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Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. SAP Information Steward

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Dynamics SL

    Score5.1 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family. This product was acquired from Solomon 2000. The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management capabilities.N/A

    SAP Information Steward

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMonitor, analyze, and improve data integrity with SAP Information Steward software. Combine data profiling and metadata management tools for continuous insight into the quality of enterprise information to optimize processes, and enhance operational, analytical, and data governance initiatives.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details—SAP Information Steward is sold by CPU core volume to provide the processing power required to meet enterprise data integration and quality needs.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    8.5
    2 Ratings
    12% above category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation9.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    6.0
    6 Ratings
    23% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    API for custom integration6.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Plug-ins6.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    8.7
    10 Ratings
    3% above category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Single sign-on capability7.49 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions10.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    8.0
    10 Ratings
    6% above category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    7.1
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Accounts payable6.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Accounts receivable6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Global Financial Support6.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers6.63 Ratings00 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations3.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standardized Processes6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    5.7
    6 Ratings
    33% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Inventory tracking5.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location management6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    6.2
    4 Ratings
    25% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Pricing6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order entry3.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Credit card processing7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subledger and Financial Process
    Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    5.7
    4 Ratings
    28% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Billing Management6.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cash and Asset Management7.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Travel & Expense Management5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting6.32 Ratings00 Ratings
    Period Close6.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Financial Management
    Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    4.7
    3 Ratings
    47% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Budgeting and Forecasting7.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Costing6.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost Capture2.12 Ratings00 Ratings
    Capital Project Management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Revenue Recognition2.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Grants Management
    Comparison of Grants Management features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    6.3
    1 Ratings
    17% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Award Lifecycle Management6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Manufacturing
    Comparison of Manufacturing features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    6.0
    1 Ratings
    22% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Production Management6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Supply Chain
    Comparison of Supply Chain features of Microsoft Dynamics SL and SAP Information Steward
    Feature
    Microsoft Dynamics SL
    6.0
    1 Ratings
    20% below category average
    SAP Information Steward
    -
    Ratings
    Inventory Planning6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Small Businesses
    Zoho One
    Score9.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho One
    Score9.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Microsoft Dynamics AX (discontinued)
    Score4.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.0
    (18 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.4
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    3.0
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.5
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    1.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Dynamics SLSAP Information Steward
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    For a small to mid-size business, MS Dynamics SL is effective. We are capable of managing our finances with a very low risk of error. We have worked with MS Dynamics for almost 15 years and have more than doubled the size of our business in that time with very few issues from the program. We have exponentially increased our revenue and reporting demands and have found SL to be very dependable and stable. The program does have the occasional glitch and those are sometimes outside of the realm of expertise of our IT department. SL support is excellent, but their timeliness is not as urgent as ours.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    SAP Information Steward is well suited for companies looking for profiling data, monitoring data quality and managing policies. It provides dashboards and features to create the awareness on Data Quality dimensions. SAP IS is not suited to manage huge amount of data due to performance issues. It is not designed to correct data by its own. However, It can remediate data through integration with SAP Master Data Governance or SAP Data Services.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Provides flexibility for complex project based cost accounting
    • Strong and flexible allocation processer for cost allocations, markups, and pricing
    • A "Flexible Billing" module under the project controller series that allows for multiple billing formats ranging from fixed price schedule of values, T&M or Cost Plus, and scheduled billing.
    • Flexible reporting with options using Crystal Reports, SSRS, a Quick Query tool, and ability to tie into MS Office tools such as MS Access and MS Excel
    • Tight integration with Financials, but also the ability to integrate with modules such as Sales Order, Inventory, and Field Service
    • Customization abilities ranging from a VBA (visual basic for application) foundation to allow customizing existing forms to the ability to use the SDK (Software Development Kit) to build more complex customizations that integrate with Dynamics SL.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    • Audit trail management of Metadata to ensure due diligence with respect to the quality of data
    • Control features and identification of risk wrt data
    • Ready recknor in form of advance bi reports for procurement and costing kpi
    • Flexible comparison and filter functio ality across cross organisation data
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Reporting in the Project module is lacking functionality. I understand that most companies have specific needs when it comes to tracking project information but the standard reports are not good.
    • I would recommend a product like Management Reporter that is for Projects only. Project Reporter should allow users to pull in all Project related data into reports.
    • Fixing suspended batches. Obviously all of us users have experienced this mess. SL knows what needs to be corrected and there could be some step by step fixes in a separate repair module to do the steps we do in Query Analyzer.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    • More real-time integration scenarios needed.
    • Needs more generic standard content for metadata management.
    • The user interface can be more intuitive based on AI.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Unfortunately, Dynamics' lack of ability to smoothly integrate with our CRM system is causing us to look at other solutions. The efficiencies that we gain by using Dynamics for our day to day accounting are lost in the constant headaches of getting sales quotes to import properly into the system for invoicing. Another major issue for us has been budgeting and reporting. We currently do all of our budgeting and board reporting in Excel, which is too time consuming and inefficient, especially when a system as robust as Dynamics should easily be able to handle this relatively simple task.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    Out of the box solution
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Microsoft
    I rate it a 10 because we have removed the fields we don't need so users can really crank the data into the system. The software was designed for the professional services firm in mind but does a tremendous job for construction firms and "blended" companies that are both distribution firms but project centric as well. Perhaps they drop ship inventory to a project where their employees or subs need to work on a project for example.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    It provides out of box solution for information management at organisation level
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    We have had only one unplanned outage for 2 hours in the last 30 months. We shut down for 30 min to 1 hour once a month, but that is for Microsoft OS updates to the servers. Being a 24/7 world wide operation, the reliability is really important. We do get an 8 hour window on the weekend that we can be down for a short period to install Microsoft Dynamics SL updates, but we do not have many of those. On our last version upgrade, we shut the users out at 9:30 am and were fully operational in less than 6 hours. The upgrade was New SQL server, New SL server and 2 new Citrix servers.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    Support is only used when needed, so unfortunately ,they get all the odd issues. It's a difficult business, but Microsoft and our firm do a great job of meeting customer needs. We get routine feedback that our support services are very good.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    I believe many features from SAP Information Steward are available in other SAP products as well hence it is more confusing for business or customers to do the right selection. Moreover SAP strategy is not very clear for this particular product hence often we are confused while exploring more related scenarios
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    Just to let it take its course. The implementation for me once I became a part of my former organization was pretty seamless. Just get to know the basics and call the support team to ask questions if you need help on an issue, should they arise. They are ready, willing, and able to help!
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    Ready recknoer tools that act as reference are missing that can help to formulate ;Decision Driven Framework' for various strategic decesions
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Of the comparable mid-range ERP systems, Dynamics SL competes at the lower end based on price, but also above the high-end based on flexibility, data, and reporting. Being able to stay with the same core accounting from a $100 million dollar company to a $3 billion dollar company shows the range of capabilities.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    Both are great products and I highly recommend both
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Microsoft
    Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • More time is spent on manipulating reports which can and should be automated.
    • Lack of electronic invoicing process and other green technology features creates more cost on printing and storage costs.
    • The lack of a user friendly interface requires more training and a bigger learning curve for staff.
    Incentivized
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    SAP
    • Improvement on Organization Data Quality
    • Real time Data Quality Issues discovery
    • Data Policies effective management
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    SAP Information Steward Screenshots

    Screenshot of Get a complete view of data quality reports by using dashboards and scorecards.Screenshot of Data impact that shows how the data is used so you can access the full impact on any data changes.Screenshot of Data profiling supports governance processes that define data ownership in accordance with business needs, roles, and policies.Screenshot of Data profiling details assess data in terms of accuracy, completeness, conformity, integrity.