SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs Plex Systems

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs Plex Systems based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Manufacturing Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Software Tool

Product Basics

Running a growing business comes with enough challenges — managing core processes shouldn’t be one of them. That’s where SAP S/4HANA Cloud by SAP steps in, a modern cloud-based ERP solution designed to simplify tasks like finance, procurement, manufacturing and supply chain management.

It’s built for mid-sized to large enterprises, offering real-time insights and advanced analytics to keep things running smoothly. It also integrates advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning.

Top features include its user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards and industry-specific workflows. It beats traditional on-premise ERPs with faster deployment, lower maintenance and automatic updates.

Users love the flexibility and accessibility, helping them simplify daily operations. It offers various deployment options to meet different business requirements, including public cloud, private cloud, on-premise and hybrid models.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers a 14-day free trial at no cost that includes guided tours and sample data to help you navigate the system. Pricing depends on company size, number of users and selected modules. However, SAP S/4HANA Cloud hasn’t mentioned it directly on the website.

read more...
Plex Manufacturing Cloud uses real-time data to connect and facilitate operations among various business aspects such as finance, distribution and production. It has built-in compliance and approval monitoring tools to ensure that your products are created accurately and with regulations in mind.

With Plex software, you also have the ability to develop customized reports and dashboards to make visualization easier and more streamlined. These reporting tools can make developing insights faster and easier, especially when considering the program’s use of actual minute-by-minute data.
read more...
$40/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$500/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Automate Business Processes: Use intelligent automation, AI and robotic process automation (RPA) to handle routine tasks while optimizing others. This capability reduces manual work and lets employees focus on more valuable tasks. Our analysts give it a 100 for its intelligent capabilities.
  • Reinvent Your Business Model: Implement industry-specific solutions and best practices to introduce new strategies. Create customized products and explore innovative strategies to elevate how you do business.
  • Make Data-Driven Decisions: Access real-time data, embedded analytics and digital assistants to make informed decisions quickly. Engage with visual reports and use a context-aware digital assistant for a seamless, intuitive experience. Its standout capabilities earn it a perfect 100 for reporting.
  • Adapt: Address changes with real-time analysis and flexible tools for configuration, pricing, and quotes. These features help users quickly identify and manage changes. The system also notifies users of issues and suggests solutions. Our analysts rated SAP S/4HANA Cloud as the best solution in its category for procurement.
  • Accelerate User Adoption: Access a wide range of onboarding resources through openSAP and the SAP Learning Hub. These online hubs offer various learning formats to ensure users can easily understand and adopt the new system, no matter their preferred learning style.
  • Increase Efficiency: Equip employees with automation tools and real-time data insights to improve decision-making. This strategy reduces errors, saves time and money, and boosts productivity, driving better overall business performance.
  • Improve Usability: Built with SAP Fiori, the system is responsive, intuitive and designed to be simplistic. It provides a personalized and role-based user experience that can be accessed from any device. The system also supports 85% of functional requirements out-of-the-box so you have the features you need from the get go.
  • Centralize Data: In-memory computing stores all data in one unified system, avoiding fragmented databases. This centralization enables users to analyze large volumes of data at once and quickly spot trends, making data management more efficient.
  • Boost Time to Value: Start with guided implementation, quick technical setup and an intuitive interface. This helps the team to adopt the system quickly and deliver results faster.
  • Lower Expenses: Minimize total cost of ownership (TCO) with a subscription-based model. This cuts hardware, maintenance and upgrade expenses when compared to traditional on-premise systems.
read more...
  • Increased Efficiency: Plex Manufacturing Cloud uses real-time data and set parameters to maximize production capabilities. Its Advanced Planning and Scheduling tool uses information such as inventory levels, amount of production floor space and maximum productivity levels to generate a best-fit manufacturing schedule. 
  • Accessibility: As a cloud-based manufacturing software, Plex is available anytime and anywhere as long as a user has internet access. This is especially beneficial in the manufacturing center considering manufacturing managers and production line employees can access real-time data from internet-enabled devices while they’re actually on the floor working. 
  • Improved Customer Experience: Customers are the backbone of your business, and Plex software capitalizes on this fact through its customer portal, which provides visualization as a product moves throughout the supply chain. Shipping notifications are also included so that clients have an accurate expectation as to when an item should be delivered. 
  • Heightened Visibility: With increased visibility, you can develop insights more quickly. Plex Manufacturing Cloud contains the ability to use customizable dashboards to reflect minute-by-minute information such as inventory levels and labor allocation, which enables you to make informed decisions based on current processes. 
  • Collaboration: Plex allows for collaboration with clients through the customer portal. It also contains internal collaboration tools that are emphasized through its multi-site functionality for supply chain and financial processes. 
read more...
  • Financial Management: The SAP S/4HANA financial and accounting management tool scored 100 in our assessment. Below are some key capabilities:
    • Run your business efficiently using built-in best practices, reporting and predictive analytics to maintain compliance and manage risks.
    • Analyze your revenue and costs in real time, allowing you to view data across various dimensions to understand profitability at any level of detail.
    • Automatically record financial transactions as they occur, ensuring reports are up-to-date while supporting multiple accounting principles for asset valuation.
    • Use KPIs to monitor and manage payables, receivables, and cash flow, giving you a real-time view of key financial metrics through a centralized dashboard.
    • Prioritize payments, track overdue invoices and identify high-risk customers to help your team manage costs more effectively and reduce the risk of bad debt.
    • Centralize tax and financial reporting, ensuring that all departments access the same consistent data, while guiding users through an interactive financial analysis process.
  • Sales Management: The SAP S/4HANA Sales module offers effective order and contract management, incentive and commission management, and support for sales teams. Its key capabilities include:
    • Manage the order-to-cash process efficiently across various revenue streams, including physical and digital goods, services, subscriptions, projects and bundles.
    • Oversee bundled orders from one place, tracking profit, cost and revenue for each order line item. Automate alerts for project changes, deadlines and expirations.
    • Equip sales reps to sell more effectively with a personalized home page, intuitive interface and quick access to tasks, applications and reports.
    • Create sales orders from unstructured data like PDF or image-based purchase orders using machine learning to extract information automatically.
    • Simplify incomplete sales order documentation with AI-powered autocomplete, which suggests missing fields based on historical data.
    • Automate invoicing by integrating billing and accounting, improving cash flow accuracy and simplifying accounts receivable, all while meeting local requirements.
  • Supply Chain Management: The SAP S/4HANA Supply Chain tool achieved an outstanding score of 100 in our assessment, surpassing Visibility ERP and Oracle Fusion Cloud. It offers users a range of capabilities, including:
    • Get real-time visibility into your supply chain with customizable dashboards. Track inventory, predict stock trends with AI and monitor deliveries instantly.
    • Automatically confirm and process customer orders, ensuring that they align with business priorities to meet customer expectations.
    • Help teams cut costs and reduce waste with easy-to-use mobile apps for packing goods more efficiently as part of the logistics process.
    • Shorten delivery times by making sure you have the right vehicles, optimized routes, and the right quantity of goods, saving both time and fuel.
  • Manufacturing Management: The SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing module is built on methods like lean control, continuous improvement and just-in-time replenishment. It can:
    • Optimize production by integrating processes smoothly, whether you're manufacturing to stock, order or custom specifications.
    • Meet customer demands by identifying and fixing capacity issues, bottlenecks or shortfalls early, using planning simulations to find the best solutions.
    • Balance supply and demand with real-time material requirements planning (MRP). The system immediately flags MRP exceptions and helps you resolve them quickly.
    • Ensure timely product delivery by tracking each container’s status with a real-time graphical Kanban board.
    • Deliver high-quality products by running quality inspections throughout the production process.
  • Procurement Management: The SAP S/4HANA Procurement module offers a scalable, value-driven and compliant process for managing operations. Its key features include:
    • Easily view and update all purchase requisitions at once. The Joule copilot simplifies how employees collaborate during procurement tasks.
    • Efficiently manage the entire procure-to-pay process, with real-time insights available at every stage.
    • Identify bottlenecks and cost-saving opportunities with a customizable dashboard that shows all key tasks. Automate workflows for purchase orders, contracts and invoices, and analyze them in detail.
    • Improve purchase contracts by setting up approval workflows. Track contract usage, plan renewals and negotiate long-term discounts with suppliers.
    • Predict delivery dates for purchase orders to improve planning and avoid production delays.
    • Make informed decisions by accessing real-time purchasing data without needing to open multiple reports.
read more...
  • Inventory Management: Plex Manufacturing Cloud allows you to track the quantity and location of your inventory, whether you want to look at raw materials, WIP or finished goods. It also supports barcode scanning and label printing in an effort to improve the accuracy of reported inventory levels. Controls are also in place to ensure that products are always developed using the right materials, therefore improving inventory viability. 
  • PLM Functionality: Built-in revision control workflows allow for approved changes to be reflected across the entirety of the product lifecycle. Product specifications can also be developed to expedite processes. 
  • Quality Management: Plex software helps to ensure that you are retaining compliance with standards such as ISO, TS and QS. You can also use supplier scorecards to look at your entire supply chain. For example, your suppliers can use checksheets to validate the quality of their materials before the goods reach your facility, therefore hastening the quality analysis process on your end. 
  • Management of Shipments: The shipping management system ensures that only products that meet acceptable quality specifications are sent to customers and that they are sent to the intended recipient. Plex software's manufacturing system also contains a labeling feature that automatically prints labels using customer information in order to avoid shipping errors. ASNs are automatically sent and formatted as products leave the production facility. 
  • Real-Time Financial Management: Plex software contains continuously updated information on components such as labor hour utilization and point-in-time inventory. The financial management system is designed for order-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes and includes multi-site functionality. Financial reports are also easily accessible with this tool. 
  • Customer Relationship Management: This program includes a customer portal that provides visibility of a product as it moves throughout the supply chain and allows for enhanced collaboration ability. Important components such as quotes, estimates, issue resolution and order management are built into the tool along with an integrated EDI. 
  • Advanced Planning and Scheduling: The Plex Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) solution allows you to account for constraints in your workplace such as amount of resources and maximum production capacity to develop optimized production runs. Finite Scheduling includes the ability to plan your development schedule based on factors such as resources, tools and space. The program also allows you to level-load production across different manufacturing centers. 
read more...

Product Ranking

#45

among all
Manufacturing Software

#14

among all
Manufacturing Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

50
57
54
43
17
0
56
56
Show More Show More

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Plex Systems
+ Add Product + Add Product
Bill Of Materials (BOM) And Routing Computer-aided Design And Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAD And CAM) Management Engineering Change Control Inventory Management Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Product Configuration Production Planning Production Scheduling Quality Management Recipe And Formula Management Reports And Dashboards Shop Floor Control Warehouse Management Work In Process (WIP) Work Order Management 54 17 56 79 68 60 53 41 39 47 56 16 45 20 71 33 76 43 0 56 71 80 67 79 36 67 70 80 47 100 70 44 0 44 0 25 50 75 100
56%
0%
44%
44%
0%
56%
17%
0%
83%
0%
0%
100%
56%
0%
44%
56%
0%
44%
79%
0%
21%
71%
0%
29%
64%
0%
36%
82%
0%
18%
60%
0%
40%
67%
0%
33%
57%
0%
43%
71%
0%
29%
42%
0%
58%
33%
0%
67%
40%
0%
60%
67%
0%
33%
44%
6%
50%
69%
0%
31%
50%
10%
40%
80%
0%
20%
15%
0%
85%
46%
0%
54%
45%
0%
55%
100%
0%
0%
20%
0%
80%
70%
0%
30%
71%
0%
29%
35%
0%
65%
33%
0%
67%
0%
0%
100%
78%
0%
22%
44%
0%
56%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

61%
0%
39%
50%
0%
50%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 2815 reviews
Good User Sentiment 32 reviews
87%
of users recommend this product

SAP S/4HANA Cloud has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 2815 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

74%
of users recommend this product

Plex Systems has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 74% when considering 32 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.5 (730)
3.3 (17)
n/a
4.2 (11)
4.3 (338)
n/a
4.2 (388)
4.3 (3)
4.3 (1359)
3.0 (1)

Awards

we're gathering data

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Plex Systems and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Reports and Dashboards.

Reports and Dashboards Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Real-Time Inventory Visibility: It optimizes stock levels and avoids stockouts with instant inventory updates, reducing carrying costs and boosting customer satisfaction.
Purchase Order Accuracy: Some users say automating purchase order generation based on real-time inventory and demand has minimized errors in procurement.
Production Planning: It refines production schedules and resource allocation with real-time data insights from connected machines and sensors, increasing efficiency and output.
Financial Reporting: Many users appreciate the ability to generate accurate and timely financial reports with automated data consolidation from all departments.
Sales Team Productivity: It gives the sales team the ability to access customer data and manage orders directly from mobile devices. This increases overall productivity and works efficiently from anywhere.
Automatic Updates: Users say that SAP manages regular updates and maintenance, ensuring up-to-date features and security patches without the need for external resources.
Show more
Improved Shop Floor Visibility: Users praise Plex for providing real-time insights into production processes, enabling better decision-making and quicker responses to issues.
Streamlined Inventory Management: Plex helps manufacturers optimize inventory levels, reducing waste and ensuring materials are available when needed.
Enhanced Quality Control: The system's quality management features help track defects, identify root causes, and improve overall product quality.
Show more
Steep Learning Curve: It can be tough to transition from traditional ERPs to a new interface and cloud-based model. This could affect initial productivity, requiring user training to get fully up to speed.
Limited Customization: Users say the customization options are limited compared to on-premise systems. The ability to tailor the system for specific business needs is restricted.
Integration Challenges: Users find integrating with older, non-S/4HANA systems challenging. The process often requires additional tools and expertise, which can increase the complexity and overall costs.
Vendor Lock-in: Some users mention the reliance on SAP's cloud infrastructure makes it harder to switch to alternative solutions later. This dependency can reduce flexibility for future expansion.
High Subscription Costs: Some users say the cost of the software is a big barrier for small businesses since the initial implementation and ongoing subscription fees are relatively high.
Response Time: Customer support could be more responsive and efficient in addressing issues. Users mentioned that providing more thorough assistance would enhance the overall customer experience.
Show more
Reporting Limitations: Users express frustration with the inflexibility and limitations of Plex's built-in reporting features, making it difficult to extract and analyze data in ways that suit their specific needs.
User Interface Complexity: The system is often described as being difficult to navigate and non-intuitive, especially for new users who require extensive training to become proficient.
System Rigidity: Plex is often criticized for its lack of flexibility in adapting to unique or evolving business processes, requiring workarounds or customizations that can be time-consuming and costly.
Show more

As a free trial user of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, I can confidently say it excels in simplifying core business processes and offers top-notch capabilities. Our analysts give a perfect 100 for their Finance, Procurement and Supply Chain Management modules.SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a robust ERP solution widely used across various industries due to its flexible, modular design and comprehensive functionality. After trying it firsthand, I was surprised by the initial setup. It was smooth and intuitive, with sample data and guided tours provided to explore all modules easily.The main menu and search bar were easy to navigate without redirects. I also liked how user-friendly the interface felt, especially for a first-time user.The finance module stood out to me. It provides a centralized dashboard where you can store and generate all sorts of reports, and it's easy to keep track of payments and overdue invoices. For someone looking to optimize manufacturing, it offers real-time visibility into operations, making it easier to meet customer demands efficiently.That said, the free trial had its limitations. I couldn’t access all features or sample data completely, which made it harder to fully explore the system’s potential.That being said, our analysts rated the Finance, Procurement, and Supply Chain Management modules a perfect 100. Many recent reviews have echoed the same sentiment, praising its real-time inventory view and automated workflows. However, others mentioned the inability to customize workflows during the trial.Users also pointed out the system’s complexity, but I personally found it easier to navigate than expected with the sample data. Still, I’m unsure how it would perform with real-time data in an actual business setting.Pricing wasn’t listed directly on the site, but compared to competitors, SAP S/4HANA costs—including implementation, licensing and training—are higher, especially for smaller organizations with tighter budgets.Overall, SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a powerful tool with advanced capabilities, though its learning curve and customization limitations may be challenging for some. For larger organizations with the budget and resources to implement it fully, it can significantly improve operations and drive growth.

Show more

Want to know if Plex Systems is truly complex or simply complexly awesome? Recent user reviews suggest the former might be closer to the truth. While Plex Systems is praised for its comprehensive suite of features covering everything from planning and scheduling to supply chain management, users often highlight a steep learning curve and a sometimes clunky interface as drawbacks. This complexity can make it challenging for smaller businesses or those with less tech-savvy teams to implement and utilize effectively. However, Plex Systems shines in its ability to connect different aspects of a manufacturing operation, providing real-time visibility into production processes, inventory levels, and quality control data. This end-to-end integration is a key differentiator, allowing businesses to streamline operations and make data-driven decisions. For example, users cite the ability to track production in real-time and identify bottlenecks as a major advantage, leading to improved efficiency and reduced downtime. Ultimately, Plex Systems is best suited for larger, established manufacturing businesses with the technical resources and expertise to navigate its complexities and leverage its powerful features for maximum impact.

Show more

Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Manufacturing Software


Acumatica

Aptean ERP

Cetec ERP

DELMIAworks

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 SCM

Epicor Kinetic

JobBOSS²

Katana MRP

MIE Trak Pro

MRPEasy

NetSuite

Oracle Fusion Cloud

Plex Systems

Sage 100 Cloud

SYSPRO

SyteLine

Visibility ERP

Related Categories

Head-to-Head Comparison

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings