Item: SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Use SAP S/4HANA Cloud for our major finance related, processes including, accounting Procure-to-Pay, Hire-to-Retire, & financial reporting. Prior to moving onto SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we were running non-standardized finance processes with significant system customizations that slowed down our ability to scale and keep up to date on system changes/improvements. It helps us to develop a standardized framework from which we can stand up our business units to develop a singular cohesive technology strategy.

Pros and Cons

Native Account Analysis Reporting
Connection of GL & Subledger
Intercompany Management
PO Accruals

Native Trial Balance Reporting
Standard Prepaid Processing
Line Item Document Splitting
Profit Center Document Splitting

Return on Investment

Positive - Greater access to more granular data.
Negative - Slower consolidation.
Negative - Significant Chart of Accounts Growth.
Positive - Workflow provided traceability for manual journal entries.

Usability

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Fiori has well-organized Fiori apps and is fairly easy to learn/use. The most difficult part in the transition to SAP is actually learning the foundational pieces of SAP (like how Master Data is defined and connects) -- the tools that are provided are pretty intuitive and offer a lot of ability for users to easily organize and customize views (and then save and share with colleagues). There are some challenges for users to understand when issues arise -- the standard "error" messages are not necessarily easy to understand, and sometimes take some digging...

Key Differentiators

The organization needed a tool that would scale with the fast-growing business. To accomplish this, we looked for a holistic solution that would allow bringing our various organizations under the same roof. Our previous accounting system had turned into a "Frankenstein monster" due to the amount of customization done throughout the years, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud allowed us to structure our business processes that would allow for us to leverage a significant amount of "out-of-the-box" functionality.

Alternatives Considered

We were an Oracle shop before, and SAP was the clear (and only choice) that we considered. SAP was very open to our feedback and would consider making our needs part of the standard solution (where it made sense for their broader user community) for future releases. It offered all of the functionality we were looking for, which would allow us to have a comprehensive solution.

Key Insights

Do you think SAP S/4HANA Cloud delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with SAP S/4HANA Cloud's feature set?

Yes

Did SAP S/4HANA Cloud live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud go as expected?

Would you buy SAP S/4HANA Cloud again?

Yes

Other Software Used

BlackLine, Workday Human Capital Management, Concur Travel and Expense

Likelihood to Recommend

SAP S/4 HANA Cloud is incredibly powerful when you have well-defined processes that are managed within the SAP ecosystem. Having your sub-ledgers native to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you have access to much "richer" data and do not have to worry about reconciling the sub-ledger to the GL (these processes are now one and the same). Fiori apps are extremely intuitive and user-friendly, allowing for easier change management and education. If your organization is willing to transform business processes to fit within the way SAP "works", then you will unlock significant benefits. When organizations are unwilling to change and simply will try to fit their current processes into an SAP environment, the end product would likely be lacking.

Ready to Fly High with SAP S/4 HANA Cloud

Overall Satisfaction with SAP S/4HANA Cloud