Many businesses turn to software to manage their workloads, stay organized, and streamline processes. There are dozens of solutions available, and choosing the right one for your business needs can be a challenge.
To help organizations make the right decision, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software comparison report enables businesses to look at the characteristics between choice packages and choose the ERP that best suits their needs.
In this comparison report, we’ll take a look at the two leading ERP solutions: IFS ERP vs. SAP ERP. Both software solutions can satisfy the ERP needs of most businesses, but one may offer more specific features to suit your unique needs.
Both IFS Applications Software and SAP ERP Software are designed to help you manage your enterprise resources in an organized and efficient way.
SAP ERP Software is currently the most popular resource planning ERP software on the market, being used by over 172,000 clients. It offers a wide range of features to suit various industries.
IFS Applications Software is a newer ERP software option, but has promising features that attract more businesses every year. IFS solutions can be configured to suit specific industries.
Let’s examine and compare functions between the IFS vs. SAP ERP applications.
Interested in learning more? Check out these blogs:
- How to Benefit from IFS Services
- ERP Selection: 5 Criteria to Consider
- Top 6 Benefits of ERP System Consolidation
Number of Users Supported
Both IFS and SAP are designed to support larger companies, usually ranging from 50 to more than 1,000 users.
While SAP S/4HANA software is designed solely for large enterprises, SAP does offer a separate ERP specifically for small and medium-sized businesses called Business One.
IFS, on the other hand, supports more than 10,000 customers worldwide and is a better option for mid-sized businesses. This is because it can be configured based on specific industry and need. This provides added flexibility that may be missing from SAP’s ERP offerings.
Features and Highlights
Choosing the right ERP software depends on the features it can provide your business. Without the exact features your business needs, you’ll be back to manually handling administrative tasks.
SAP ERP Software Features
SAP ERP Software is a more generic ERP that’s designed to fit any business across several industries. It can help you manage many elements across your manufacturing facility:
- Product planning and scheduling
- Project management
- Supplier relationship management
- Financial management
- Quality management
- And more
These generic features make SAP easily adaptable by countless businesses, but it also means the features themselves are generic.
If you need more customized features to suit your unique industry requirements, you might need to modify the applications or purchase add-ons.
IFS ERP Applications Features
IFS Applications software is configured for various industries, and offers industry-specific features:
- Sourcing and procurement
- Configuration and fleet management
- Field service and product lifecycle management
- Project management and manufacturing engineering
- Product support and call center options
- Constraint-based scheduling
- And more
As compared to SAP, the IFS Applications ERP software is much easier to use, completely configurable, and provides better reporting and insights for your operations.
On the analytical side, the IFS Business Reporting and Analysis™ feature includes analytical models that cover all aspects of your business. Each model is easily accessible via IFS Lobby, Microsoft Excel and PowerBI, and other analytical tools.
In addition, IFS can integrate with your CRM for seamless end-to-end process management.
Choose the Right ERP Solution for Your Business
Let Corning Data’s experts help you find an ERP that addresses your needs.
Which is Best? IFS ERP vs. SAP
Even when you compare the functions and characteristics of SAP and IFS ERP solutions, it’s not easy to tell which is right for your business.
Here is a preliminary side-by-side appraisal of both systems:
| IFS | SAP | |
| Perpetual
Licensing |
One-time licensing fee of $1,000 to $2,999 per user | N/A |
| Subscription Licensing | Starting at $120 / user / month | Starting at $11 / user / month for limited functionality Business One |
| Deployment | On-Premise or Cloud | Cloud |
| Number of Users | 50-1,000+ | 10-1,000+ (depending on ERP package) |
| Features |
|
|
| Best for | Mid-size to large companies looking for industry-specific ERP solutions that are configurable | Large enterprise companies looking for a solid all-around ERP to handle their business process needs. |
| Ease of Use | User friendly | Not as user friendly |
| Configurable? | Yes | Somewhat |
For most businesses, IFS offers more configurable features at a slightly lower price than SAP, but that doesn’t mean IFS is the right choice for every business. It depends on the features you find the most important for your organization.
However, when compared from an ease-of-use standpoint, IFS is the better choice. It is fully configurable for the needs of small-to-medium-sized businesses and designed to grow with your business without causing any disruptions to the software.
Make Educated ERP Decisions for Your Business
If you need help choosing between IFS Applications vs. SAP ERP, trust the experts at Corning Data. We’ve performed over 400 ERP implementations and 1,000 upgrades for companies all over North America.
We’ll help you identify the right ERP solution to fit your needs and implement it for you. We can even help you transfer data between SAP and IFS if you have an existing ERP but want to switch or upgrade.
Contact us today to get started toward a more efficient future with the right ERP software.
