SAP S/4HANA Reviews

We've integrated SAP S/4HANA into our implementation projects for customers, not internally. We use SAP S/4HANA for real-time analytics and decision-making. 

It helps us provide customers with better visibility, forecasting, and smart data for decision-making. This streamlines our business processes, enhancing operational efficiency, saving costs, and providing a 360-degree view of our business processes.

We leverage the finance and add-on modules of SAP S/4HANA, including Alibaba integration, CRM integration, and production planning. These features are highly configurable and provide excellent visibility into our systems. While I appreciate the introduction of in-memory computing as a feature, I haven't had the opportunity to delve deep into this feature. 

It would be beneficial if the pricing structure could be made more flexible and adaptable to suit the needs of different organizations. Besides this, the scalability also needs improvement.

I believe support could be improved by providing more specific and detailed answers rather than generic responses.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for the past six years. 

It is stable.

The scalability could be made easier. While it's theoretically scalable, there are practical challenges and complexities that could be addressed for better flexibility and scalability.

The technical support needs to improve. 

Neutral

The installation is not very simple, rather complex and dependent on the systems. The maintenance can be challenging due to frequent product changes and a lack of subject matter experts for quality support. It's essential to have a strategic approach to understand product changes before implementing them to ensure stability.

SAP S/4HANA has its pros and cons like any other product. It offers a lot of features, particularly the robust finance module and supply chain capabilities. However, there are areas like HR processes that could use improvement. Overall, it's a good product that competes well based on factors such as pricing, flexibility, scalability, and configuration options. I will rate it seven out of ten.

Many companies are currently going for SAP S/4HANA because the maintenance for their SAP ERP or SAP ECC will be over the next year. Even their extended maintenance will be over by 2028. Some companies have gone for mergers and acquisitions and want common processes across their entities. Hence, they chose a good ERP system like SAP S/4HANA.

The solution's most valuable features are performance and processes. Following its integration with cutting-edge modern technologies like SAP BTP, the solution is now better positioned to cater to most of an organization's functions.

The solution’s pricing could be reduced.

The solution has provided good stability to some of our customers. The stability of the solution during one of the big projects we did in 2022 was phenomenal.

About 90% of our customers work with SAP S/4HANA.

The solution's technical support team is fast and knowledgeable.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

I would recommend the solution to other users. It is generally a good option to migrate from non-SAP to SAP solution. Using a comprehensive product like SAP S/4HANA provides many benefits, such as best processes and integration with other technologies.

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

Our company implements the solution for customers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. We manage transformational projects that include selection, upgrade, or replacement of systems that require ERP solutions. 

Our biggest implementation was for a chemical company's software hub that was custom-built on an AS/400 mainframe and they wanted to move to an ERP system.  After a six-month package selection process, we chose the solution combined with extensions provided by an implementation partner that added specific functionality and narrowed down customizations. 

Across all of our projects, there are 5,000 users of the solution. 

The finance solution and procurement functionalities are good. 

Items that impact the TCO should be improved because the solution is very complex to integrate and keep running. 

Integration with a portal or front end is needed. For example, the online collaboration part of SAP with vendors lacks functionality. Integrating with sales or service processes with a CRM or cloud for customers uses three different SAP systems. Customers typically choose Salesforce instead because the SAP system is not good.

There is a very large learning curve for different domains from an end user perspective. Some things are easy to understand and other things are complex. Users receive cryptic error messages when they do things that they do not fully understand. 

I have been using the solution for seven years. 

The solution is stable with no complaints from customers. 

On occasion, users get cryptic error messages that they cannot resolve themselves. Someone else has to assist which results in downtime from the IT side and that has a negative impact on business performance. 

Implementation partners handle issues with support staff and response times are very high. Support staff know the product in most cases and are good. 

It might take time for implementation partners to be notified of issues and then reach out to support for assistance. This support chain is expensive because the customer is invoiced based on the number of total support hours needed.

I rate technical support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The initial setup requires advanced knowledge and can take two to three days. In some cases, setup can take several days before demo mode is available.  

Implementation partners handle setups and our company handles project management and quality assurance from the customer's perspective. 

Customers do not manage the complex environment on their own but rather depend on service providers such as Deloitte or Capgemini. The price of operational support only makes sense or is efficient in instances with two or three FTEs. 

The solution often does not survive our shortlist round because it is very expensive when compared to other products. It is only appropriate or selected for very specific use cases and types of companies. 

In some cases, the solution is ten to twenty-five times more expensive than competitors like Dynamics because it requires licensing, cloud environment costs, and contracts for maintenance and support. 

Our company recommends various ERP systems depending on use case and customer environment. We have worked with Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Unit4, N4, Baan, and Vision. We work on transformation trajectories for customers who use ERP systems and want to replace, upgrade, or do a greenfield approach.

The solution is a good fit for use cases where customizations are required on top to cover sector-specific business needs, as opposed to custom greenfield implementations of Dynamics 365 with much custom development. The solution reduces the amount of customization that needs to be implemented.

Use cases for domains with no vertical solution built on top are not a good fit for the solution. 

The solution is complex to learn and user acceptance of NetSuite is ten times faster.

It is difficult to rate the solution. For some customers, it is a seven and for others it is a one out of ten. It really depends on the sector and fit gap between needs and business processes. 

There are many cases or exceptions where the solution is not a good fit, so I rate it a four out of ten overall. 

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. 

This solution is installed in the customer's system, and we perform SAP Basis administration. 

The migration to SAP S/4HANA is hard.

We've been using it for one year. It is deployed on-premises and in the cloud.

At present, it seems very stable because it is in the cloud.

The scalability depends on the tier you have. You may need to pay more as you scale up.

I have 10 administrators and 7 customers using S/4HANA at present. Our objective is to scale, but it's difficult because customers are scared to migrate to S/4HANA.

We used R/3 before S/4HANA. We switched to S/4HANA in order to stay with SAP solutions.

The initial deployment is difficult, and migration is hard when big data is involved. For a medium company, the initial deployment can take six to seven months, or maybe even one year to get it done perfectly.

For maintenance, you would need two or three people for a medium company.

Depending on the client, we have deployed it ourselves or have done so with the help of an integrator.

It is an expensive solution. On a scale from one to five, with five being the most expensive, I would rate the price at four.

I would rate SAP S/4HANA at eight on a scale from one to ten.

I have implemented many different versions of SAP S/4HANA (since 1511) with the latest version being S/4HANA 2021

Led Transformation Projects covering core processes such as P2P, O2C, R2R, A2R, D2O,H2R, etc.

SAP S4HANA could improve by having a more seamless easier integration, faster integration. The overall implementation timelines can be reduced by leveraging Agile methodology

I have been implementing SAP S4HANA for more than a decade now

SAP S4HANA is stable.

S/4HANA offers one of the best scalability options. It is one of the largest ERP solution globally supporting all Industry verticals.

The technical support could be improved.

Positive

None of the large-scale implementations of SAP S4HANA are straightforward. The ecosystem can be made a little better, to drive faster and simpler implementations, and reduce complexity.

I have been a consultant and an integrator, and I have hired and onboarded consultants and integrators. The number of consultants that are needed depends on the project, size, and scope of the project. It could be anywhere as low as seven or eight consultants and the number can increase to as much as 25.

The licensing models for On-Prem as well as Public Cloud versions are based on no. of users charged Annually. Apart from the Licence cost there is a component of approx 20% Annual Maintenance Costs.

Apart from Licensing costs there is a cost of implementation and associated hardware (in case of On Prem)

I rate SAP S4HANA an eight out of ten.

It is a great product to be implemented for different industries for my customers. Can it be used globally?

The latest version from SAP is highly valued. It is an easily enabled platform from SAP, and represents the next generation of ERP solutions.

There could be a bit more competitiveness in their licensing and pricing.

I have used the solution for three to five years.

I would rate customer service a ten out of ten.

Positive

SAP is not selling on-premise to any customer.

Overall, I would rate the product ten out of ten.

We use the solution for a retail customer. As an administrator, my activities involve system installation, troubleshooting, and performance management.

The tool could improve development, particularly during upgrades or conversions from ERP systems to the solution. Adapting the code to the new standards can be challenging, especially when customers try to keep their old ERP developments.

I have been using the product since 2018. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

SAP S/4HANA's scalability is good. 

I have contacted SAP's technical support, mainly for incidents rather than during installation. They're about 90% accurate, but sometimes they can be slow or misunderstand the issue.

Positive

The product's deployment is easy and fast. The deployment time varies depending on the scenario and environment. From development to production, it can take a few weeks. Starting the development system doesn't take long if you have all the preparations done - like sizing, setting up the final systems, and accessing them.

The tool's licensing is very expensive. They've changed their licensing model from the old ERP system to a new model using FUEs, which is somewhat better but still expensive.

I'm not directly involved in financial operations. However, from conversations with colleagues in finance, I understand there have been improvements since using the tool. The main challenge is often user resistance to change, as they're used to working with the previous system.

I advise new users to get an overview or take a course to understand the system's capabilities. Preparing the end-users for the implementation is crucial, especially when moving from old systems to new ones.

I rate the product a nine out of ten. It's a really powerful tool that has been improving since around 2016. The improvements in the Fiori interface and its integration with the system are particularly impressive.