Post on 22-Nov-2014
Comparison SAP vs Oracle
Why SAP
SAP – Undisputed Market Leader
SAP Leads across Products & Geographies( More benefits)
SAP provides superior ongoing support at lower cost( SAP is cheaper to use – big benefit)
Companies are Increasingly migrating to SAP
SAP has superior technology Architecture
SAP has a Solid History of leading technology transitions ( Oracle is still planning Fusion)
SAP is leading the industry with its ESA vision
Industry leaders endorse SAP’s Strategy
SAP has strong and Diverse partner EcoSystem
Oracle’s Strategy poses significant Risks for customers
Technology Mergers Rarely meet expectations
Oracles challenges are immense
Customers face Risk Regardless of Oracles execution
Pains of Oracle Customers
Frequent upgrade and patches are very high due to which the stability level
of the system is very low. It is very complex from the maintenance point of view
….Oracle Customer
Any customization of reports which is linked to India localization is very cumbersome as the data is stored in two different tables, one
for base apps data and the other for localization data
….Oracle Customer..2
User unfriendly as the application information is scattered across various screens which needs extra
maneuvering by the users.
….Oracle Customer…3
Commons Issues at Oracle Implementations
Navigation through the system is very tedious across the modules ….Oracle Customer…4
Multiple windows not possible for review of multiple screen
….Oracle Customer..5
Module/Function Module Functionality
Remarks
Supply Chain Management / Advanced Planning
Significantly Superior
SAP has a very strong advanced planning solution covering Demand Planning, Supply Network Planning and Detailed Production scheduling. This is being used by a number of IM&C, FMCG, CP also and the scale of implementations in the Indian context is also significant.
Oracle has recently changed the Architecture of its Demand planning module and the implementation requires significant testing and stabilization time frame from the perspective of bug resolution.
Maintenance Significantly Superior
Oracle was earlier supporting use of 3rd party solutions like “Maximo”. Recent implementations like Hindalco are also using Maximo. There is a new module available in Oracle now i.e. EAM. However implementations of this module are fairly limited especially in the Indian context
Costing Significantly Superior
As costing is directly linked to the production process, SAPs costing solution is more tightly integrated. Inventory valuation based on supplier wise, batchwise costs and inter plant transfers. Rework costing supported will help in shaping planning as well as from MIS, controlling and improvement perspective
Treasury Management
Significantly Superior
Treasury module is a recent addition to Oracle suite and references especially in the Indian context might be limited
SAP vs Oracle : Modulewise capability assessment
SAP vs Oracle : Modulewise capability assessment
Module/Function Module Functionality
Remarks
Materials Management
Significantly Superior
Batch Traceability of raw material is a strong and integrated functionality available in SAP.
Characteristic based shop floor material planning
Production Planning and Control
Significantly Superior
Comprehensive coverage of all production processes in SAP
Discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing scenarios can exist on the same system instance in SAP
Characteristics based planning is very relevant for as dimensional characteristics may vary
Oracle, supports a combination of the Process and Discrete manufacturing solution on the same instance from 11.5.9 onwards but there are very few customer references for this especially in the Indian context. This is significant in the context of JSL in terms of being a core solution requirement.
Module/Function
Module Functionality
Remarks
India localisation
Significantly Superior
Localization is not an integrated part of the core Oracle application and comes as an add-on in terms of a product patch All data entry screens for entering transactions with a localization impact are different from the base applications ones Since localization is not a part of the core base product, it can lead to integration issues especially from an accounting perspective like unbalanced journals, tax entries not flowing into GL, sub-ledgers not matching with the General Ledger etc
Project Systems
Superior Oracle does not have a comprehensive project monitoring tool as part of its Projects module and has to be integrated with 3rd party products like “Primavera” for monitoring.
SAP’s Project monitoring and scheduling is an integral part of the projects business cycle and has an impact on the overall business cycle from the project procurement to cash budgeting etc in case of rescheduling on the project timelines.
SAP vs Oracle : Modulewise capability assessment
SAP vs Oracle : Modulewise capability assessment
Module/ Function
Module Functionality
Remarks
India Payroll Significantly Superior
SAP-HR module is fully compliant with Indian statutory requirements
Transactional Reporting
Significantly Superior
All transactional available in SAP as part of the standard product can be modified online by the users using the report layout variants (i.e. user customizations). This is a very strong functionality which allows users to modify most of the transactional reports without any coding/customization effort. This is not possible in Oracle The planning screens are very interactive. Very user friendly screens Highly interactive
ESA Open Architecture
Significantly Superior
Open ESA Architecture has already been developed by SAP.
SAP Vs Oracle : Industry point of view
As per Technology research & analysis firm, Gartner Inc. –
Oracle’s E-Business suite vision lacks clarity and its long term product strategy is uncertain. It is likely to limit functional enhancement to its E-Business suite beyond 2008
Oracle's project Fusion – in which it plans to develop a new application suite with new architecture, makes it a highly risky proposition since the future of products currently bought would become suspect
SAP product support is better managed as its MySAP suite has far less number of batches compared to Oracle
SAPs presence in Indian context is much more proven and stable as it has experience of over 650 customers in India
SAP supports Java and works with the Java community
SAP NetWeaver provides complete support for Java technology
SAP is an active contributor to the Java Community Process (JCP) and a member of the JCP Executive Committee
SAP supports ABAP because customers want it; Oracle
continues to use its own language
• “If I am a customer and I never see ABAP, and underneath my code are robust, standard business processes that are proven in 30,000 customers around the world, do I care? If my application is built in [Oracle's] PL/SQL, is that more proprietary or less proprietary than ABAP? If my business is already running and customized by ABAP and put in the market—there is a collective $1 billion in ABAP code in the market—the last thing I want is for SAP to walk away from ABAP.”1
(1) eWeek article, “SAP’s focus: Getting Pieces To Work In Harmony” can be found at: www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1779652,00.asp (2) “CMI Alert on Oracle Q4 06 earnings” - Q4 06 (Oracle including all acquisitions) $1,630M; Q4 04 (Oracle, PSFT, JDE, Siebel) $1,767M (3) SAP Q2 ’06 Preliminary Release Press Release, 06/13/06
Oracle continues to use its proprietary language
Oracle will continue to use PL/SQL for some functionality
(Gartner, July 2005)
Oracle upgrades carry costOracle customers spent 43% more and required 39% more time when
upgrading compared to what they had expected (AMR, 2002)
Oracle is dependent on non-standards based
functionality Components of [Oracle’s] application require non-
standards-based functionality in Oracle Fusion Middleware
(Gartner, 2005)
Oracle’s data model requires expensive customization
Oracle’s model is generic without vertical industry extensions,
resulting in high customization. Oracle now has 5 separate data models as it has yet to integrate
JDE, PSFT, Siebel, & Retek
SAP NetWeaver and the service enabled mySAP business suite Are products
which are available now, unlike FusionOracle has little knowledge of the SOA landscape and is purposefully trying to
confuse SAP’s product roadmap
SAP embraces modern programming languages
[SAP NetWeaver AS] supports ABAP and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
… (Gartner, 2005)
SAP actively manages upgrades to benefit customers
SAP customers upgrade less often than average and expect to
upgrade less often than average (AMR, 2004)
SAP is focused on customer data needs
SAP’s Master Data Management enables businesses to synchronize
and centrally manage data through a flexible model that allows aggregation from both SAP and non-SAP sources
ABAP is a strong, effective code baseSAP’s ABAP is a proven performer with 30K+ customers throughout the world
SAP NetWeaversupports standards
Can be extended with commonly used development tools such as Java 2
Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere
Oracle applications are not written exclusively in Java
The current eBusiness suite is dependent on the use of
Oracle Forms and PL/SQL — older generation technologies
with limited compatibility to new-generation SOA (Gartner, July 2005)
Oracle Misleads About SAP’s NetWeaver CapabilityIgnores SAP NetWeaver’s Successful Reality
MDM is strong with an established product
roadmapSAP was first to market with
an MDM vision and continues to develop a best
in class solution, as evidenced by our 22
success stories
Customer data hubs difficult and expensive
to implementIt is costly to link up data
hubs in environments with high process integration needs;
companies might not see ROI for at least two years
(Gartner, 2004)
Oracle continues to use its own language
Oracle will continue to use PL/SQL for some
functionality (Gartner, 2005)
SAP embraces all modern programming languages
[SAP NetWeaver AS] supports ABAP and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) … (Gartner, ‘05)
SAP NetWeaver is a great successNetWeaver has 35,000 installations,
6000 customers using it as a strategic platform, high sat rates, 320 ISVs
powering their solutions with it and is ranked as a leader by leading analysts
The current version of NetWeaver delivers on SAP's promise to provide a comprehensive integration solution …
(Forrester, 2005)
SAP NetWeaver is designed with comprehensive Business Activity
Monitoring (BAM) capabilities SAP’s BAM capability alerts users to specified business events, enabling them to take the correct action in the
right context. More broadly, BAM helps organizations to monitor and optimize
business processes
SAP NetWeaver supports web services BPEL standardsSAP actively develops and supports open standards
SAP NetWeaver provides strong security functionality
SAP NetWeaver AS provides a single point of user administration, which can be synchronized with an external directory
server via LDAP through dozen of partner-provided alternatives
Note: Details on how SAP supports standards are in the document “Building Standards-Based Business Applications” located at: http://smart.sap.corp:1080/smart/media.asp?v=53881
Oracle has nothing new to say - standards is
yesterday’s markting msgInteroperability is hardly a
differentiator … all Aps vendors support (or pledge …) the same collection of standard and proprietary protocols (Gartner, 2005)
The security burden of proof is on OracleA new set of critical
vulnerabilities shows that Oracle can no longer be considered a bastion of security (Gartner, 2006)
Note: Gartner publicly repudiated Oracle for its misuse of data: http://ombudsman.blog.gartner.com/blog/index.php?id=2Oracle uses the following Gartner report for this ad: “ERP Upgrades Will Reflect The Uncertainty Of The Overall Market”, March 2005
Oracle is not “easy” to upgradeOracle customers spent 43% more and required 39% more time when upgrading compared to what they
had expected (AMR, 2002)
Oracle forces upgrades Oracle forced an upgrade by de-
supporting 10.7 in ‘03. The Gartner report cited in this ad
states Oracle had “driven users from v10.7 to 11i”
Upgrades carry costUpgrades cost an average of $1839 per
user and one man-week of labor for every business user (AMR, 2004)
Oracle apps are error proneOracle releases products
before they are ready. In its first 6 months, 11i had 5k bugs
(Forrester, 2001)
Oracle Misleads About UpgradesMisuses Statistics & Distorts Reality