximo vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 11% of the time

SAP S/4HANA vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 10% of the time

ServiceNow vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 7% of the time

More IFS Cloud Platform Competitors

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management

Compared 56% of the time

SAP S/4HANA vs Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management

Compared 44% of the time

More Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IFS Cloud Platform

May 2025

Download IFS Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

ERP

May 2025

Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management report

Download Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management product report

Also Known As

IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud

Sage ERP X3, Sage X3

Overview

IFS is the world’s leading provider of Industrial AI and enterprise software for hardcore businesses that make, service, and power our planet. Our technology enables businesses which manufacture goods, maintain complex assets, and manage service-focused operations to unlock the transformative power of Industrial AI™ to enhance productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Industrial AI is IFS.ai.

IFS Cloud is a fully composable AI-powered platform, designed for ultimate flexibility and adaptability to our customers’ specific requirements and business evolution. It spans the needs of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), and Field Service Management (FSM). IFS technology leverages AI, machine learning, real-time data and analytics to empower our customers to make informed strategic decisions and excel at their Moment of Service™.

IFS

Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management delivers faster, simpler, and more flexible business management at a fraction of the cost and complexity of typical enterprise ERP systems.

Sage

Sample Customers

China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia.

Power Distributing, Universal Paper and Plastics

Buyer's Guide

IFS Cloud Platform vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management

April 2025

Free Report: IFS Cloud Platform vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management

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