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SAP Technical Director at Key Performance Consulting
Reseller
Oct 3, 2022
Useful for connectivity with external systems, but the connectivity requirement is high and requires up-to-date systems
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is useful for connecting with external systems."
  • "Overall, it's hard to compare with other products on the market, but I think it has improved quite significantly."
  • "From a technical perspective, it could be even more related to legacy systems. The connectivity requirement is quite high and requires systems that are up-to-date."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a reseller and implementer.

There are about 20 consultants using this solution on a daily basis.

What is most valuable?

The solution is useful for connecting with external systems.

What needs improvement?

From a technical perspective, it could be even more related to legacy systems. The connectivity requirement is quite high and requires systems that are up-to-date.

There's a lot of competition. If a customer isn't already using SAP, they should also consider other tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for three years.

Buyer's Guide
SAP BW4HANA
October 2026
Learn what your peers think about SAP BW4HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has improved a lot. It's becoming a more mature product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't had any issues with the scalability. It has also improved significantly.

How are customer service and support?

SAP's technical support is okay as long as you follow the process. I would rate technical support as three out of five.

How was the initial setup?

I would rate the setup as four out of five. The documentation has improved, so it's not that difficult.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost and licensing depends on how the customer is going to use the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as seven out of ten.

Overall, it's hard to compare with other products on the market, but I think it has improved quite significantly.

For those who are interested in using this solution, my advice is to do a trial of the solution because it's a good way to get started and will make implementation faster.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller/Implementer
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Chief Executive Officer at AVIC software & Service
Real User
Oct 2, 2022
Stable solution that provides good DW implementation for customers who already implement SAP ERP
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is based on SAP ERP, so there's some business content already included. For customers who use SAP ERP, SAP BW4HANA is a good choice for their DW implementation."
  • "It's complicated to use. You need to spend a lot of time learning about it. The interface could be improved. It's not intuitive to build a data model and use their ETL tools."

What is our primary use case?

We are consultants and distributors for BW4HANA.

SAP wants to transition all of their customers to the cloud, so they have announced a lot of policies that will support the on-premise product until 2024 or 2025. That's a good opportunity for us to transition our customers to the cloud.

What is most valuable?

The solution is based on SAP ERP, so there's some business content already included. For customers who use SAP ERP, SAP BW4HANA is a good choice for their DW implementation.

What needs improvement?

It's complicated to use. You need to spend a lot of time learning about it. The interface could be improved. It's not intuitive to build a data model and use their ETL tools.

The product is complex, so I think it could be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The on-premise product isn't very easy to scale up, but implementing it in the cloud is much easier.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is pretty good. SAP doesn't respond immediately, but they deal with the most critical issues.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was easy.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We don't refuse any kind of opportunity that our customers want to implement, so we are trying to learn about analytics solutions from Microsoft and Google.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. 

If someone wants to implement BW4HANA, it's important to do a training course first and think about the strategy they would like to use to leverage the data for their business.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP BW4HANA
October 2026
Learn what your peers think about SAP BW4HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Senior Strategy Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Aug 18, 2021
Reliable, scalable, and has good support but they need more integration
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that it's quite quick."
  • "SAP BW4HANA is very stable."
  • "I would like more integration."
  • "The initial setup is quite complex. We are a worldwide team, we need quite a few people to manage this solution."

What is our primary use case?

I was a developer.

We use this solution for sales reporting and financial reporting.

What is most valuable?

I like that it's quite quick.

What needs improvement?

I would like more integration.

Cost is a factor. It could be improved.

The installation could be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP BW4HANA for seven years.

The version that I dealt with was 7.4, and the company I am in now is using the latest version.

I am just starting to use that now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SAP BW4HANA is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. I don't have any issues with the scalability of this product.

We have 200 to 300 users in our organization who use it.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have contacted technical support, they are generally very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used standard reporting, which didn't meet our needs and we had to go through a data warehouse.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite complex.

We are a worldwide team, we need quite a few people to manage this solution. We have a team of eight to manage this solution in Europe and close to the same to manage it in Asia. 

We have a team of 14 or 15 to manage this solution worldwide.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In general, it's quite expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution in certain circumstances, but for others, probably not. It all depends on what the use case was.

I would rate SAP BW4HANA a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user1477425 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Manager at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Jan 30, 2021
Stable, scalable, and good performance, but expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "Some of the main features of this solution are that it uses HANA and it has good performance."
  • "Other competitors provide better solutions that are more up to date with current technology. For example, machine learning and artificial intelligence."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution in a data warehouse.

What is most valuable?

Some of the main features of this solution are that it uses HANA and it has good performance.

What needs improvement?

Other competitors provide better solutions that are more up to date with current technology. For example, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are no issues with scalability with this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is complex.

What about the implementation team?

We used the SAP team to do the installation for us. We have a vendor who takes care of the maintenance of the server. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

As an investment, the solution is very expensive. We pay 72% every year to SAP. Additionally, we pay for support for the solution and a vendor to do maintenance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated Talend, Azure Cloud, and Google Cloud which have better features.

What other advice do I have?

I would not recommend the solution because they have not upgraded their technology.

I rate SAP BW4HANA a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
SAP Technical Director at Key Performance Consulting
Reseller
May 28, 2020
Good reporting, well-suited for medium to large-sized organizations
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the speed of reporting and the HANA database."
  • "It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support."
  • "Stability is something that needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our clients.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the speed of reporting and the HANA database.

What needs improvement?

I find the migration from an existing BW platform to be quite difficult. It is quite cumbersome for our customers to migrate to BW 4HANA.

The impact that it has on the ECC/ERP system is a problem because they are relying solely on the ODP tool to perform the extract.

It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for a bit less than two years, from around the time that it came out.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is something that needs to be improved. There are too many SAP nodes to implement on a regular basis to get everything working.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution but it depends on the hardware. Our clients vary in size from small to very large organizations, although for this product, most of them are at least of medium size.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is okay, although it can be improved because sometimes it takes too long to get the correct expert to deal with the issue. Essentially, the wait at the first level of support causes us to lose time.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is rather complex. It can be up and running in two or three days but it takes a week to have it perfectly implemented.

We implement both on-premises and cloud-based deployments for SAP BW 4HANA.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team does the implementation and deployment for our customers.

What other advice do I have?

This is a good product and one that I recommend implementing. 

As we look at the information we have for the cloud solution, it would be helpful to have something more clear from the vendor in terms of strategy. More information on the direction of the data warehouse solutions, going forward, would be helpful. Today, there is a market for HANA both on-premises and in the cloud, but the data warehouse cloud solution that is coming up is quite different.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1298316 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect and Analytics at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Apr 27, 2020
The infrastructure is easy to understand and it has good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspect of this solution is that the infrastructure is easy to understand."
  • "Pricing would be a good improvement. A lot of customers think that it's very expensive and especially support is very expensive."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of this solution is that the infrastructure is easy to understand. 

What needs improvement?

Pricing would be a good improvement. A lot of customers think that it's very expensive and support is especially very expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two to three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability and scalability are both good.

How was the initial setup?

The setup requires a specialist but it's not too complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have to pay extra in addition to licensing. Migration to HANA has costs that are higher than expected. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

It costs a lot for a company to invest in SAP. It could be hard for a company to invest in it. It should be a little cheaper, it would raise the score to a nine.  

If a customer wants to save costs, they should move their infrastructure from on-premise to public cloud. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Distributor
PeerSpot user
it_user1202082 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Manager with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Apr 20, 2020
Calculates big data and has predictive analysis memory
Pros and Cons
  • "It can calculate data in detail. Before we could not calculate financial documents and accountant documents in detail, we could not do it at a document level but now we can. This is the most important feature. It also has predictive analysis memory."
  • "SAP BW4HANA's memory computing helps us calculate much more detailed data, such as accounting document level, and it's very fast."
  • "Not a ten because it's expensive and its ecosystem is not very open."

What is our primary use case?

1.We use it to generate operational analysis for our internal operations, for example, HR analysis, financial analysis, etc. 

2.We use SAP BW4HANA to calculate data and feed to Tableau / SAP BO to visualize data.

How has it helped my organization?

1. SAP BW4HANA's memory computing help us calculate into much more detail data  such as accouting document level. And it's very fast.

2. We have capabliity to realize requirements related to big data, real-time anlysis.

What is most valuable?

1.It can calculate big data. One year ago, SAP BW took us a lot of time around four hours to finish our process chains, but now it's better. 

2.It can calculate data in detail. Before we could not calculate financial documents and accountant documents in detail, we could not do it at a document level but now we can. This is the most important feature. It also has predictive analysis funationlity.

What needs improvement?

We already had a lot of cubes built-in based on SAP BW.  We hope these BW cubes can support real-time anlysis without migration to SAP HANA modeling.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We can draw down to the document level for a document. The problem is that when that document records are bigger than the platform, it causes the platform to slow down. 

How are customer service and technical support?

I have opened tickets with technical support. They've been good. Sometimes they take a while to respond. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend SAP BW/4HANA.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. Not a ten because it's expensive and its ecosystem is not very open.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1308417 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant SAP / BW / SAP BOBJ at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Mar 23, 2020
Helpful dashboard and reporting with good technical support, but the interface should be simplified
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the dashboard."
  • "The dashboard should be simplified and made easier for exploration and decision making."

What is our primary use case?

I am a consultant and this is one of the solutions that I use for my clients.

In general, my clients use the dashboard and reporting services. They use it for modeling sales and service, material management, and stock management. They have automated reports that are sent daily by email.

The environment depends on the client.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the dashboard.

When using BW/4HANA, then is no performance degradation with Big Data.

What needs improvement?

The dashboard should be simplified and made easier for exploration and decision making.

Some customers have said that they would like to use the dashboard to send themselves data in an Excel file directly by email.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with SAP BW/4HANA for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

BW is a stable solution as long as it is on HANA. Otherwise, some applications with Big Data will result in performance issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable but it depends on the server.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have dealt with technical support and they have been good.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of this solution is not simple, although configuring it is not a problem. 

What about the implementation team?

It is better to have help from integrators or consultants for the installation.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to first follow the basics. It is possible that you will want some enhancements but you have to start at the beginning and start with the basic practice for modeling.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user1292418 - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP Enterprise Services Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Mar 6, 2020
Stable, scalable and easy to maintain
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easier to maintain than traditional SAP products."
  • "It is the way forward if an organization is already in the SAP ecosystem."
  • "The solution does occasionally get a few bugs, but this is typical for any product."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is used for the reporting on various dashboards for analytical purposes.

What is most valuable?

HANA is based on a column store, and it is very effective for reading the data. 

BW has a major advantage because most of the activities on the BW system are reading data rather than writing data. 

The product, overall, is very good.

The solution is easier to maintain than traditional SAP products.

All of the information that is provided by the solution for managing the HANA database is excellent.

What needs improvement?

I can't think of anything the solution needs in terms of features to make it stronger. It's a great overall solution.

The solution does occasionally get a few bugs, but this is typical for any product.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for the past two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have found the solution to be quite stable. It doesn't crash. It's been great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If a company needs to expand the solution, they can definitely scale up. It's quite easy to do so.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've reached out to technical support in the past. We reach out when there are some bugs or some specific issues on the product. They are very good. We've been satisfied with the level of support.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't a part of the initial setup, so I can't speak to the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

We are SAP partners.

The solution is deployed on a scale-out environment, which involves five nodes of 1TB each. We have four worker nodes and one standby node.

I'm not the consumer of this product. I'm an administrator of it. I'm basically supporting this project but I'm not the actual customer.

I would definitely recommend the solution. It is the way forward if an organization is already in the SAP ecosystem. It's good to adapt to it sooner rather than later. I would definitely advise companies to implement it.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1260159 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 23, 2020
Used for ERP with good financial costing and material management features
Pros and Cons
  • "From an ERP point of view and a functionality point of view, it works very well. The benefits are in that of financial costing and material management."
  • "In the next release, I would like to see their BI component introduced with a mobile version, as it is not currently present."
  • "The HCM needs improvement, but as a company, they have stopped any development on this."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is for our ERP purposes.

What is most valuable?

From an ERP point of view and a functionality point of view, it works very well. The benefits are in that of financial costing and material management.

The only component that is not fully known is the HCM (Human Capital Management), but we have gone with SuccessFactors.

What needs improvement?

The HCM needs improvement, but as a company, they have stopped any development on this.

In the next release, I would like to see their BI component introduced with a mobile version, as it is not currently present.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for just over three months and we have just gone into production.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, we have not had any issues. This solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had the opportunity to test the scalability, as we are retail at the moment and using it as a storage system.

At this point, we have only three users.

It is being used daily, but we plan to use it more extensively in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have only contacted technical support once and they were helpful. Their response time was also good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and similar to other ERP deployments.

It took three months to deploy this solution.

What about the implementation team?

We had the help of a system integrator.

What other advice do I have?

I would look at the Cloud option. Although the Cloud is not mature enough at this time, people who are planning to deploy this solution perhaps a year down the road may benefit from it. The Cloud may be something they would want to consider.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP BW4HANA Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2026
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP BW4HANA Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.