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.
"Anaplan is a three-dimensional cloud platform that is good for analyzing data, visualization, integration, terrific for visibility."
"Anaplan's most valuable features are that it's a no-coding platform, everything can be scaled to your other functions, and it's easy to learn and use (especially because Anaplan provides excellent interactive training)."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use."
"Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go."
"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."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"The most valuable feature of Anaplan is machine learning. The solution is constantly evolving from feedback. Additionally, there is a wide range of training material online."
"This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable."
"It meets our requirements for what we need it to do in the manufacturing industry."
"The solution is very mature."
"It is a stable solution."
"The most valuable features are the ease of installation and the MM functionality."
"The architecture of the solution overall is great. It's great for development, testing, and production. I've worked with solutions where the architecture wasn't as strong and it was a disaster."
"The solution has made the most significant impact on our human resources function, specifically in HR operations and HR analytics. One feature of SAP ERP that I found most valuable is its use of codes for accessing specific functions."
"The most significant elements of this solution are the ability to create a virtual product, a service product, and delivery."
"SAP is already working on improvements by doing annual releases with enhancements."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"There are workspace issues, like the limitation on model sizes."
"The dashboard could be better. Because within a dashboard or report, you have to do a lot of scrolling. You need to scroll down because the table doesn't fit in a single view. That's why even the users aren't happy with that kind of user experience. They need to scroll to see all the data, and it could be better if it fits in just one page. That way, you can see everything. In the next release, I want automation that's connected to Anaplan. For example, to load master data from SAP to Anaplan. I don't know if this already exists, but a log where you can see the progress and see if there's an error will also help. It would be better to give you the error message, for example, if there is an error within the automated process importing to Anaplan."
"Anaplan's workflow component is probably the biggest area for improvement. I'd also like to see Anaplan add an ad hoc reporting tool that allows users to query things. It's going to factor into how you design your data set and your models, but I'd like the ability to create ad hoc queries against the data that's in there."
"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions."
"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."
"When there is a lot of data, it sometimes takes long to load."
"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"The user interface can be more intuitive and user-friendly by having it be more menu-driven, this would be a large benefit."
"It is not flexible for the users. SAP works in a specific way, and the users and the processes have to adapt to the way it works. It is hard to customize it to the level that we need for our work. It is not easy to get new extensions for process functions, modules, or activities."
"Technical support is an area that is in need of improvement."
"The only feature that is not available in our current version is web access."
"It needs to incorporate the new features from the SAP S/4HANA release, such as, utilizing data processes, which is quite nice."
"I do not have any notes for improvements."
"SAP is more expensive than some of its competitors."
"Pricing could be improved for preferred customers."
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.