 | |
| Developer(s) | SAP SE |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 3 February 2015 |
| Written in | ABAP |
| Operating system | Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix |
| Platform | Cross-platform (On-premises & Cloud) |
| Predecessor | SAP R/3 SAP ERP |
| Available in | Multi-lingual |
| Type | Enterprise resource planning |
| License | Commercial, Proprietary |
| Website | www |
SAP S/4HANA is an enterprise resource planning software for large enterprises developed by SAP SE. It is the successor to SAP R/3 and SAP ERP and is optimized for SAP's in-memory database SAP HANA.
SAP S/4HANA is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package meant to cover all day-to-day processes of an enterprise (for example, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, plan-to-product, and request-to-service) and core capabilities. [1] It integrates functions from lines of businesses as well as industry solutions, and also re-integrates portions of SAP Business Suite products such as SAP SRM, SAP CRM and SAP SCM. As SAP Business Suite 4 only runs on the SAP HANA database it is packaged as one product: SAP S/4HANA. [2] SAP's classical R3, ERP and ECC based business suite and related products were designed to run on several database platforms, including those from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. [3]
The SAP HANA platform has been available since 2010, and SAP applications like SAP ERP and the SAP Business Suite are able to run on the SAP HANA database and/or other supported database systems. [4]
The new suite, SAP S/4HANA, [5] launched on 3 February 2015 at the New York Stock Exchange. The event introduced cloud and on premises editions, with the on-premises edition becoming available on the same day. The cloud edition went live at SAPPHIRE NOW (SAP’s annual customer conference) on 6 May 2015 in Orlando, Florida. [6]
SAP S/4HANA was called SAP's biggest update to its ERP strategy and platform in over two decades. [7] Post-launch, Gartner analysts noted that SAP S/4HANA represented a "transformational shift," but raised questions about functionality, availability, pricing and migration issues surrounding S/4HANA. [8]
By 21 April 2015, 370 customers had purchased S/4HANA. After the first half of 2015, positive growth was confirmed for SAP. During the third quarter earning calls that took place in October 2015, SAP confirmed that S/4HANA had more than 1,300 customers. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] By the end of Q4 2016, SAP announced that 5,400 customers had implemented SAP S/4HANA, growing to 8,900 customers by 30 June 2018. [14]
SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or through a hybrid model. [15] The S/4HANA product offering consists of various editions: SAP S/4HANA Cloud: previously called essentials edition (ES) and Multi-Tenant Edition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud extended edition: previously called Single-Tenant Edition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, SAP S/4HANA On-Premise. [16]
SAP S/4HANA On-Premise is similar in terms of coverage, functionality, industry-specific support, and localization to the current SAP Business Suite (in 39 languages, 64 country versions).
SAP also offers SAP S/4HANA Cloud (in 18 languages, 33 country versions). [17] SAP has emphasized the product as pivotal to its cloud shift. [18]
Both editions consist of functionality for finance, accounting, controlling, procurement, sales, manufacturing, plant maintenance, project system, and product lifecycle management, plus integration with SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Hybris, SAP Fieldglass and SAP Concur.
SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) releases are once per year, SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases are 2 per year. Version coding for cloud edition: YYMM example 1709 - September 2017. Version coding for on-premise edition (since 2020): YYYY example 2020 - Release 2020. [19]
SAP S/4HANA On-Premise releases:
SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases: [22]
There are various ways to get to S/4HANA. This depends on a customer’s starting point. For example, new implementation, system conversion, and selective data transition. [32]
Both SAP S/4HANA on-premises and the SAP S/4HANA cloud editions have release strategies. The cloud editions are released biannually. The on-premises edition has one new release per year and receives additional functionality and corrections in the form of Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) or Service Pack Stacks (SPS) each quarter. [36]
On-premises: Each year, SAP traditionally shipped a new product version of its on-premises SAP S/4HANA product (e.g., SAP S/4HANA 1610), followed by three successive Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) on a quarterly basis. Subsequently, the previous product version received Service Pack Stacks (SPS) quarterly until the end of mainstream maintenance. However, with the release in October 2023, SAP introduced a significant shift in its release and maintenance strategy for SAP S/4HANA. The product now follows a two-year release cycle, providing a longer seven-year mainstream maintenance period per release. This change aims to offer customers greater opportunities for continuous innovation and a flexible path to cloud readiness. Additionally, more easily adoptable feature packs will be introduced every six months during the first two years of a release, reducing the need for disruptive upgrades and lowering total implementation costs. [37]
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. In 2023, the company’s seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 80. The company sells database software and cloud computing. Oracle's core application software is a suite of enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, Customer Experience Commerce(CX Commerce) and supply chain management (SCM) software.
SAP R/3 is the former name of the enterprise resource planning software produced by the German corporation SAP AG. It is an enterprise-wide information system designed to coordinate all the resources, information, and activities needed to complete business processes such as order fulfillment, billing, human resource management, and production planning.
SAP SE is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg. It develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. The company is the world's leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor. Apart from ERP software, the company also sells database software and technology, cloud-engineered systems, and other ERP software products, such as human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, product lifecycle management (PLM) software, supplier relationship management (SRM) software, supply chain management (SCM) software, business technology platform (BTP) software and programming environment SAP AppGyver for business.
Oracle Applications comprise the applications software or business software of the Oracle Corporation both in the cloud and on-premises. The term refers to the non-database and non-middleware parts. The suite of applications includes enterprise resource planning, enterprise performance management, supply chain & manufacturing, human capital management, and advertising and customer experience.
SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software developed by the German company SAP SE. SAP ERP incorporates the key business functions of an organization. The latest version of SAP ERP (V.6.0) was made available in 2006. The most recent SAP enhancement package 8 for SAP ERP 6.0 was released in 2016. It is now considered legacy technology, having been superseded by SAP S/4HANA.
SAP Solution Manager is a product developed by the software company SAP SE. It offers end-to-end application lifecycle management to streamline business processes and proactively address improvement options, increasing efficiency and decreasing risk within SAP customers' existing maintenance agreements and managing the application lifecycle.
Unit4 is a software company that designs and delivers enterprise software and ERP applications and related professional services for people in services organizations, with a special focus on the professional services, education, public services, and nonprofit sectors. It has subsidiaries and offices in 23 countries across Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific region and Africa.
On-premises software is installed and runs on computers on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than at a remote facility such as a server farm or cloud. On-premises software is sometimes referred to as "shrinkwrap" software, and off-premises software is commonly called "software as a service" ("SaaS") or "cloud computing".
Openbravo is a Spanish cloud-based SaaS software provider specializing in retail with headquarters in Pamplona, Spain and offices in Barcelona and Lille. The company was formerly known for being a horizontal open-source ERP software vendor for different industries.
NetSuite Inc. is an American cloud-based enterprise software company that provides products and services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) including accounting and financial management, customer relationship management, inventory management, human capital management, payroll, procurement, project management and e-commerce software. NetSuite was founded in 1998 with headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company is widely seen as the first cloud computing software company, with its founding pre-dating that of Salesforce by about a month. Oracle Corporation acquired NetSuite for approximately US$9.3 billion in November 2016. The Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit is managed by Executive Vice President Evan Goldberg as "Oracle’s Cloud ERP for Small and Mid-sized Enterprises with the ability to scale to Fortune 500 firms."
The SAP CRM applications were initially integrated on-premises customer relationship management (CRM) software manufactured by SAP SE which targeted business software requirements for marketing, sales and service for midsize and large organizations in all industries and sectors. The first SAP CRM release 2.0 has been made generally available in November 2000. The current release 7.0 has been updated with quarterly enhancement packs (EHPs) since 2009.
SAP Business ByDesign (ByD) is a cloud enterprise resource planning software that is sold and operated as software as a service by SAP SE. It is designed for small and medium-sized enterprises. The software is designed to provide business processes across application areas from financials to human resources with embedded business analytics, mobility, e-learning, and support.
Acumatica provides cloud and browser based enterprise resource planning software for small and medium-sized businesses. The company is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area.
SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed and marketed by SAP SE. Its primary function as the software running a database server is to store and retrieve data as requested by the applications. In addition, it performs advanced analytics and includes extract, transform, load (ETL) capabilities as well as an application server.
SAP Anywhere is a front office software package from SAP for small and medium sized enterprises (SMBs). In early 2018 SAP decided to sunset the product and to focus in the SMB market on the established SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign ERP solutions.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a set of enterprise accounting and sales software products offered by Microsoft. Its flagship product, Dynamics GP, was founded in 1981.
SAP Cloud Platform has been rebranded as SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
SAP Converged Cloud is a private managed cloud developed and marketed by SAP.
| Commercial | |
|---|---|
| Open-source | |
