SAP is the safe choice for many large corporations when it comes to professional business solutions. And what about SMEs? This is increasingly looking for leaner and more cost-effective SAP alternatives. In the cloud in particular, there are already numerous alternative ERP tools that can easily compete with the market leader's solutions — or even surpass it in specific areas.
In this blog article, you will learn about 5 modern SAP alternatives, because: Cloud services are not only easier to implement, but are also often more intuitive and user-friendly to use compared to the complex product portfolio of the giant from Walldorf.
5 SAP alternatives for your project business
Project time recording is a crucial aspect in the world of project management. Project-oriented businesses need precise and efficient tools to record and bill project times and gain up-to-date insights. Traditional ERP systems Like SAP, flexibility often reaches its limits. They are too generic and require a great deal of time when making individual adjustments and sometimes cause considerable costs.
In the following, we present 5 proven alternatives to SAP. In doing so, we look at which functions qualify the product as an SAP alternative and take a look at the (monthly) costs.
1. ZEP Professional
ZEP Professional is the tool of choice when it comes to your own project time recording and project management. It fulfills the ERP character, acts as a central PSA software and offers features such as invoicing, quote management, and resource planning. In addition to specific additional modules, you have the option of using the ZEP app for iOS and android, enter your documents directly on a specific project.
For these reasons, ZEP is an SAP alternative in project business:
- Time recording: With the Attendance module a variety of functions, including the display of recorded attendances, linking smartphones and tablets via an app as mobile time clock, individual activation of attendance recording for each employee and automatic creation of project times. Time recording can be done via a web frontend, App for iOS or Android and about the specially produced ZEP terminal take place. that Overtime, Absenteeism & Vacation Module enables the digital management of all absences without manual processes. An automatically created overtime account per employee provides further convenience.
- Resource planning: One efficient resource planning is the key to avoiding bottlenecks and optimising your productivity. that Resource planning module enables predictive project planning and shows employee utilization and upcoming tasks for a successful project. With the Planning hours module Design your projects flexibly as required, whether with fixed or dynamic plan figures. As a proven addition, this has proved to be Tickets, Tasks & To-dos module established. With this, you can divide your projects into individual tasks for a clear and transparent distribution of tasks. Incoming inquiries from your customers can be stored as tickets directly in the project and linked to predefined planning hours.
- Offer Management & Invoicing: The Offers module optimizes your offer preparation with practical templates. You save time and avoid manual processes. After acceptance of the offer, ZEP automatically creates a project with all relevant components. that Billing module After the end of the project, it makes automated invoicing easier for you by converting all expenses recorded for the project into invoices that can be sent directly by e-mail.
- Interface to SAP: About open SOAP/REST interfaces ZEP can be easily integrated into a wide range of SAP areas.
Would you like to experience the benefits of ZEP for yourself? You can use the tool Test it free of charge and without obligation for 30 days. After the trial period, a license for ZEP Professional is already available from 20 euros per month & user.
2nd heap of X360 e-commerce
Haufe X360 was developed for small and medium-sized businesses. This flexible and industry-neutral solution can be adapted to various business models and meets individual requirements. The cloud ERP solution enables seamless networking of all business processes and supports company growth. With these functions, the tool is suitable as an SAP alternative:
- accountancy
- financial accounting
- inventory management
- CRM
- Shopify interface
For small and medium-sized companies, the tool is available for 103 euros per month & user — the minimum booking amount is 449 euros.
3. VEMAS.NET
This tool enables flexible invoicing of projects, contracts and seminars using intelligent workflows. The software automates the calculation of time and material cost bookings. The following functions characterize the software as an SAP alternative:
- Interfaces to financial accounting
- Address management, acquisition function & project management similar to SAP, but within a more cost-effective framework
- Easy integration to suit various project-related business areas
In the basic version (small business), the software offers an SAP alternative, especially for service, consulting and software companies, starting at 213 euros per month, plus maintenance costs. This price already includes 3 full users.
4. PACS project controlling software
The PACS software was developed specifically for the needs of business consultancies, auditors and service companies with a project focus. As an SAP alternative, customers benefit from the following features, among others:
- Recording of time and travel costs for projects
- Project management from planning to billing
- Detailed project analyses including reporting function
The PACS project controlling software offers a free trial period. The price is individually designed and depends on the number of users and the selected modules.
5th Projektron BCS
Projektron BCS is more than just a conventional project management tool. As a business coordination software (BCS), it comprehensively supports all business processes and work organization in project-related companies. With the following functions, Projektron BCS can certainly describe itself as an SAP alternative:
- Infinite scalability for smart management from small agile project teams to corporations
- Digital time recording for various areas of application, e.g. project time recording
- Offer management also internationally
- Preparation of expense and fixed price invoices from projects, including the option to store various currencies.
After a free trial period, Projektron offers on-premise licensing options starting at 250 euros per user or a SaaS cloud variant that amounts to 5% of the on-premise purchase price per month & user. The exact price per user depends on the desired range of functions.
Agile SAP alternatives are becoming increasingly popular
The increasing demand from project-oriented companies for cloud-based SAP alternatives, such as ZEP, shows a clear trend. These alternatives are not only characterized by their usually more cost-effective nature compared to traditional SAP implementations, but also offer faster and easier implementation.
In contrast to traditional SAP implementations, where a significant portion of resources is spent on developing special programming, adaptations and tailor-made additional integrations, cloud-based solutions such as ZEP focus primarily on the technical effort involved in the background. This proves to be extremely beneficial, particularly for project managers.
Not convinced yet?
