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Microsoft Power BI vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
319
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (1st)
SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 21.6%, down from 22.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 3.7%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

AS
 

Featured Reviews

James Balbach - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust system consistently elevates data visualization and seamlessly updates with user-driven advancements
Power BI is a general-use visualization system. I can express the performance of our network through high-level key performance indicators. It allows me to show detailed improvements in quality and safety and patient experience. I create improvement dashboards for task forces and work teams. I have built analytic dashboards that guide analytics, enabling research and dataset manipulation.
Sumeet  Zalpuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Fully integrated enterprise-level tool
The initial setup was not straightforward. Since it is a complete enterprise tool, it needs a certain level of expertise to set up the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. There are a lot of steps involved. You need to get the user accepted and you need to validate the data. So you need to understand the architecture of the application. I would rate the initial setup as moderate since it's not very easy or much difficult. For a small enterprise, the installation would take one day. You must ensure you are on a supported platform like Windows or Linux and if your database is not on the server but in a different zone of the network, you need to ensure connectivity. You must also ensure the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform supports your organization's browser. These are the major things that must be taken care of before the installation. Around 500 users are using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform in my company. We are a team of around eight technical people involved in the deployment and maintenance of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. If you run a SAP shop with ECC, the best solution is the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform because it's tightly integrated. You'll get lots of offers from SAP when it comes to licensing. So there's an advantage. But if you are not a SAP shop, the licensing becomes a hindrance. So if you have SAP as a source, then I recommend people to go with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as it's a tool that works wonders. I have been working on POCs where we use SAP data for BI, which was a nightmare. So if you have ECC and SAP in the back end, go with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. If you have any other tools in the back end, then try to negotiate and see the use case.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like how the Query Editor lets me manipulate the data, and the available visuals are good. You can do everything using the UI."
"PowerBI – Self-service BI."
"Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes."
"Management reporting solution that's very stable and scalable."
"Microsoft BI is very easy to set up and use."
"The stability is good."
"It's easy to create reports and it's easy to download the data from the corresponding report."
"The product is intuitive and user-friendly."
"We are using SAP BusinessObjects because its scheduling capabilities are more powerful than those of other tools."
"The platform is a complete enterprise-level tool where everything is integrated to suffice your requirement."
"The reporting features the solution offers are excellent."
"It gives you a lot of flexibility in designing your dashboards."
"​The report development tool called SAP Web Intelligence under the BI Launch Pad portal has been the most valuable feature."
"We use it to identify critical KPIs to senior management."
"The planning and dashboarding features have been useful. Additionally, the fixed-format reports are good."
"We find that we can scale it as needed."
 

Cons

"Spatial data support should be enhanced."
"The challenge of this product is in truncating the table data."
"I would suggest improvements in visualization standards, particularly in customization and appearance."
"It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."
"The upgrade process could be improved."
"I have a little problem with Synapse Analytics because it's very new. It's a product that has many capabilities, but it is not very well developed. I have to see the list of permissions from one object. I can't do this in Synapse. I have to search on the web for a solution because I don't have the tool for it."
"The solution could be quicker at rendering data."
"BI is scalable, but there are some problems with limited online storage."
"The interface could be slicker and more user-friendly."
"More thorough testing of Service Packs before release."
"The calculation engine requires some improvement."
"The platform should be a bit more user-friendly."
"The user interface should be easier to use and navigate."
"Currently, we can use Explore to do data discovering, but cannot generate charts."
"The admin features for disk space management need work. It's very difficult to manage the disk space by the application; good admin features and not included to allow you to do that. I don't believe that is in the latest version of the product either."
"It is limited for us because SAP is shifting toward the cloud, and we can't use a cloud solution for SAP BusinessObjects. SAP introduced a product called PlusTimes one or two years ago and another one that I believe was called Automatic BI. This tool is more powerful than BusinessObjects and other tools because it's provided in the cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Paid for itself in the first month."
"Its pricing is reasonable for the desktop stuff, but for enterprise-level, it is a little expensive."
"The premium capacity is very costly in respect of the market in Egypt, amounting to $5,000 monthly."
"The price of Microsoft BI is expensive. We found the price of Tableau to be less expensive."
"This product offers good value for the money."
"We have premium licenses, but you can use it for free. You can share the content with anyone else, so you can use it for free."
"I very much recommend the free trial mode."
"Regarding cost, the initial investment wasn't too high, but ongoing licensing could add up."
"I have always found SAP BI to be expensive. It is expensive even when you compare SAP BI Cloud with Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is probably around $9.99 per month, and the cheapest SAP BI is around $20, which is double. In terms of price, Power BI is definitely a lot better. If you have budget issues, you may want to go for Power BI."
"There is an annual license to use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform."
"​It is not an expensive platform. The licensing is for a package of users starting at 10 users."
"The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to improve its licensing cost."
"It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."
"It has an option of a Cloud Platform (SAP Analytics Cloud) which has a lower price than the on-premise platform, and you can buy individual licences per user.​"
"We purchase licenses through Epic. So, we get an Epic price as opposed to the SAP price. If we were going to use other products like Webby that they offer or exclusively use BI Launch Pad, it would cost a lot because half of our employees would touch it in some fashion. So, we use Epic-Crystal integration to keep the licensing cost down. I believe the BI Launch Pad licensing is something like $800 for each, and the Crystal Report licensing is something like $500 for each, but that's not what we pay."
"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is an expensive application."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Answers from the Community

AS
Jul 30, 2014
Jul 30, 2014
Your Collegue may want to look at Tableau.
2 out of 22 answers
it_user95520 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 28, 2014
Hi, have a look at www.corpeum.com The CorPeuM software combines the latest thinking in management practices, such as those found in The Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma methodologies, with the latest developments in technology. CorPeuM is easily adapted to an organisations adopted management methodology and includes 'Best Practice' business templates, management workshops, and consultancy that re-writes the way performance management applications should be implemented. Unlike traditional management practices that involve financially focused annual budgets, monthly reports and quarterly forecasts, CorPeuM replaces these with a continuous, single management activity, driven by events, focused on the execution of strategy. CorPeuM possesses the attributes of a modern BI/CPM solution in that it is multidimensional in nature; is financially intelligent; can handle a mixture of financial and statistical measures; is multi-user where users are controlled in terms of their access and data manipulation capabilities; has named-based rules for generating analyses with integrity; and supports unlimited numbers of business dimensions, members and supporting structures.
it_user9168 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 28, 2014
When looking into a new Bi solution you need to consider a few things: 1. Is it a full stack solution? (front & Back end) 2. How much scripting & coding including sql you will need to create a report? 3. Does the solution supports the amounts of data you expecting in the new few years? 4. Does it support multi data sources ? I would suggest SiSense as the best platform that supports all the above and more. http://www.sisense.com Good Luck
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software
There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...
Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?
Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize information, control users accessing information, the configuration of governance po...
How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?
Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle ...
Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?
Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...
What do you like most about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?
What I like the most about SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is that it has significantly improved our decision-making process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?
The licensing cost for SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform can be significant due to its complexity. It is crucial for customers to carefully assess the value they expect to derive from the implementat...
 

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox
SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.