SAP S/4HANA vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud comparison

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18,630 views|13,009 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
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2,247 views|1,095 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and others in ERP.
To learn more, read our detailed ERP Report (Updated: June 2024).
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature is that HANA loads from memory, which means it loads very quickly.""I have found the most valuable features are the interface, which is very good for all users, and the database performance is good.""Because I'm a procure-to-pay consultant, I mostly look at that angle, and I have a bit of experience with sales and distribution. I also like the integration between S/4HANA and other ERPs because S/4HANA is a suite. For example, the integration between S/4HANA and EWM Transportation Management, and Ariba.""From a technological point of view, the in-memory database is one of the key highlights.""SAP S4HANA version 1909 is stable. We have not gone live with 2020 yet.""SAP S4HANA is a robust solution.""We have access to all types of reports in a single solution.""I have found the most valuable feature to be the SAP Fiori application."

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"The solution is versatile with various integrated tools such as connecting with finance modules, controlling parameters, and creating universal journals.""The ability to access and analyze data in real-time has significantly improved our reporting efficiency.""The integration is very stable.""With the newer update, there are more funnels as well as ample opportunity to customize the solution. With the SAP Optimizer, companies are using about five to ten percent of the product as-is while the other ninety to ninety five percent is customized to automate and standardize processes.""S/4HANA Cloud is very stable.""I like that it saves every transaction, so anything is traceable.""The manufacturing area is a good feature.""The guidance SAP offers for implementing the product is clear and the online resources are great."

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Cons
"The cost of the solution is quite high. It needs to be adjusted.""Planned Order List needs a change of screen.""The procure-to-pay solution in the Contract Management angle could be better. If you look at it on Ariba, the Contract Management Life Cycle for Ariba is more robust. You can create documentation, SLAs, and NDAs. Apart from the procurement aspect of the contract, you have the legal side, but Ariba cannot do that. From what I've seen, the features of the procure-to-pay model in S/4HANA and their Contract Life Cycle Management side primarily focus on the procurement side. I believe it would be good if this solution could handle a part of the legal side. They will incorporate Extended Warehouse Management and Transportation Management into the S/4HANA cloud. Most big companies that use a solution like S/4HANA have a legal department within the organization. Suppose they can incorporate that to be in S/4HANA suites; I think it'll be good. It will be just like what we have with Transportation Management and Extended Warehouse Management. The user interface could be better. They have too much information on the interface, and our customers still keep complaining that it looks complex. Even though many things have changed, they still complain that the interface or the screen they see is a bit complex. It's only when they see the Fiori interface that their mind becomes a bit calm.""I'm not a big fan of SAP S/4HANA because it needs a lot of hardware. It is really fast, but it needs a lot of hardware. The hardware for S/4HANA is too expensive.""The difficulty level of the initial setup depends on the person's skills. If you know the basic knowledge of the database, then it will be easy, otherwise, it will be very difficult.""You will not see convenient user experiences with SAP S4HANA's website or application.""It's an expensive solution""The solution is complex technically because both an old and a new path exist."

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"The integration with third-party vendors could improve.""The solution's speed and dashboard could be improved.""They can improve the interface. It has a client-server kind of interface, which is kind of old.""Customer service and support's response time is really long.""The solution is expensive. That can be an issue for clients.""It's a huge software, and they need to make it look less complex and more user friendly. They need to work on user stories and user experiences.""It's not easy to facilitate the solution between us and SAP, so we have had to leave those issues open.""I would like to see a feature where it allows integration with more platforms."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is an expensive solution."
  • "The price of this product is an issue for some customers."
  • "I have found the price of the solution is on the medium to the expensive side of the scale. There is a license for this solution and there are additional maintenance fees."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • "We're not sure yet. I think it was six figures a year, over 100,000. It has straight-up licensing fees."
  • "Licensing works on a subscription model for the cloud version and it's a one-time fee for the on-premises version."
  • "The price of the solution is reasonable but some modules can be expensive. When comparing SAP S4HANA to other solutions, such as Oracle, it is not expensive."
  • "The price of the solution is expensive."
  • More SAP S/4HANA Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing is competitive with other products at that level in that category."
  • "I feel the solution is expensive when it comes to what can be obtained with open source software."
  • "This is a pricey solution that best serves large enterprises. Be sure to ensure that your company's requirements need to be fulfilled by SAP. There are many other ERP's that are cheaper yet highly functional. However, it is still cheaper than some of the competition (i.e. Oracle, ESD, etc.)"
  • "I don't remember the specifics about the licensing, but it's scaled and modular. You pay for what you use. It's not a one-size-fits-all license. You have a license for every single module. It's similar to Oracle."
  • "The licensing process for SAP S/4HANA Cloud has worked well."
  • "It's very expensive."
  • "Pricing wise, SAP S4HANA Cloud is very expensive. The licensing cost can be 100,000 euros per year, depending on the number of users in your company."
  • "S/4HANA is an enterprise solution that many can't afford. You must invest a lot to get the most out of it. It isn't cheap. I rate the price seven out of 10."
  • More SAP S/4HANA Cloud Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Rana Bhattacharjee
    Pradipta Bhattacharya - PeerSpot reviewerPradipta Bhattacharya
    User

    The main difference is RISE is associated with S/4 Product Range on Cloud while By Design is modeled after SAP Business One also on Cloud. 


    So both are SaaS but the difference is in enterprise size and also application complexities. Also, RISE offers a bundle of pre-configured modules while By Design is similar to B1 with a lot more flexibility and high scalability. License wise both are per user on the cloud.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and… more »
    Top Answer:The solution’s pricing could be reduced.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 68 in ERP
    Views
    18,630
    Comparisons
    13,009
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    499
    Rating
    8.3
    3rd
    out of 18 in Cloud ERP
    Views
    2,247
    Comparisons
    1,095
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    436
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SAP S4HANA
    SAP S4HANA Cloud
    Learn More
    Overview

    SAP S4HANA is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that uses sophisticated technologies including machine learning and AI. It is most commonly used to integrate and manage business functions and is an ideal solution for large enterprises. The platform includes supplier relationship management (SRM), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and product lifecycle management (PLM) functionality.

    SAP S4HANA offers three different deployment options:

    • On-premises
    • Cloud
    • Hybrid

    SAP S4HANA Features

    SAP S4HANA has many valuable key features, including:

    • Customizable
    • ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, PLM co-deployed
    • High throughput
    • Fast analytics and reporting
    • Smaller total data footprint
    • SAP HANA multi-tenancy
    • All data: social, text, geo, graph, processing
    • New SAP Fiori UX for any device (mobile, desktop, tablet)
    • Unlimited workload capacity
    • High-volume transaction processing (OLTP)
    • High volume real-time analytical processes (OLAP)
    • Service Management
    • Digital Boardroom Integration

    SAP S4HANA Benefits

    Some of the benefits of using SAP S4HANA include:

    • Speed: S4 HANA applications leverage speed, context, and data accessibility to ensure you can stay up to date with rapidly evolving technology.
    • Improved performance: With SAP S4HANA, you can plan, execute, or generate reports and analytics based on live data to increase performance.
    • Simplicity: SAP S4HANA’s whole infrastructure was designed with simplification in mind — from the management of the solution to the administration of the IT landscape. The solution serves as the digital core for business process simplification and enables the centralizing of hardware and network resources.
    • Cost effective: SAP S4HANA is a cost effective solution. It provides the ability to bring together all the analytical and transactional capabilities of a variety of systems in one location, enabling better decision making.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by SAP S4HANA users.

    A Mechanical Engineer at a construction company says, “It is a very powerful, highly customizable tool. The most valuable feature is that the reporting is fast. We can see the results from that in that our commissions come in fast. That is the main advantage.”

    Another reviewer, a SAP Technology Manager at a financial services firm, mentions, "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. 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."

    A Project and Service delivery Manager at a tech services company comments, "One of the most valuable features, which we used the most, was the FI module, for finance. It involved controlling, account receivables, account payables, and complete financial steering."

    A Senior Architect at a construction company states, “The POD applications are very useful to us. There are a few POD apps which we are using for different business scenarios. They are quite interesting.” He also adds, “The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The documentation is very good. The solution can scale well. The solution is stable.”

    SAP S/4HANA stands for SAP Suite 4 HANA. It is a next-generation integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that is designed for businesses of all sizes, in all industries, that require deep and broad functionality combined with a high degree of flexibility. SAP S/4HANA was launched in 2015 and been adopted by more than 3,200 customers over a period of sixteen months. SAP S/4HANA is materially different from anything SAP has done before and represents the company’s biggest innovation since SAP R/3.

    SAP S/4HANA is intended to provide a digital core for an organization. It is fully architected for the most advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and is designed on the most modern design principles with the SAP Fiori user experience to create a personalized and simple feel on users’ device of choice (tablet, laptop, mobile). SAP S/4HANA aims to simplify an organizations’ system landscape and reduce total cost of ownership by shrinking the data footprint while at the same time improving productivity levels in the form of higher throughput. Timelines for cloud deployments average around six months.

    SAP S/4HANA is designed to drive business innovation by connecting people, devices, and business networks in real time to support the development of new business models. It will also help accelerate the adoption of, and connection to, the Internet of Things and Big Data. SAP S/4HANA can analyze big data at unprecedented speed allowing users to access real-time information from anywhere, any way they’d like and thus help managers make truly insightful decisions. The simplified data model allows customers to reimagine their IT, helping to drive lower costs and deliver IT efficiency. This, coupled with the SAP S/4HANA prediction and simulation capabilities allow it to anticipate the impact of business outcomes. By doing all the above, SAP S/4HANA aims to provide ultimate sophistication in the simplest possible manner.

    To learn more about SAP S/4HANA, visit http://go.sap.com/product/enterprise-management/s4hana-erp.html

    Sample Customers
    Nestle, O.C. Tanner, Sabre, New York Life Insurance Co., MEMEBOX, Siemens AG.
    La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Retailer10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization34%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    University4%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company43%
    Computer Software Company24%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    University10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    Educational Organization7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise40%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise41%
    Large Enterprise43%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise57%
    Buyer's Guide
    ERP
    June 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and others in ERP. Updated: June 2024.
    772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SAP S/4HANA is ranked 2nd in ERP with 75 reviews while SAP S/4HANA Cloud is ranked 3rd in Cloud ERP with 41 reviews. SAP S/4HANA is rated 8.2, while SAP S/4HANA Cloud is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of SAP S/4HANA writes "The solution is highly scalable, with solid performance and integration". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP S/4HANA Cloud writes "A valuable tool for businesses seeking to enhance their overall performance and competitiveness in the digital era". SAP S/4HANA is most compared with SAP ERP, SAP Business One, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, Oracle E-Business Suite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, whereas SAP S/4HANA Cloud is most compared with SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business One, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, IFS Cloud Platform and Oracle E-Business Suite.

    We monitor all ERP reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.