We performed a comparison between Infor M3 and SAP S/4HANA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two ERP solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."provides all modules, supply chain, HR - it's good for management."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is highly customizable."
"It's very stable, and it handles all types of industrial and manufacturing businesses in very good ways. I've found it to be easy."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"It's simple to use. You don't need any complex training to use it."
"Its ease of use is most valuable. Inquiries are transparent, and it shows good information on each screen. We don't have to go to 14 different screens to find out about one item, which is a big advantage."
"Infor comes up with different tools every year, and they are all compatible with Infor M3, which makes it a more reliable and trustworthy tool. The integration is very smooth."
"Infor M3 has tailor-made packages for each and every industry."
"The Fiori design is a valuable feature."
"It is really fast. It is also very stable."
"The most valuable feature of SAP S/4HANA is the innovational process. We are able to receive more efficiency or accuracy than previous versions."
"The most useful features of SAP S4HANA are the consolidation reports. The BI is very strong and the manufacturing and finance sections we like a lot."
"S4HANA is a completely integrated solution. It's an end-to-end ERP system with strong manufacturing and financial integration, which is not common among ERPs. And it's a solution that's driven by industry best practices."
"We have access to all types of reports in a single solution."
"SAP S4HANA is a robust solution."
"S4HANA is very scalable - we use it across seven or eight factories, and everything is running fine."
"The solution's technical support is an area with shortcomings that need improvement, especially the support for the product named M3 rather than the support offered by Infor as an organization."
"An area for improvement in Infor M3 is training. There should be more training resources available for clients. Clients also find it challenging to get consultants or integrators for Infor M3. The product doesn't have enough resources in the market to help clients."
"Infor should create one product to handle the whole business. At present, they make ERP systems for each type of business, and then sell additional features. I would like to have one system handing all organizations or all the business in deep ways and not have to buy additional features."
"The solution is stable but not agile."
"The implementation could be simplified, it's complex."
"The solution must provide more learning documents."
"It would be great if Infor added some new workflows in the finance module. I'd also like to see better integration with third-party applications."
"I would like to have some kind of dashboard to show an overview of different data on the same dashboard or on the same screen instead of moving to BI."
"Small businesses that have a small user base find this solution too expensive."
"SAP S4HANA could improve by having a more seamless easier integration, faster integration. The overall implementation timelines should be reduced."
"Planned Order List needs a change of screen."
"SAP S/4HANA could improve by making the interface easier to use."
"The two things that need to be improved are price and customization."
"We found that the implementing partners themselves are struggling with S4HANA's features. It's not an exact translation of the older ECC, so SAP has taken a new route to do things with S4HANA. Maybe it's a good product, but the implementing partners also like to have an in-depth understanding of the full feature set the product offers."
"This solution works with the configuration, if the prerequisites are very clear and can be configured it works perfectly. If you need to simulate something, as a predictive tool this kind of simulation is not very accurate and it has limitations. This is something that could improve."
"Documentation could be improved."
Infor M3 is ranked 9th in ERP with 13 reviews while SAP S/4HANA is ranked 2nd in ERP with 66 reviews. Infor M3 is rated 8.2, while SAP S/4HANA is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Infor M3 writes "The solution is a reliable, stable, and cost-saving ERP". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP S/4HANA writes "The solution is highly scalable, with solid performance and integration". Infor M3 is most compared with SAP ERP, Infor LN, Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, whereas SAP S/4HANA is most compared with SAP ERP, SAP Business One, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Epicor ERP. See our Infor M3 vs. SAP S/4HANA report.
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I can only base this on selections done a couple of years ago and I may be off by a version or two.
SAP tends to have more functionality and lends itself to modification and customization for large companies. M3 is really good technology and where it works, offers a price usually 1/4 that of SAP - EU consulting teams are really good with M3 given it's Swedish heritage and EU acceptance. It's really hard to find US teams who are at the same implementation volume as their EU cousins.
The rational choice between the two generally comes down to 'we can customize a process that saves time for 1,400 worldwide sales reps' with SAP. Notice I said 'rational'. The actual choice is more like 'SAP is better known and represents less percieved risk to deploy' also - the career building aspects - an IT team with SAP experience has better future career choices - and I suspect that drives SAP selection as well.
M3 is a lower cost option - and with the right implementation and support team, performs very well -
However, they are both Tier One solutions and will require sufficient budgets, support staff internally, and a good partner.
I'd suggest a fully formed selection process and if M3 suits your requirements, it's a great choice. SAP projects are what they are, long (M3 won't be shorter by a large factor) and upgrades and audits are historically pricey.
It really comes down to your cost justification and if you have the internal team to achieve the project goals (which happen well after go-live). You'll be much better off with a clearly defined cost/revenue model prior to selecting either and a numerical goal to achieve with either software package.
(And Alex's comments regarding Netsuite are valid, we do see more overall clients selecting Netsuite than any other platform - however - Netsuite cannot do process manufacturing - especially in FDA validated environs where M3 and SAP play, so in those cases, SAP and M3 are solid choices - though I might include DynamicsAX in the mix - but that was not the original question.)
first, you need to distinguish different deployment options: S/4HANA on-permise is different from S/4HANA public or manage cloud. Cloud solutions are much more restricted.
Secondly, you need to take the release planning into consideration: currently S/4HANA includes only Simple Finance but time flies and soon more and more "Simple" components become available. All this is described in the roadmap and needs to be mapped to the customer's project timeline.
Third, taking "Simple Finance" as an example, the installation is not a classic add-on but a so called "Exchange Innovation" which changes and/or removed SAP code and database tables! You also get Fiori apps... So functionaly these are not the same.
Disclaimer: I am a NetSuite employee.
From my own experience as a former SAP employee I would be very through in investigating the marketing/messaging , indirect access challenges (non compliance audits) and maturity of SAP S/4 Hana.
Here is an example of messaging and maturity of S/4 HANA that is not publicly touted:
The latest public figures SAP shared in October 2016 put the number of S/4HANA customers who have licensed the in-memory-based business suite at more than 4,100, 350 of whom are live on S/4HANA. Typically, SAP talks about its ERP customer base being around 37,000, so there’s a long way to go before everyone is live on S/4HANA. We’ve heard both SAP and ASUG members describe S/4HANA as being “a journey.”
www.linkedin.com
On INFOR I would express concerns at the AWS environment where they are hosted (not true cloud) and that that INFOR ION middleware adds complexity as it must reconcile data between various models and databases. NetSuite uses a single database and there is no reconciliation process so when data is changes all modules access the current data
In a totally biased plug I would like to mention that at Netsuite (where I work) our motto is 100 days to the cloud, our 99% client retention rate and a large number of awards for excellence in the ERP space.
I would welcome the chance to offer a third perspective if their is an appetite for further information or if not I wish you the very best in your future ERP investment.
I suggest the following like to be used for the requested comparison:
www3.technologyevaluation.com
SAP S/4 HANA is the best Manufacturing ERP, it has in memory processing. Uses huge amount of RAM to process reporting specifically BI. Whereas M3 Lawson can be said as one the best suited products for Process Manufacturing from Infor.
I have no direct answer to your question from my recent experience with S4 HANA are
- In memory processing
- best practice process with proven from large company
- many capable implementer available in the market (and to support as well)
- industry expertise with IFRS roadmap develop to support future
Not very much heard about M3, guess Infor buy too many ERP solution to thier house and roadmap / R&D might be unclear.
Most of supply chain functions should be almost the same. Finance and Accounting are areas that you can compare implementers skills. Bring your critical business requirement, be open mind and listen to what they offer.
I’m sorry, but I can’t actually comment on Infor Lawson M3 as I have no experience with that application. If there are specific questions pertaining to S/4HANA functionality, I would be happy to offer perspective.
1. With respect, an analysis needs to start with the customer’s requirements (industry, revenue, headcount, geography, business goals, budget, timeline, risk assessment etc) before any meaningful analysis can be undertaken.
2. Why wouldn’t the Customer start with what’s already in the public domain (see below) AND
3. Why wouldn’t the Customer ask for each vendor to provide their own analysis of their product and the target competitor product, and then go from there with data sets 1. 2. and 3. respectively?
httpsr://rsupply-chain-management.softwareinsider.com/compare/31-32/M3-Supply-Chain-Management-vs-SAP-ERP
erp-systems.zone
www3.technologyevaluation.com