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Oracle OBIEE vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Oracle OBIEE boosts reporting speed and decision-making despite some ROI challenges and enhances financial outcomes with WebLogic setups.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform yields high ROI in large deployments, despite steep costs, through efficiency and decision-making improvements.
The initial investment will be more, but the ROI is also good, so they can consider it if they're looking for something in the long run.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
For most of my clients using the on-premises version of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, the return on investment is positive due to its affordability and ability to handle diverse reporting needs while automating information distribution.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.8
Oracle OBIEE's customer service is mixed, with prompt responses but inconsistent resolution quality and frequent upgrade suggestions.
Sentiment score
6.5
Customer service for SAP BusinessObjects is mixed, showing both responsiveness and delays, with inconsistent technical support quality.
The tendency to route users to sales personnel with limited technical expertise detracts from the support experience.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
Sometimes, they forward my ticket to the technical team, especially when my issue involves technical aspects that basis people may not be familiar with.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Oracle OBIEE is scalable and versatile for enterprises, but complexity and infrastructure dependency can lead to performance issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform efficiently scales for global enterprises, supporting thousands of users with seamless advanced analytics integration.
While Oracle OBIEE is scalable, it is more of a niche product designed to work specifically with Oracle systems.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is adequate; it is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Oracle OBIEE is stable but needs proper configuration and infrastructure for high user concurrency and optimal performance.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is stable and robust with proper configuration, despite occasional bugs and integration challenges.
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle OBIEE is hindered by outdated visuals, complex usability, performance issues, and high costs, requiring enhancements and better support.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform faces challenges in performance, integration, user experience, setup, flexibility, and costly licensing.
Oracle OBIEE has a steep learning curve compared to tools like SQL Server or Power BI.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The RPD, the semantic layer, is the steepest hurdle. Security integration, integrating with LDAP or Active Directory, is rarely plug and play and requires deep knowledge of WebLogic.
Analyst at Equifax Inc.
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
SAP enterpise cloud architect at ECC Experienced Certified Consulting
I would appreciate integration with Outlook as an additional feature in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Oracle OBIEE's high cost and complex licensing can be offset by customizations and negotiated discounts for large-scale use.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform's licensing is flexible but costly compared to alternatives, suited for large enterprises, budget-sensitive for smaller businesses.
Oracle OBIEE is quite expensive, especially when compared to Microsoft's solutions.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP BTP is an expensive solution.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
The price is very competitive and reliable.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Valuable Features

Oracle OBIEE offers interactive dashboards, data visualization, secure data merging, and cloud-based architecture for advanced analytics and mobile access.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform offers scalable, user-friendly reporting with robust features, enhancing decision-making and data governance.
A valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is its ability to automate some tasks, such as invoice analysis, saving a significant amount of clerical work.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The best features in Oracle OBIEE include improved visualizations, look and feel, and user-friendliness, particularly in OAC, which is the extended version in cloud where DV has been introduced.
Analyst at Equifax Inc.
For calculations, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform outperforms all other tools such as Power BI and Tableau, showing more accuracy, reliability, and flexibility compared to all other BI tools worldwide.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
Since we started using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we have been able to make faster, data-driven business decisions based on actual data insights and data analysis, which has accelerated our ability to make better decisions for our business productivity.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle OBIEE
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
159
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (8th)
SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
112
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Oracle OBIEE is 1.3%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 2.3%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform2.3%
Oracle OBIEE1.3%
Other96.4%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Analyst at Equifax Inc.
Unified semantic layer has driven informed credit risk decisions and real-time analytical insight
Performance-related issues are a concern, as in multiple reports I have seen, some reports were poorly performing. We can focus on implementation of performance so that reports are delivered within seconds. The user interface and self-service experience can be improved through modernization of the UI, addressing self-service limitations, and integrating with mobile. Technical and administrative complexities can also be addressed. Complexities such as system configuration require attention. In the initial setup of Oracle OBIEE, there are multiple things starting from infrastructure provisioning, database schemas, and WebLogic server installations. However, the RPD, the semantic layer, is the steepest hurdle. Security integration, integrating with LDAP or Active Directory, is rarely plug and play and requires deep knowledge of WebLogic. Deep knowledge is necessary when starting with the initial setup of Oracle OBIEE. Other dependencies include Java middleware and client tools. Since Oracle OBIEE deals with huge data, report performance is the biggest concern. The out-of-the-box setup is rarely optimized, so we need to manually check configuration files, such as nqsconfig.ini file settings. For recommendations in Oracle OBIEE, from what I have seen, we work with star schemas in the RPD. I always aim for the star schema in the business model, even if the physical source is normalized. This approach will impact the performance, speed of the data, and accuracy. Oracle OBIEE could improve to allow other schemas as well. Performance is a major area for improvement, and they should work on aggregating the persistence and improve the persistence wizard where we implement aggregations. Caching features have been given, including event polling tables where we can do purging and seeding, but the main focus should be with respect to schema designs.
Declan Dempsey - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
Provides efficient data reporting while needing easier deployment and improved interface
Users tend to put everything into Excel, though I try to discourage this. The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made. This means you don't have those months that get assigned. You can just get to the point and get a report very quickly. Unfortunately, in some ways, it's a double-edged sword because it becomes more of a self-service ETL, even for the reporting team. If you have a decent universe and you just want to quickly get something together, it's very usable. Compared to Click, you can drop those reports very quickly.
report
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise103
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise67
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
Which Oracle product is better - OBIEE or Analytics Cloud?
Oracle OBIEE is designed to be relatively easy to set up and has a helpful customer support staff at the ready to assist customers. These are two attributes that make this system quite valuable. OB...
What do you like most about Oracle OBIEE?
The most valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is its ability to handle large volumes of data and provide traditional BI functionalities that developers can easily understand.
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

OBIEE, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle BI, Oracle BI EE 11g
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banca Transilvania, BeckmanCoulter, Hong Kong Housing Society, HealthShare, Ivanhoe Cambridge Unifies, and Home Credit, and Finance Bank.
SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle OBIEE vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
883,619 professionals have used our research since 2012.