The Ultimate Guide to SAP Cloud ERP

German software vendor SAP provides several SAP Cloud ERP solutions, in this guide, we'll provide a complete walkthrough of every single SAP Cloud ERP solution including S/4 HANA Extended, Private/Rise, Essentials/Public and SME solutions including SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign.

What is SAP Cloud ERP?

SAP Cloud ERP is a collective term covering all SAP enterprise resource planning solutions which are delivered via a Cloud or SaaS (software as a service) model. Simply put, there is no single SAP Cloud ERP product - the term is interchangeable and refers to all SAP products hosted in the Cloud. 

Therefore, the term SAP Cloud ERP can refer to any of the following SAP ERP products:

• SAP Business One
• SAP Business ByDesign

SAP S/4 HANA Cloud ERP

• SAP S/4 HANA Essentials Edition or Public Cloud
• SAP S/4 HANA Private Cloud or (RISE)
• SAP S/4 HANA Extended Edition or Single Tenant Edition

So, let's look at each of these Cloud ERP products below and explain the differences.

What is SAP Business One (SAP B1)? 

SAP Business One (SAP B1) is an entry level ERP solution from SAP which is designed for small businesses, typically with less than 100 employees, less than $100M annual turnover and with low to medium business process complexity.

SAP B1 was originally designed as an On-Premise ERP solution, however it can be classified as a Cloud ERP solution today, since SAP offer the solution in their own Cloud environment, allowing their customers to consume it in a SaaS like fashion. 

What is SAP Business ByDesign?

SAP Business ByDesign is a SaaS or Cloud ERP solution designed for small to medium sized businesses, typically with 100 - 5000 employees and at least $10M annual turnover with medium business process complexity. 

SAP Business ByDesign is only offered as a Cloud ERP solution through a Software as a Service model. 

What is SAP S/4 HANA?

Launched in 2015, SAP S/4 HANA is the flagship, enterprise grade ERP solution from SAP, built for extremely fast growing and medium to large companies. It is the most robust, yet complex ERP solution from SAP available, serving 25+ industries in total and with thousands of customers, many of which are the worlds largest market leaders in their fields. 

The solution comes in many different configurations and flavours, ranging from On-Premise to a Public Cloud, pure SaaS ERP and everything in between. Each solution is designed to fit companies of different sizes and maturity.

What is SAP S/4 HANA Private Cloud (Rise)?

SAP S/4 HANA Private Cloud, also referred to as Rise is a private cloud ERP solution which offers almost the full scope of S/4 HANA On-Premise capabilities, including Cloud hosting and maintenance in a subscription model. 

What is SAP S/4 HANA Single Tenant Edition (Extended)?

SAP S/4 HANA Single Tenant Edition, also referred to as SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Extended Edition is a private cloud enterprise resource planning solution from German software giant, SAP.

Compared with it's On-Premise peer, the Single Tenant Edition is exclusively hosted in the Cloud and includes some application management services together with licenses in one Cloud subscription. Upgrades are also bundled in, creating an almost Software-as-a-Service like experience. To add to this, S/4 HANA Single Tenant Edition also prevents heavy customization. This provides a low total cost of ownership model to organizations looking for a scalable enterprise resource planning solution. 

Unlike SAP S/4 HANA Private Cloud or Rise, S/4 HANA Cloud Extended does not allow for extensive customization.

How is S/4 HANA Private & Extended hosted?

SAP offers S/4 HANA Extended Edition & Private Cloud or Rise on multiple hyperscaler hosting environments, allowing it to be deployed on SAP, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Microsoft Azure datacenters. SAP manages the environment as part of the contract, meaning upgrades and maintenance are included in the contract cost, giving SAP S/4 HANA Extended & Private Cloud or Rise the best of both worlds - low maintenance and the ability to deal with complex, international business processes in a best of breed Cloud ERP solution.

Who is S/4 HANA Extended Edition designed for?

SAP S/4 HANA Extended Edition, also known as Single Tenant Edition, is designed for companies that want to maintain a hands off approach to running an enterprise grade ERP solution. With an almost Software-as-a-Service offering, S/4 HANA Extended provides maintenance, hosting and upgrades through one managed service.

Who is S/4 HANA Private Cloud (Rise) designed for?

Whereas S/4 HANA Extended Edition, also known as Single Tenant Edition is designed for businesses who want a vanilla, standardised enterprise ERP solution, S/4 HANA Private Cloud or Rise is designed for companies who need to accomodate more complexity. This makes Private Cloud a good choice for existing SAP customers moving from an On-Premise SAP ERP system, who need to migrate over customizations, as well as customers in highly complex or regulated industries such as pharma.