During my work experience in different companies, I was asked same question again and again sometime by company employees some by my friends, which software is better Oracle or SAP.

I use to give answer on the basses of their needs or need of company. Now here I decided some general differences between Oracle and SAP B1, but keep in mind these are my views and does’t mean to discriminate any software, any manufacture, implementer or any user.

Feature comparison

Feature		Oracle		SAP B1		Remarks
Inbuilt Drag n Drop Reports		No SQL programmer is required to develop customized reports.		Yes Managers and other non-technical users can also develop simple reports		—
Print Layout Drag-n-Drop Customization		No Skilled resource is required to setup print layouts.		Yes A naive user can change print layouts by drag and drop like WYSWYG editors.		WYSIWYG refers to “What You See is What You Get”
Data Import		Requires Advance User Database Level		Requires Advance User Application Level		Data Import from Excel and other formats
Module Plug-ins		Only Oracle Only Oracle developed plug-ins.		SAP and Third Parties Other than SAP, a large number of third-party plug-ins are available. We can develop our own modules inside SAP.		—
Integration with Microsoft Outlook		Yes,  Limited		Yes		Emails can be linked to documents and emails can become source documents for a process using Outlook integration.
Chart of Accounts		Up-to 30 Levels, No Segmentation		Up-to 5 Levels and 9 Segments		The term “Segmentation” refers to the segregation of one natural account data into different regions, locations etc without making levels in chart of accounts.
Instant Reporting		No Users have to put a request to server and check the status himself if the report is completed or still in progress.		Yes Single click access to reports instantly.		—
Popup based Document Approval		No Email alerts are possible through “Oracle Alerts” which can be purchased as plugin.		Yes Managers get popups instantly.		—
Intuitive, Storable, Interactive Reports		Plain Text Reports exportable to PDF, Excel etc		Sorting, Grouping / Ungrouping and filters without exporting to Excel.		Report view/designer for users.
User Interface		Complex		User Friendly		—
Blackberry & Mobile Devices Access		Yes		Yes Plug-in readily available		—
Application Architecture		3 Tier (UI, Business Logic, DB)		2 Tier (DB and Client)		—
Resource Person Cost		High		Low		—
Learning Time		Comparatively High		Comparatively Low		—
OS Platform		Platform Independent Windows, Linux, Solaris		Windows		—
Database		Oracle		Microsoft SQL Server		—
Implementation Time		Comparatively High		Comparatively Low		—
Scalability		0 products up		2 products up		—
Client Application Installation at User Machines		Not Required		Required		—
Loading Time of Application over Internet		Not tested yet		Not tested yet		—
Product Maturity and Company Experience		Oracle launched its “Financials” in 1989 about 20+ years ago		SAP launched its first full ERP in 1973 about 37+ years ago		—
Additional Licensing		None		MS SQL Server, SDK		—

Cost comparison

And here is cost comparison

		Oracle Financials		SAP B1		Remarks
No of Users		15		20		Both companies claim that the quoted number of users is within the legal boundaries.
Implementation Time		6 Months		4 Months (3 Consultants)		Approximate, needs further discussion.
License Cost		$30,000		$24,907		Microsoft academic discount applied on SQL Server @ $6,000