SAP vs Salesforce: Which CRM Software is Better?

SAP and Salesforce are the two most popular and important CRM systems. A customer relationship management (CRM) system is used to handle all interactions and relationships between a business and its clients. The objective and features of CRM system are to strengthen business ties and streamline business processes. It assists businesses in increasing profitability as well.

Both SAP and Salesforce as CRM are known for their great features and their effectiveness in business management. SAP vs Salesforce, which CRM platform to pick, is one question that has been on many minds for quite some time. Choosing a CRM system that works for your business can be tricky. You can go through this comparison guide to get deep insights about SAP and Salesforce and choose one that suits your business.

Understanding SAP

What is SAP?

SAP, which stands for System Analysis Program Development, is a leading Enterprise Resource Planning software for managing business processes and effective data processing for administrative purposes. It makes use of a cloud-based deployment module.

It is a market-share leader in ERP and is a multinational software provider. SAP ECC is typically implemented in a three-tier client-server, like the presentation tier, the application tier, and the database tier accordingly. It provides services to more than 180 countries on the basis of cloud and hybrid deployment models.

SAP software centralises data management and provides space for managing multiple business functions. This software is found to be useful in domains like sales, manufacturing, finances, logistics, warehouse, and supply chain management. It supports Apple OSX, Windows, and Linux Operating systems.

A few of the primary features offered by SAP are

• Contact management 
• Sales and opportunity management 
• Document management 
• Lead management 
• Pipeline management 
• Sales reports
• Time tracking 
• Partner management
• Email marketing 
• Service management

Pros and Cons of SAP

Pros

Ease of Usage

• SAP offers great ease of usage and is used by numerous companies, from small businesses to multinational corporations
• It works as an effective customer and human resource management tool to mitigate and plan tasks accordingly.

Performance and data analysis

• It aids in analysing the business and market performance and generates  detailed reports on the same.
• The real-time data provided by SAP helps companies get a clear picture of the ongoing processes within the system. It also helps leverage sales.

Automation and Quality Assurance

• SAP aids in product quality control and tracks the production of items.
• Automation features within the SAP system are one of the greatest benefits of SAP as it enables one to expedite tasks efficiently with no errors.

Customisation and Protection

• It comes with great customisation features, which help in customising the  SAP dashboard for streamlining the internal processes of the business as per each business requirement.
• The inbuilt systems and security firewalls make sure that the data is protected.

Implementation

• SAP is supported by numerous hardware vendors and is implemented in many large corporates and firms.

Cons

• A well-trained professional is required to utilise SAP effectively, which might be feasible for all businesses.
• Its implementation is time-consuming and expensive. and it also needs a periodic update from time to time. 
• SAP must be updated every six months, thereby demanding upskilling from the users.

Understanding Salesforce

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a well-known and reliable customer relationship management platform that serves as an all-in-one solution for several requirements in various business domains such as marketing, sales, commerce, and IT. Salesforce is used by many businesses, from small to large companies, for efficient management of business processes.  

With its Customer 360 system, sales CRM software provides a stabilised platform for administering business processes and delivering commendable customer experience. Salesforce supports Apple OSX, Windows, and Linux Operating systems like SAP.

A few of the primary features offered by Salesforce are

• Task management 
• Marketing automation 
• Customer data management 
• Workflow management 
• Salesforce email studio
• Lead management 
• Marketing automation 
• Forecasting 
• Pipeline visualization. 
• Partner relationship management 
• Contract management

Pros and Cons of Salesforce

Pros

Ease of Usage

• Salesforce offers exceptional customer relationship management platforms that aid in streamlining and managing business activities. 
• Salesforce does not require installation which is one of the greatest benefits of salesforce. The users can simply login into the system and start using it.

Customer support and data analytics

• Salesforce customer support is exceptional, and businesses depend on their customer 360 system for cross-functional insights and more. 
• The in-built data analytics tools help understand the business and user journey better, thereby aiding in developing result-yielding strategies.

Customisation and automation

• Salesforce provides flexible and highly customisable features, making the platform suitable for different businesses. 
• The automation tools are exceptionally effective. This enables a smooth flow of work and instant ticket addressal for customers.

Data sync and pipeline management 

• Salesforce’s advanced pipeline management system helps you get better insights into lead generation and engagement. 
• The data syncing feature within the system helps integrate information and data from multiple third-party apps in one place, thereby resulting in easier and enhanced data analysis.

User behaviour analysis

• Salesforce offers extensive customer behaviour analysis and insights on business performance and marketing. 
• The software also streamlines things between sales channels and its PRM (partner relationship management) processes and aids in the quick resolution of issues that arise.

Cons

• One of the greatest disadvantages of Salesforce is the complex configuration system which makes the navigation process complicated.
• Although Salesforce does not require installing software, it needs a high learning curve to be set up. In addition, the customer support of SAP can be improved to suit an easy, streamlined business process.

SAP VS Salesforce: Factors of Comparison

Pricing

SAP is available for a price of $75 per user per month, and this is on a contractual basis. Salesforce pricing starts at a minimum price of $25 per user per month and provides basic functionalities. SAP software price is costlier than Salesforce, and the purchase of the license is an elaborate process. Both SAP and Salesforce are based on a per-user subscription-based pricing model. SAP commerce cloud is based on peak page views per second, and Salesforce is based on a revenue-share pricing model.

Salesforce can terminate the contract and all your data within a few days of notice, so it is essential to track your subscription every now and then. SAP offers flexibility in terms of users who can use the tool. SAP’s basic model is costlier than Salesforce, but Salesforce increases the subscription price on renewal.

Ease of use

SAP and Salesforce provide customisable CRM solutions for users and buyers and several other analytical features for optimising client-oriented processes. SAP’s CRM solutions can help organisations needing a system to seamlessly integrate with third-party applications.

In Comparing SAP vs Salesforce, where organisations require major customisation options, they can choose Salesforce CRM software. Salesforce’s impressive case management capabilities would benefit businesses looking to improve their customer satisfaction processes. In a nutshell, the above-listed features of CRM help streamline the workforce; track leads to enhance sales results and processes.

If you compare SAP vs Salesforce, both are mature standards that provide the best features of CRM, such as sales force automation, pipeline management, and SaaS or cloud access. Salesforce offers solutions and helps to offer real-time insights and actionable analytics that help to optimise marketing efforts.

Integrations

 SAP business intelligence is designed to be a back-end solution, and many of its offerings were developed long before the advent of cloud computing. On the other hand, Salesforce is a cloud pioneer designed for front-end use. As a result, a planned approach is required to account for the technological differences between SAP’s on-premises solutions and Salesforce’s cloud-based solutions.

The idea is to leverage the best to achieve the organisational goals and the company’s requirements. SAP’s benefits are controlling finances and tax payments, undertaking quality control, and analysing business performance.

On the other hand, the benefit of Salesforce is to keep track of customer interactions and manage customer data. SAP and Salesforce are major CRM features that offer automation and streamlining workflow in the company, boost sales performance, and generate better returns. Compared to SAP vs Salesforce, salesforce support and CRM focus on marketing automation, analytics, and application development.

Sales feature

Salesforce and SAP business intelligence offer similar sales CRM features, including opportunities and leads. However, users find it convenient to integrate SAP provides with the SAP ERP system, on the other hand, they might face difficulty integrating Salesforce with SAP ERP.

In comparing SAP vs Salesforce, SAP offers several other features: SAP customer retention will predict customer behaviour, SAP cloud deal intelligence helps to determine leads and ranks, and prioritise ranks. 

SAP offers industry-based components, including CRM systems, whereas Salesforce only focuses on CRM-based systems. Both SAP and Salesforce offer AI-based integrations; however, SAP is a more favourable solution than the others. In a nutshell, both sales CRM software offers valuable real-time insights into customer data and analytics. 

Compared to the SAP cloud, one of the benefits of Salesforce is that it has a better user interface and SAP configuration solutions. However, compared to SAP CRM, Salesforce CRM is more popular due to its ease of use and user-friendly interface.

Customisation options

Salesforce is well-known for offering various customisation tools for its CRM application. Salesforce Lightning application tools, for example, are simple to use for the end users who know how to build an application for their own usage. 

Salesforce reports and dashboards provide real-time analytics and snapshot of the business happening. Users can create custom reports to collect data on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales metrics, rep performance, and conversion.

In comparing SAP vs Salesforce, with SAP’s simple interface, a user can create and modify interactive reports from the same interface. Then you can assign reports to specific users or organisational units. SAP’s role-based access restricts data to appropriate roles for the organisation. Thus, SAP and Salesforce have unique customisation options that leverage the best results for achieving organisational objectives.

Email Utilities

Email utilities allow users to track email data such as how many emails are opened, how many site clicks are made, and other information. With salesforce tools, professionals can identify the ROI of several campaigns and change the marketing efforts accordingly to drive better results. 

Salesforce allows you to quickly track customer emails from any email app like Gmail. Users can use email campaigns to get an overall idea of every customer interaction and associate the interactions with the respective contact for further communication.

Salesforce email studio is advanced and provides an efficient email marketing system. On the other hand, SAP enables users to design newsletters. SAP has a similar feature for tracking email interactions based on whether they are opened, how frequently they are opened, and whether those emails resulted in site views. Emails can be tracked automatically, but unique parameters must be manually entered into the tracking tool for any specific tracking.

Customer and industrial support

Salesforce and SAP CRM systems offer their users toll-free customer service. On the other hand, Salesforce has built a large end-user community that shares ideas and helps other users. Companies that provide third-party services have overwhelmingly chosen Salesforce for the practice over SAP Sales Cloud. SAP offers a variety of offers and great deals on industry-related components, including CRM systems.

In comparison to SAP vs Salesforce, the latter, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the CRM-based component.

Knowledge creation workflow

Knowledge creation workflow is a searchable information database for internal and external users. Salesforce Knowledge/salesforce tools is a knowledge base that allows users to easily curate content and surf and view the articles they require. It is incredibly comprehensive, with how-to guides, forums for the question and answer interactions, tutorial resources, and much more. SAP CRM Knowledge Base allows interaction centre (IC) agents to search a database for solutions, documents, and cases that can be sent to customers via email or chat.

Additional charges

SAP does not require additional fees, but you must pay for the yearly maintenance and support of the perceptual licences. SAP also offers toll-free support around the clock. Only non-technical issues are eligible for global assistance and support. To use the premium features of the Salesforce CRM, an additional fee must be paid. It offers customers toll-free phone support 24/7.

If you compare SAP vs Salesforce, the latter provides a better user interface and configuration than SAP CRM software, and the built-in features help achieve satisfactory results and garner valuable customer data and analytics.

SAP vs Salesforce: At a Glance

Should you choose SAP or Salesforce?

Picking the right CRM solely depends on the business requirements. Although Salesforce is claimed to be more cost-effective than SAP, you need to look for functionalities and features that work for you. 

For larger companies that require strong analytics features, SAP is recommended and is reliable as it offers great control over internal processes. There are numerous SAP consultants emerging all around the world due to its scope, and large businesses have the scope to employ high-profile resources. It is best to consider the size of your business when comparing SAP vs Salesforce features. 

If your aim is primarily to leverage good marketing solutions with great business intelligence, then Salesforce is the right choice. It is also found to perform better for individual self-service features. Salesforce has numerous key features relating to sales, services, and marketing that greatly benefits small businesses and helps them to flourish 

If you need further assistance in picking the right CRM platform for your business or picking the right tools to streamline your business processes, D2Scale can help you out. Hyperscale your business with D2Scale!