SAP S/4HANA Reviews

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. 

My client is a biomedical company that sells medical devices. I use Tricentis Tosca to automate SAP.

SAP S/4HANA is a very easy-to-use and user-friendly solution.

The solution’s stability could be improved.

I rate the solution a seven out of ten for stability.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

Overall, I rate SAP S/4HANA a nine out of ten.

SAP S4HANA can be used for many things such as financials, accounts payable, accounts receivables, set accounting, management accounting, and banking.

SAP S4HANA provides a solution towards a green industry. They keep making a different version of the solution to meet the needs of different industries, such as automotive and utilities.

The solution could have a better user experience. However, they are working a lot on the user experience and they have come up with various applications, such as mobile applications. This was lacking over the last two years.

I have been using SAP S4HANA for approximately two years.

The solution is scalable.

There are various modules of functionalities available in SAP S4HANA. However, it might be better for us to only use one or two of the modules at first and scale as needed later. 

In one of our implementation, there were 50,000 users using the solution.

The support is very good.

The size of the team needed for the implementation depends on the size of the organization. If the organization is relatively small, we can manage the implementation with one or two skilled technicians, and depending on the complexity of it, it could need more technicians for support.

There is a license to use this solution.

I would highly recommend this solution to others.

I rate SAP S4HANA an eight out of ten.

We are implementing SAP S/4HANA for our customers.

We are dealing with firms who are into manufacturing, retail, and pharmaceutical.

Nowadays, people are choosing the cloud solution only, and are probably going with AWS or Azure. It varies from case to case.

In terms of the features I have found most valuable, I don't think that there is any lack or any gap process-wise. SAP is a very good tool.

If I can highlight one point that could be improved, when we talk about other ERPs, like Oracle, nowadays these ERPs provide free integration with other ERPs. For example, there is an API for banks integrated into every tool and every product form requires that bank integration in order to give real time data into the ERP. But SAP is charging a lot for that particular bank integration scenario and I think it should be free because other ERPs are providing this feature built in to the ERP. People always ask us about the integration and how much it will cost to go with that solution, so people are thinking about this.

I have been working with SAP S/4HANA for more than four years.

SAP S/4HANA is stable. It is more or less a very, very smooth and seamless product. Day by day they are increasing their technology features and they are keen to resolve the issues. India has a complex business scenario and SAP is thinking about that and resolving the issues day by day.

SAP S/4HANA is scalable, but it is scalable for those who have money. In terms of  boutique firms, nowadays they are also thinking about how to move themselves into big ERPs. But because of the cost, most of the boutique firms are choosing Microsoft Dynamics. Because of the price, SAP is not likely the highest product to be chosen, and I think SAP should think about that because if they want to benefit their customers or to increase the size of their customer base, they have to think about pricing as well.

If somebody is asking for the two module support, it is only going to require up to two main servers, but if they are saying that we are providing you proper support and proper IT for the project then it is going to be up to four people. In India or in any country, people are pressing to do the freelance thing. The answer to this question depends on the scalability.

Customer support is good. It's very nice. There are no more issues with that. When I post SAP tickets that I mark as high priority they always ask why is it high? It should be high, medium or low. From their perspective, these tickets should be  medium or low because high priority should be replied within 24 hours. If I raise any complaint in SAP as a very high priority it should be resolved within 24 hours.

They always come up with this complaint. I faced this issue in my last project. If it is a critical thing from my business side then I need to put that remark as a very high priority. I don't know why they always question that high priority. We always want to deliver the things on a timeline. That's why we put that kind of a remark when we raise any ticket to SAP.

The initial setup is straightforward. I am using SAP for more than six years, meaning SAP ERP, not SAP S/4HANA. So it is straightforward for me. But for those who are boutique and are now going from a small ERP to a bigger ERP like SAP or another one, for them the initial setup is complex.

The implementation will take six months. It covers every process and integration for the standard part. The time depends upon if they want to integrate more tools and more processes, then it could be up to nine months. If they want a vanilla system to be implemented it is going take six months, a standard which every ERP takes if I compare with Oracle. I am not talking about any other ERP, like a homegrown ERP.

There are three phases if somebody is going to implement the SAP. There is a pre-implementation part, there is the ongoing implementation, and then there is the post implementation part where we include the support, as well. We are also doing the quality review, but it is the same as if I'm doing the implementation and we want a particular person for a particular module. Let's take the example if somebody is implementing four or five modules in SAP - for every module we require a senior guy and a junior guy so that he or she can deliver the things on a timely basis. Because it requires teamwork, the integration of every module requires up to around 10 people for any implementation, including the project manager.

I am talking only about the implementation part. Project support or the pre-implementation part is a different thing.

In our company we have our own team for SAP implementation because we are a partner with SAP. We do hire outside people, but not from SAP. We are hiring the manpower from a third-party. If the project size is very large and we need to cover things in a short period, we prefer to hire other resources so that we can finish according to the timeline which is important for every product platform. That's why if we do the things according to the timeline they give us good feedback and the word of mouth comes into the picture and they share it with other people who then reach out to us.

Regarding ROI, in India there are more startup firms and ROI is only an issue for people going for SAP to get funding because it's a very good tool and more business tycoons are looking for those companies who are using SAP. So in my experience, if somebody is using SAP there are more chances for ROI.

SAP licenses are more costly than others. But now SAP provides flexible models for licenses for users who are in a higher position or only have to give approval or check things.

On a scale of one to ten, for me SAP S/4HANA is an eight.

We use SAP S4HANA in a distribution business. We have the main site which purchases all material for management and then it goes through the main warehouses to the distribution sites. Finance controls, sales, and distribution are already there with the treasury added on top of the project.

The solution could improve by making customization easier. The on-premise version is a lot more flexible.

I have been using SAP S4HANA for approximately two years.

SAP S4HANA version 1909 is stable. We have not gone live with 2020 yet.

SAP S4HANA is scalable in terms of infrastructure scaling. The solution does not cover all aspects of the business. For example, there is no final solution from SAP for point of sale. They have no specific point of sales solution, you have to build something to cover this area.

Our project is at a large company with 8,000 employees.

We had an issue with localization, there is some sort of localization for S/4HANA for a specific country. We did not face a lot of trouble with the support. The response was good, but overall it seems the process itself takes too much time. You have to go through specific steps waiting for a reply and then the escalation takes more time. The support could improve their speed.

The SAP cloud itself was not easy to implement any project because it is very hard to do any customization for the business requirements.

SAP S4HANA is expensive and for smaller businesses, it is very difficult for them to have the budget.

My advice to those wanting to implement SAP S4HANA is to make sure they have their blueprint and design. People have specific imaginations but things can turn out differently. Align very well with the business and identify your scope correctly to be sure you are following a solid plan along with the project lifecycle.

I rate SAP S4HANA an eight out of ten.

We are in the food business so the solution helps with our business processes as well as the financial aspect - sales, purchasing, manufacturing - all the core business processes across all these modules. I'm the vice president corporate IT and we are customers of SAP. 

I think primarily it helped us work out our out-of-the-box best practices which was a huge benefit. It meant that we tailored our processes in line with those of the standard out- of-the-box solution. And I think overall it has given us much more visibility on our processes, on the data that is produced as a reservable process.

I think technically it's a very responsive, comprehensive and optimized solution. It's very fast and the S4 version is much more user friendly on the UI side than the previous versions and it basically provides a better experience. Everything is there and it's up to the user to put it to use. 

Every business has some unique requirements which can mean customizations are required. What I'd really like to see is the development of an industry specific solution for the food industry, in particular the supply and demand side that's very critical to us, given that there are issues with products that have a shorter shelf life.

I've been using this solution for two years. 

My key advice would be to get down your processes first before putting any new system in place. It's important to re-engineer the processes and streamline them before implementing IT solutions, whether it's SAP or any other thing. It's the process side that needs to be dealt with first. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

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.

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.