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's strongest feature is that its GUI is very modern and user-friendly."
"Anaplan provides 130 GB of cloud storage for organizations to use as part of their license."
"This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable."
"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"Anaplan is a three-dimensional cloud platform that is good for analyzing data, visualization, integration, terrific for visibility."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"The solution scales well."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use."
"ERP is stable. The outcome is clear to us as far as the design goes."
"SAP ERP offers a wide range of functional modules, including payroll, HR, financials, and others."
"We like that we have real-time dashboard views."
"Well-integrated multilingual technology."
"It integrates everything into one process."
"Control and governance are the best features."
"The most valuable features of SAP ERP are the general operations. It has a good way to manage a business and do financial reporting. Overall we are happy with the robustness of the solution."
"It gives us full control over each change, to the level of the individual field in a master record, including certificates."
"The cloud engine slows down when working with a large dataset. It still lacks a powerful engine."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions."
"The price of the solution can improve."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"When there is a lot of data, it sometimes takes long to load."
"Space and integration are a problem."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"SAP is more expensive than some of its competitors."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"It is very expensive to customize to meet compliance with regulations in some countries."
"The problem for us, we are one company that has seven home markets. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. When we need to configure, modify rules, change policies, or taxes rules, when we move currencies around based on our other financial results, it can get very complicated. When we try to join everything together we have some problems. However, the process good, all of our material and procurement processes are going well. The problem is trying to consolidate the financial reports and this is where I have problems."
"SAP ERP needs to consider simplifying a few areas within the tool. Compared to SAP ERP, other solutions in the market are much more easily configurable and understandable. SAP has a lot of complex features."
"When evaluating the current version I am using now, the SAP GUI is old-style and needs to be replaced with something more modern and easy to use. However, the SAP GUI is very optimized for connection networks and is extremely good. Many people would like to have a WebGUI or something else to have access in a different way. Additionally, there could be some drag and drop functionality added because these features are normally in any website that this solution does not have."
"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."
"SAP ERP could improve by having better integration with other platforms."
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 Oracle Hyperion, SAP S/4HANA, IBM Planning Analytics, SAP Analytics Cloud 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.