SAP ERP Software, Pricing, Functionality | Compare SAP ERP Software

SAP ERP Overview

SAP ERP software is used by the majority of Fortune 500 companies, FTSE 250 organizations as well as hypergrowth companies around the world.

SAP offers several different ERP solutions which serve the needs of different sized businesses. The current SAP ERP portfolio includes SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4 HANA. All three products are available in hybrid deployment models — Cloud ERP or On-Premise ERP — with the exception of SAP Business ByDesign which is cloud-only.

SAP ERP Products

SAP Business One

SAP Business One (B1) is SAP's entry level enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with a huge customer base and rich ecosystem. It is designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and aims to streamline and automate core business processes such as finance, sales, procurement, production, and more.

Key Modules: Financial Management, Sales & CRM, Purchasing & Inventory Management, Production Planning, Project Management, Reporting & Analytics, Human Resources (HR).

SAP Business ByDesign

SAP Business ByDesign is often referred to as SAP's best kept secret — a pure SaaS ERP solution serving mid-size organisations with everything needed in one suite. It is a fully configurable and extensible platform that can grow with your business.

Key Modules: Financial Management, CRM, Supply Chain Management, Production Planning & Control, Project Management, Supplier Relationship Management, HR, Compliance & Reporting, Business Analytics, Integration & Extensibility.

SAP S/4 HANA

SAP S/4 HANA is a Tier 1 ERP solution, designed for companies with high complexity businesses that need the utmost scalability. Built on the advanced in-memory computing platform SAP HANA, it leverages the SAP Fiori user experience for ease of use and accessibility.

Key Modules: Finance, Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Production Planning, Quality Management, Plant Maintenance, Human Resources, Project System, CRM, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Supply Chain Management, Environment Health & Safety (EHS).

SAP S/4HANA offers additional industry-specific solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of various sectors, such as retail, utilities, public sector, and more. The platform is available in both on-premise and cloud deployment options.

SAP ECC 6.0

SAP ECC 6.0, also known as SAP ERP, is a legacy ERP solution which is used by 20,000+ businesses around the world. SAP has announced end of mainstream maintenance, and most customers are migrating to S/4 HANA.

RISE with SAP

RISE with SAP bundles Cloud ERP solutions with other SAP products as an all-in-one subscription. It is applicable for both existing and new SAP customers and can offer SAP S/4 HANA Private Cloud, S/4 HANA Public Cloud or SAP Business Suite on HANA / ECC6 in the Cloud. RISE offers multiple hosting options including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure, with SAP's own technical managed services (TMS) included in the subscription cost.

What is SAP?

SAP is Europe's largest software vendor. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, SAP is known for its pedigree in Tier 1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions and software. SAP employs over 102,000 people globally and has expanded into several other product lines, covering additional functionality beyond core ERP through organic development and acquisition.

SAP sells multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for small businesses through to global multinationals, as well as software for Human Capital Management (HCM), Customer Experience (CX), database, analytics and much more.

What does SAP ERP software do?

SAP ERP software serves a wide range of functions but ultimately aims to centralize data and business processes into one system so that business leaders can run reports in real-time and employees can pass critical business data from one department to another. Core functions include:

• Financial Management & Accounting
• Manufacturing & Production
• Quality Management
• Reporting, Business Intelligence & Analytics
• Project Management and Portfolio Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Demand Forecasting
• Materials Resource Planning
• Time and Attendance Tracking
• Warehouse Management & Inventory Management
• Sales & Distribution

How much does SAP ERP cost?

That depends on which SAP ERP software you choose as each product has a different price bracket.

The smaller ERP solutions built for SMEs such as SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign can cost anywhere from $10,000 per year to $250,000 a year just for software licensing. The implementation of SAP B1 or SAP Business ByDesign can cost in the region of $50,000 to $500,000.

Larger SAP solutions such as SAP ECC6 or SAP S/4 HANA have much larger implementation and running costs, with software costing $50,000 into the millions of dollars and implementation costing 2x-8x that amount depending on the complexity of your ERP project.

It's also worth considering whether you are purchasing SAP Cloud ERP or SAP On-Premise ERP as this will affect whether you pay a yearly subscription or up-front capex costs.

SAP ERP History

SAP was founded in 1972 by five IBM employees — Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther. SAP was one of the first software vendors to integrate business processes and data into one system, creating what is now known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Starting with financial management and accounting, invoice verification, and stock/inventory management, the German software giant capitalized on globalization with the breakthrough of client/server technology, allowing companies with disparate operations to harmonize their data and processes around the world.

Which industries does SAP cover?

SAP can cover dozens of industries including professional services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and more.

SAP ERP User Interface

In recent years, SAP has refreshed the user interface for many of its ERP products including SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP ECC6 and SAP S/4 HANA. Many of these solutions now leverage Fiori, SAP's award-winning user interface. All SAP ERP products also provide dedicated mobile applications or native mobile access via your mobile web browser.

SAP ERP Competitors

SAP ERP solutions compete across a wide range of industries and business sizes. Common competitors include:

• Sage Intacct
• Oracle ERP Cloud
• Odoo
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Oracle NetSuite
• Acumatica

Wider SAP Product Portfolio

Beyond ERP, SAP offers a broad range of enterprise software:

• SAP SuccessFactors — Human Capital Management
• SAP Ariba — Procurement & Spend Management
• SAP Commerce Cloud — Customer Experience & E-commerce
• SAP Concur — Travel & Expense Management
• SAP Fieldglass — External Workforce Management
• SAP Marketing Cloud — Marketing Automation
• SAP Signavio — Business Process Management
• SAP IBP — Integrated Business Planning & Supply Chain