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SAP CRM vs SAP Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

SAP CRM
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
CRM (3rd), Local Government CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (3rd)
SAP Marketing Cloud
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Resource Management (1st), Marketing Automation (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Marketing Applications solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP CRM is designed for CRM and holds a mindshare of 10.7%, up 10.6% compared to last year.
SAP Marketing Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Marketing Resource Management, holds 10.9% mindshare, up 8.6% since last year.
CRM
Marketing Resource Management
 

Featured Reviews

GodfreyNoel - PeerSpot reviewer
Excellent user experience with ease of use and reliable technical support
When SAP CRM does the maintenance, it can take a long time, which can impact business continuity because we have to wait for the maintenance team to finish their work. Maybe if SAP could establish how you can access the tool using a cloud-based environment that would be virtualization, that would be better.
Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for customer segmentation and campaign management but have slow email response
Deployment is not complex and takes six to eight weeks. You need to understand what exactly it entails. The customer is the client, the business that will use and benefit from the software. We need to understand their business processes, particularly how they want to build the customer profile. Once we understand that, we may need to integrate with various source systems where interactions occur. For example, a customer may purchase many products through Amazon, and the client may want to integrate data from these Amazon transactions to understand the customer's buying patterns. This is a typical e-commerce scenario, not limited to Amazon. So, you connect to a third-party system to extract data and capture it in the Marketing Cloud. You create a customer profile to analyze behavior, such as if a person buys expensive items when they get their salary or during promotional periods. Based on this profiling, you can push targeted marketing campaigns to customers, such as promotions during a long weekend or Easter holiday. Understanding the customer profile is crucial for effective marketing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is highly scalable."
"The most valuable feature is real-time data. You don't have to go to the finance team for information. On one screen, you can see if stock is available and check the customer's outstanding balance, and then you can process the order. SAP CRM's integration with other applications is easier."
"SAP CRM integrates well with SAP ERP which is useful."
"SAP CRM is very much customizable as per our company requirements, such as adding different kinds of products and making codes."
"The initial setup of SAP CRM was simple."
"We get very good support from SAP."
"Getting the right information at the right time across different programs is important. These programs lack interaction between them. IPA is a good option to bring them together."
"The solution assists us in identifying what to send, what to offer, and what customers are buying."
"Segmentation and campaigning are very important features."
 

Cons

"SAP CRM should create a more user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI)."
"The navigation must be improved."
"There is a lot of missing data and data latency issues between the different modules of SAP CRM, which creates a lot of problems."
"SAP CRM could improve by being easier to use and customer-friendly."
"Content management is one area where SAP CRM could use some work because we were seeking a CRM solution that could store BLOB data, like PDF and email data, which takes up a lot of space in the database. Recently, we migrated to a content server, but it would be nice if CRM had built-in BLOB data management because BLOB data is a challenge we've been dealing with since last year."
"They have recently updated their user interface but they should continue to improve upon it in the future. Additionally, overall performance or speed of response times could be better."
"There are quite a lot of missing parts in SAP CRM, which is why we do a lot of customization. Not everything is there, and some things need custom coding to cater to specific needs. It is not a plug-and-play solution with standard features, and we have to customize quite a lot."
"I think what needs to be improved is the solution for Brazil's organization."
"Email response could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From the maintenance perspective, SAP CRM is quite expensive compared to cloud services because the current solution they're using is managed by us and we are hosting it on servers. There is the cost of hosting, and managing servers and applications. The overhead is substantial, but this solution is a legacy system. It will take some time for the customer to migrate out of it."
"We pay for the license yearly."
"They should reduce the price to target small businesses."
"The product is expensive."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for SAP CRM, which is expensive."
"There is a license required for the solution and most of my clients purchase an annual license."
"There is a license required to use SAP CRM."
"The company has seen an increase in revenue."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
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 SAP CRM?
Getting the right information at the right time across different programs is important. These programs lack interaction between them. IPA is a good option to bring them together.
What needs improvement with SAP CRM?
One area for improvement is the security model, especially regarding records management retention and the audit and legal holds. Since we're in the middle of a cloud digital transformation, it's es...
What needs improvement with SAP Marketing Cloud?
Email response could be improved. SAP Marketing Cloud may be difficult to sell to a sports club. Sports fans can be numerous, often in the millions or even billions. If you want to reach them, this...
What is your primary use case for SAP Marketing Cloud?
We use the solution for customer segmentation and campaign management. It allows us to capture customer information in a single system.
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brau Union Osterreich AG, Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., AOK Bundesverband, RAK Ceramics, NHS 24, Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters, FC Bayern Munchen AG, Tumi, The Kellogg Company, MVV Energie AG, Anglian Water Services, German Football Association (DFB), Nebraska Book Company Inc.
PT XL Axiata Tbk, Lenovo, Molson Coors Brewing Company, Sailing Team Germany, CHIO Aachen, Danone, Evoshield, Mohawk Industries, FC Bayern Munchen AG, D. SWAROVSKI KG, WeissBeerger, Groupe SAMSE, Cox Communications Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and others in CRM. Updated: May 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.