SAP BW4HANA Reviews

We are using HANA for dashboarding. HANA is like a database for the system where we create dashboards using business planning and consolidation on AE4 and EPM. Five or six people are on the business warehouse team managing BW/4HANA, and I'm the architect, so I help them.

The UI is completely new, beautiful, and user-friendly. There are some other helpful features like global filters and advanced tools. We can perform custom calculations easily

From a technical perspective, the performance has been enhanced and optimized for a limited number of flows. The content settings are more advanced, and there are so many other features that I can't name them all.

BW/4HANA could improve query optimization. For example, there could be an error message that pops up when you hover over it if any query fails. That would make it easier to find out what went gone wrong. Guided SAP help tools would make it easier for us to go forward. 

I have been using BW4HANA for almost six or seven months now.

BW/4HANA is quite stable unless we come up with different service sites.

There are some old systems that have been discontinued, and it'll be challenging if you migrate completely to a new system. I'm not sure whether every organization wants to do that, but so I cannot speak to the scalability. 

SAP BW/4HANA is easy to set up. It's a little tricky when it fails, but I did not find it challenging. You need to have all the help files installed before starting the setup. The deployment is fast.

I can't comment on the cost because it keeps changing based on the plan and company requirements. There are different procedures and corporate discounts.

I rate SAP BW/4HANA seven out of 10. It's user-friendly, so it's easy to get started on it.

In terms of use cases, when you look at SAP BW4HANA, you are looking at creating data warehousing for the organization. You use it to create analytical solutions for the customers.

SAP BW4HANA is outdated because of which people have started to move to SAP Analytics Cloud. SAP BW4HANA valuable feature revolves around the fact that it was easy to customize the tool.

SAP BW4HANA has issues with its integration capabilities, specifically when it comes to non-SAP products, since you have to use middleware tools in such scenarios. The integration capabilities of the product with other non-SAP tools should be improved.

I want to see improvements in the support offered by SAP. I don't see SAP actively supporting the solution now, and I believe that it is because of its new stack of solutions. SAP is not actively supporting SAP BW4HANA, but a better support from SAP would be appreciated.

I have experience with SAP BW4HANA.

It is a very stable solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

My company deals with ten customers who use SAP BW4HANA.

All of SAP's customers regularly use the tool.

The solution's technical support is slow. I would say that when working with SAP, one has to be very patient. You have to give SAP's support team enough time after raising a ticket since they will work as per their priorities specified under L1 support and L2 support, but the fact remains that the support system is slow.

The product's initial setup phase was straightforward.

I was not the person responsible for the deployment, so I would not be the best person to speak about it. I was on the business side associated with the tool.

The solution can be deployed in a couple of weeks.

It takes three odd months to complete the whole implementation cycle of the product to deal with simple to medium-level use cases.

There is a need to make payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. Whether the price of the product will be expensive or not is something that depends on the buyers' negotiation skills with SAP. SAP sells products at different rates. For some, the rates offered by SAP can be costly while for others it may seem cheap. The price ultimately depends on how you have negotiated your contract with SAP.

Speaking about whether there are any extra costs attached to the product apart from the standard licensing fees, I am not very sure about where the customer service from SAP fits into the licensing model.

In terms of data warehousing and real-time analytics, the tool has been doing pretty well for our company, and as a matter of fact, it has also been working out well for some of the customers for whom we had helped with the implementation part of the solution. The customers who use SAP BW4HANA are happy with the tool.

The in-memory compute feature impacted the data processing speed since my company presently sees a thirty to forty percent improvement.

In terms of structuring the data that is going to come in, and especially in terms of the overall setup of the tool, the APIs to be set up, and other such areas, are some of the key roles of the people who use the product.

If customers are looking at SAP BW4HANA, I would say that it is definitely a stable solution, but it all depends on your landscape. If your landscape consists of seventy percent non-SAP, then SAP BW4HANA is not meant for you. If you have your core ERP and everything else on SAP, then SAP BW4HANA is a good solution.

The real-time analytics capabilities benefit our organization by allowing employees to make the process of decision-making faster because we have seen reports getting pushed with the in-memory computing capabilities of the tool in a very fast manner. The product has definitely helped the customers make decisions faster.

I rate the overall satisfaction with the product in terms of scalability and future readiness as seven out of ten. Overall, the product is stable. I feel that the support could be better. From the perspective of the people in the market, if you look at the resources offered by SAP BW4HANA, you can find many people who are trained in the product. Getting qualified resources for SAP BW4HANA is very easy.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

I use the solution for reports and dashboards.

At this moment, it was started as a business intelligence strategy. So, I used it for a new project.

The feature I found valuable is that the solution had only one dashboard and no more.

I need a more efficient tool. I need more competitive tools, like Microsoft Power BI. The tool is not easy to use for an end user.

I need more analytics tools, especially optimizing the AfO tool for data analytics, since it is a critical point for us.

I have been using SAP BW4HANA for about six months.

It is a stable solution.

I plan to increase the use of the solution from next month.

For support, I have a local partner.

The initial setup was easy.

It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure.

I may consider contacting a consultant next month.

It's not a friendly solution. So, it is a complex tool.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We are consultants and distributors for BW4HANA.

SAP wants to transition all of their customers to the cloud, so they have announced a lot of policies that will support the on-premise product until 2024 or 2025. That's a good opportunity for us to transition our customers to the cloud.

The solution is based on SAP ERP, so there's some business content already included. For customers who use SAP ERP, SAP BW4HANA is a good choice for their DW implementation.

It's complicated to use. You need to spend a lot of time learning about it. The interface could be improved. It's not intuitive to build a data model and use their ETL tools.

The product is complex, so I think it could be simplified.

I have used this solution for five years.

It's stable.

The on-premise product isn't very easy to scale up, but implementing it in the cloud is much easier.

Technical support is pretty good. SAP doesn't respond immediately, but they deal with the most critical issues.

Initial setup was easy.

We don't refuse any kind of opportunity that our customers want to implement, so we are trying to learn about analytics solutions from Microsoft and Google.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. 

If someone wants to implement BW4HANA, it's important to do a training course first and think about the strategy they would like to use to leverage the data for their business.

We use SAP BW4HANA to extract data from SAP ECC and load it into another system, such as Snowflake.

SAP BW4HANA can be deployed in both the cloud and on-prem.

SAP BW4HANA enables us to extract information from different repositories and create reports that are shared with managers.

The ability to instantly pull data is the most valuable feature.

SAP BW4HANA is a new package with a steep learning curve. I am currently taking courses to familiarize myself with the features so that I can manage them smoothly.

I would like to be able to design new reports in a future release.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using SAP BW4HANA for three months. 

I give the stability of SAP BW4HANA an eight out of ten.

I give SAP BW4HANA's scalability a five because I am still familiarizing myself with the solution.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We have seen a return on investment.

The price is high and currently only affordable for large organizations.

I give SAP BW4HANA a nine out of ten.

We have plans to increase the usage of SAP BW4HANA in the future.

I recommend SAP BW4HANA for organizations with an IP platform. Similar products, such as Qlik Replicate, are more expensive.

We are a consulting company, we use the solution for our client's organizations who have a basic requirement for KPI information.

Our customers require KPIs to analyze their management. We use BW/4HANA to extract data and provide business intelligence for our customers that are using S/4HANA ERP.

SAP BW/4HANA can be used more generally as a data warehouse. Prior to BW/4HANA, BW classic could only work with SAP products, but S/4HANA can be used for any enterprise data warehouse and is no longer limited to SAP, but can also be used for legacy data or big data. The solution is more flexible than before.

We benefited from BW/4HANA's ability to utilize predefined content. We didn't need to start from scratch.

The solution is not easy to implement. It requires a lot of learning at the beginning. I would like to see the features be simplified.

I have been using SAP BW/4HANA for five years. 

The solution is stable.

SAP BW/4HANA is not a cloud version, it does not have auto-scaling functionality. It is scalable, but it is not automatic.

In the past, for data warehousing, we used Oracle, Google BigQuery and AWS. For business intelligence, we used BusinessObjects as a solution.

BW/4HANA is not easy to implement, it is complex. It requires four or five people to implement.

Before, in BW classic, there is BW Workbench. Inside Workbench, we could do almost anything without needing to go to the database level. Now, the architecture has changed. We need to use Eclipse to model the data, making it more technical than before. It is difficult to train our customers.

If an upgrade is needed, it takes about five months to implement, depending on what the client currently has. If we are implementing a new BW/4HANA from the beginning, it will take more time to analyze the requirements.

SAP BW/4HANA is expensive.

SAP BW/4HANA did not require us to start from scratch as it utilizes predefined content inside.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

As a user, I use the solution for BW data modeling, customization, remodeling, process changes, and creating queries, workbooks, and analyses.

SAP BW4HANA aids in managing data from ER to front-end analysis, contributes to ROI, and fosters business growth understanding.

I like that the solution breaks down components to a very granular level, allowing for customization and implementation based on specific requirements. Its structured approach provides flexibility.

Challenges arise with real-time client requirements when clients are accustomed to Microsoft Excel's extensive features for data analysis. They expect similar flexibility and customization in the solution, particularly regarding headers displaying keys and descriptions or just keys. Achieving this level of customization can be challenging, and it's an area that may need improvement.

I have been working with the solution for over eight years.

The solution is stable. I rate it an eight out of ten.

The solution is scalable. I rate it a seven out of ten.

The solution is deployed on-premises and cloud, and the entire process took slightly over a week. I rate the setup as seven out of ten.

The solution is expensive.

To ensure smooth deployment, businesses must clearly understand their specific business processes before opting for any solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Simplified tables, advance DSOs, and composite provider are valuable features.

I've been working with this solution for four years.

It is a stable solution.

The technical support is okay.

The initial setup is easy.

Price wise, this solution is on the higher side.

I would advise you to go ahead with SAP BW4HANA with minimal options to look into other solutions.

We found that SAP BW4HANA has better performance than NetWeaver Business Warehouse. Also, SAP BW4HANA has a simplified structure, advance DSOs, and a composite provider. These were not possible with NetWeaver Business Warehouse. This is because of the HANA database at the back end. Because of this, we have shifted 60% to BW4HANA and have 40% remaining on NetWeaver Business Warehouse. We have less than 5000 people using this solution.

Overall, I would rate SAP BW4HANA at nine out of ten.