SAP S/4HANA Reviews

Most of my clients use it for controlling finances and for BI (purchasing and sales). Depending on the activity, we can also use it for logistics and plan management, like in energy module ISU — it's a specific module for energy, oil and gas distribution.

There's lots of improvement to be made on the user experience level and digital work. Since SAP is a transactional software, you can't use it like Salesforce. It's not easy to create automated reports.

For the user experience, they can try to get out of the strictly industrial point of view because it's an IT solution. It's not always the most fun application the use. It's pretty complicated and if you're not fully trained for it, it isn't easy to understand how it works.

I have been using it for the last four years.

S/4 HANA is the most stable solution provided by SAP.

The scalability is very good. That's the good thing about the S/4 HANA solution.

Support is quite good; they know their solutions. Over the last few years, they changed all the resources that were on the first S/4 HANA program. They're pretty efficient. There's always a contract with them for support. Normally, regular support is done internally, but when it comes to SAP bugs, when we can't solve the problem, we go back to SAP support and can rely on them.

Setup is complex. SAP is the biggest ERP on the market. We like to say it's the Rolls-Royce of ERPs. So it can't be deployed without a minimum of 10 to 20 consultants, plus approximately the same kind of resources on the business level.

Licensing is quite expensive. It works with yearly licenses and it's ugly. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

For maintenance of the solution, the number of people needed depends on how many users you have. Basically, now we use TMAs most of the time, but for smaller conditions, it would be a minimum of 10 people. It depends on the number of modules that you have. For example, with my last clients, we had a regional team of 20% plus an external team of more than 10% and it was really not a big deployment or activity.

For full deployment, the time it takes depends on the complexity of the deployment and the number of processes to review. In a normal situation, basic roll out would be between four to six months and a global project or program can take up to three to five years. It also depends on the number of sites because you have to deploy the solution, and once you have the core model, you need to perform a roll out on every site and do all the necessary training. I've worked on programs before that lasted five or six years with major companies where there were over 700 sites. It's difficult to do more than 50 or 60 sites per year, and even with that, it's complicated. With one of my prior clients, it was a 10-year program.

With regular companies, there are more than five to seven thousand users and with major ones, on my biggest project, we had 30,000 users worldwide.

The solution can be used on all levels.  On the IT level, it's a tool that we deploy to enable the tracking of client processes, but it can be used on every level. It's commonly used for finance control, sales and purchasing because those are the biggest parts when managing client TNLs. Depending on the activity, if you're not a big client, you can go down to MRP level, managing all the logistics and all the productivity. It can be used by everyone.

SAP S4HANA is used as a complete resource planning solution for our organization.

The solution is flexible, has a lot of functionality, and has the ability to deliver more security than other comparable solutions.

SAP S4HANA is not suitable for all-size companies. If you have a small company there are better fit solutions for your needs.

I have been using SAP S4HANA for approximately five months.

We have found that SAP S4HANA is more reliable and stable than other solutions, such as ECC.

The solution is scalable.

The technical support is very good. We have generated support tickets, and they have provided helpful advice and solutions to our problems in a timely manner.

I have used many other solutions, such as ECC and Business One.

The installation and cloud configuration was straightforward.

We had some issues with the installation of the solution. The implementation partner we were using was in India and they could not travel to where we are in Saudi Arabia because of the Covid-19 pandemic making resolutions difficult. Additionally, the communication was difficult. However, this was not the fault of SAP S4HANA.

We used the S/4HANA implementation team to do the full implementation.

There is a license required for the use of this solution and we are on a monthly subscription. The cost of the solution is expensive compared to other solutions. 

I would recommend this solution to others. However, they have to make sure it is the right fit for their environment. If they have a small company that has approximately 200 to 300 users then this solution is not the best for them, SAP Business One would be the better choice for their whole business cycle. S/4HANA is for larger-scale companies with more users.

I rate SAP S4HANA an eight 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 POD applications are very useful to us. There are a few POD apps which we are using for the different business scenarios. They are quite interesting.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The documentation is very good.

The solution can scale well.

The solution is stable.

It's been just one year that we started using this product, due to the fact that we need to have different integrations as well to other systems. With S/4HANA, when SAP started, everything worked in a single SAP system. Slowly then it's been delegated or divided into multiple SAP systems. That's why we have around 25 different SAP products running in our landscape. Yet, at the same time, S/4HANA is the core. It's the core component.

Going forward, I believe more systems could be consolidated into S/4HANA. We need to reduce the number of SAP systems running in our landscape. S/4HANA has the capacity to host many other SAP products, therefore we can discontinue some of the SAP products. Currently, we have now the Global Services, the Governance, Risk, and Compliance, and Enterprise Portal, BW, Supply Chain Management, Warehouse Management, et cetera. If SAP could consolidate many of the systems so that we can reduce the number of systems, that would be ideal.

The solution can be a bit expensive.

We would like to see more DevOps capabilities in the future.

The solution would benefit from offering more serverless features in the sense that when you deploy SAP, it's a pretty big deployment and you have a lot of dependencies or you are closely tied up or you have a dependency with the hardware vendor and the hardware providers and the certified hardware and items like that. At the same time, all these deployed components and these files are possible to deploy without a server as well. Slowly SAP is providing some of the features so that you can deploy this in containers and so you don't have any dependency on the running hardware. That way, you can restart the systems without any downtime or the end-users will not feel the difference. Aspects like that need to be improved. 

We do have here monthly maintenance due to the fact that sometimes we need to recharge the system and we have seen from the end-users there will be certain downtime as well. If there is no dependency with the hardware and if it goes serverless, then we can have zero-downtime maintenance.

We've been using the solution for the past year or so. It hasn't been that long.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable. 

The solution is scalable. At the same time, it depends on where you deploy your systems. If you deploy your systems in Azure, then it would be using the scalability of Azure. If you deploy in AWS, it uses the scalability of AWS. If you deploy in a virtual private environment, then it depends on where you deployed the system. At the same time, it depends on being compatible with all these different hyper-scalers. For the most part, it goes pretty well with the different platforms.

We are deploying the solution in different countries. Currently, we have close to 10,000 users working in SAP. Yearly, we do the deployment in multiple countries. In two months, we deploy in one more country. There will be another 200, 300 more users will be coming. By the end of this year, there will be 2,000 more users. Currently, around 10,000 users are using this application.

The SAP S/4HANA technical support is mainly with the service provider. When you deploy SAP, you have different support teams. Most of the time, you will have a service provider or a supplier that you would be associating with. You will have a kind of application management or infrastructure management support with that vendor. For example, IBM, Capgemini, Accenture, DXC. They are the different vendors. However, then you get the OEM support via the SAP Support Portal for product-related issues. That support has got different priority levels based on the importance. Generally, we know how the SAP support works and it's acceptable. We're satisfied with the level of support provided overall.

The initial setup isn't too difficult. It's pretty straightforward for the most part. SAP has got some good documentation and there are different migration scenarios and implementation scenarios you can work with. With the help of documentation, things are pretty straightforward. 

Most of the time, you do the SAP deployment or the migration with a partner. SAP has got certified partners to help with the implementation.

SAP has got different license mechanisms. It depends on how many SAP products you run and then how do you negotiate with the SAP teams and what kind of offer you get. At the same time, generally, everyone says SAP products are a bit costly. 

Some of the SAP systems are licensed based on the number of CPUs that are being deployed, and some of the SAP products are licensed based on the number of primary users, and some of the SAP systems are based on the database footprint. Different SAP products have different license mechanisms, so there should be a person who is knowledgeable about SAP that can understand and then review the licensing agreement and get the right SAP product - and perhaps help negotiate the price.

We are customers and end-users.

We have around 25 different SAP products. We are using SAP S/4HANA in our company.

The production and the test systems are deployed in the virtual private cloud on-premise, and we have sandbox development and quality systems are deployed in the Azure public cloud.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

My company's clients use the solution as an ERP tool.

The tool's best features are its competitive features and its ability to be used as an integrated solution. SAP S/4 HANA's speed is good compared to other ERPs, and its database can be used at lightning speed.

SAP improves the tool every quarter. I received a certification for cloud products from SAP. My company is also trying to improve the tool's knowledge base. The tool needs to improve its interface and functionalities.

The tool should be more well-integrated or inclined towards AI or AI developments like chatbots or ChatGPT.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for ten years. I am an SQL consultant working with an implementation company, not the end user or the product user. My company has a partnership with SAP.

It is a full-fledged, stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine and a half out of ten.

My company deals with small, medium, and enterprise-sized businesses. SAP has different plans to support the tool, and it can reduce the number of licenses nowadays by supporting different packages.

The solution's technical support is awesome. SAP's technical staff immensely supports the partners and consultants associated with SAP. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

I have used Sage ERP in some other organizations. I have also used Tally before it became an ERP tool. Tally was the cheapest tool available in India and the other GCC countries, though we can't compare it with SAP. I prefer SAP products over other tools.

I rate the product's initial setup phase as an eight to eight and a half, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on on-premises models.

The solution is mostly deployed on the cloud, but in the on-premise version, you can use the Fiori app, though it is not mandatory. When it comes to the cloud, there are no other options because the Fiori apps should be used. The look and feel of the tool are pretty good compared to the tool's previous version, which was on the on-premises model.

The time required to implement the product depends on the industry where the product is implemented and the complexities involved in such industries. If there are some complexities, users may need to develop something or customize a few areas of the product. Four to six months will be enough if it is a standard deployment. Four to six months will be enough if it's a standard, and it also depends on the project size.

It is never a cheap product since it is a prime tool in the worldwide market.

I recommend the product to others.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

We are an SAP partner, and we support customers. Our customers use the solution mainly for their business uses like HR operations.

I think anything related to manufacturing public clouds could be improved.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for more than 15 years.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

Most of our clients for the solution are enterprise businesses.

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

It takes months to deploy the solution.

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

It's mainly for business enterprise planning and enterprise resource management.

One of the things I like about it is its well-integrated and secure nature.

Considering it's not a small product, improving pricing would be helpful.

So, there is room for improvement in pricing. HANA is not a simple product; it's quite complex by design.

I have been using this solution for five years. So initially, I worked with DC for two years. After that, it became a mix. It's not straightforward. I started with PCC, then spent some time with HANA, and then switched to CCB. Currently, I am working with HANA.

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. It's quite stable, but given that it's a cloud solution, there are ongoing updates and new components in every quarter. So, we get four updates annually. 

It is a scalable solution. In my organization, we serve many clients, so there are numerous users. We have around ten customers. We are a service-based company.

The customer service and support are good and knowledgeable. 

Positive

It's somewhat straightforward but can be a bit complex, after all Fortune 500 companies also use this solution. It depends on the specific use case.

It's available for both on-premises and cloud deployment.

Our customers do need to pay for licenses. It is expensive.

I would recommend using this solution to other people as well. Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten. Currently, the solution is adapting to the cloud.