Our latest evaluation compares SAP ERP and Anaplan, drawing insights from user reviews across key areas.
Starting with the initial setup, Anaplan is noted for its agile and straightforward approach, albeit varying in complexity based on user needs, with deployment times ranging from a month to a year. In contrast, SAP ERP presents a more diverse experience, with some finding it easy but others viewing it as complex and time-consuming, often requiring years for full implementation.
In terms of valuable features, Anaplan users find its integration capabilities, user-friendly web interface, and no-coding platform valuable, making it adaptable for various use cases. Its real-time calculations and machine-learning capabilities also stand out. SAP ERP, on the other hand, is lauded for its robustness, extensive documentation, and real-time reporting, beneficial for comprehensive business process management.
Room for improvement for Anaplan includes enhancing workflow components, improving reporting tools, and integration issues with MS Office products. SAP ERP users suggest improvements in user-friendliness, technical integration, implementation ease, and customization processes.
Regarding pricing, Anaplan is considered affordable, with a $50,000 licensing fee and generally reasonable costs compared to its competitors. SAP ERP, while offering value, is considered expensive, especially for larger implementations, with license fees ranging significantly. In ROI, Anaplan shows a positive impact by reducing personnel costs and enhancing operational efficiencies. SAP ERP, though taking time to cover its cost, is perceived as valuable in the long term, particularly for large-scale operations.
Customer support experiences vary for both. Anaplan's support is generally viewed as responsive and helpful, whereas SAP ERP receives mixed reviews, with some praising its efficiency and others pointing out delays and communication challenges.
To summarize, Anaplan stands out for its ease of use, adaptability, and efficient deployment, making it suitable for a range of business needs. SAP ERP, with its robust features and comprehensive integration, is ideal for large-scale, complex business environments. It is important to note that while both solutions are used to manage business operations, they have different functionalities and focuses. Anaplan is not an ERP solution, it focuses on financial planning and performance management, while an ERP solution manages various day-to-day operations.
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use."
"The solution scales well."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"I believe Anaplan is a new cloud tool, and from time to time, there's a lot of improvement that the Anaplan company deploys with the system. So, with that improvement, we need to really adapt and know the new system trends."
"Anaplan's strongest feature is that its GUI is very modern and user-friendly."
"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"SAP ERP offers a wide range of functional modules, including payroll, HR, financials, and others."
"I like the solution’s features in finance, supply chain, sales, and distribution."
"The most valuable feature of SAP ERP is the integration. It can be seamlessly integrated across the board."
"The most valuable feature of SAP ERP is the financial module, pre-configured packages, and plenty of features. The solution is updating and adding new features that are helpful."
"It gives us full control over each change, to the level of the individual field in a master record, including certificates."
"The solution provides a high level of integration."
"It is a comprehensive and robust solution. It can provide lots of functional features."
"Its integration is most valuable."
"When there is a lot of data, it sometimes takes long to load."
"The solution can improve by providing an easier form of integration to different platforms, such as receiving data from different Salesforce. There is a process to do it through the use of some APIs but it could be made much easier. This would be a large help to us."
"The tool needs to work on its integration with MS Excel and MS Word. The tool does not allow data analysis in spreadsheets which is possible on other platforms. I want the solution to be more collaborative to facilitate decision-making in organizations."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"It could be more flexible, and the company should be able to adapt the system. Not the other way around. It's very rigid and difficult to change. Reporting could also be better."
"Implementing SAP ERP can be very costly, particularly for smaller organizations with limited resources."
"There is room for improvement in the integration of the solution, especially in the payroll area."
"SAP is more expensive than some of its competitors."
"SAP ERP was not very user-friendly."
"Could be more user friendly."
"The user interface could be improved. For example, sometimes you're missing some data and can't complete a task. There should be some built-in support and suggestions on how to solve your problem. I would also like the interface to be optimized to work better with mobile devices like tablets and smartphones."
"Lacks sufficient technical support with slow response times."
Anaplan is ranked 1st in Business Performance Management with 24 reviews while SAP ERP is ranked 1st in ERP with 100 reviews. Anaplan is rated 8.0, while SAP ERP is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Anaplan writes "Great for large-scale modelling, easy to learn, and very stable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP ERP writes "The amazing, robust framework with unlimited scalability earns its #1 status". Anaplan is most compared with SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Hyperion, SAP Analytics Cloud, IBM Planning Analytics and Board, whereas SAP ERP is most compared with SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics AX, SAP Business One, Infor M3 and Infor LN.
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SAP ERP and Anaplan serve different purposes and actually work well together.
Think of SAP ERP focused on the Actuals, while Anaplan models the future. The reason why I’ve seen clients use Anaplan for planning vs. SAP BPC is Anaplan is more flexible and can easily keep up with constant changes in business planning.
While BPC is more of a consolidation tool, with Anaplan you can also have your driver-based models in a system vs. running them offline and only putting the answer into a system.
Therefore, my recommendation is to use both.