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SAP Business One vs Tableau comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

SAP Business One
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
ERP (5th)
Tableau
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
296
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

SAP Business One and Tableau aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SAP Business One is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 3.7%, down 6.4% compared to last year.
Tableau, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 17.5% mindshare, down 19.1% since last year.
ERP
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

Tomasz Rabong - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Featured Reviews

Ijlal Naqvi - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy but needs to improve in the area of BI
If I speak about a feature in the tool that helps with financial management, I would say that of all the products I have ever worked on, used, or implemented, the finance part is pretty much the same in all ERPs and bookkeeping software tools. Finance is a regulated thing. It has to generate financial statements related to all the accounts. All financial management systems will look into the ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. Generally the tool has two models. If the tool's in-house model is opted, then just one person is needed to maintain the product as an ERP administrator. If it is through a partner, then we usually have managed services, so you get access to a whole bunch of resources, technical, functional, finance, manufacturing, supply chain, or resources that you can have as part of the managed services contract. My company does not use much of AI with SAP Business One since it is pretty much manual now. It's still pretty much manual for business process enhancements and it still requires more of a consultative approach with more of a human touch. With SAP S4/HANA, there is a process navigator, process data mining tool that does help users since with the use of AI it provides answers to their questions. Recommendations are subjective to the requirements of the users. I would not recommend SAP Business One to a financial services institution or a bank. I would most definitely recommend it to a small family-owned business with about 20,000,000 of revenue, and that too in the area of discrete manufacturing. I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
ROMIL SHAH - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides fast data access with in-memory extracts, makes it easy to create visualizations, and saves time
When it comes to visualizations, Tableau has a limitation as compared to Power BI. It has a limited set of visualizations. Power BI has the entire marketplace, so you can connect and import many visualizations and use them, whereas Tableau has only 10 or 15 visualizations. There should be more visualizations, and there should also be data integration with more cloud providers. Tableau has recently launched a paid version for the documentation. So, documentation has become a little bit challenging when it comes to Tableau development because we do not have any tool to export the data out of it. It is a license-based feature that you need to purchase to prepare documentation. So, on the documentation front, for preparing clear documentation for any dashboard, it would help if we get an embedded option, rather than buying a license for each user for the documentation. To document anything, if I have to connect to each workbook and see what has been written as a formula and then document in the Word document, it is pretty time-consuming. We have the Microsoft stack, and we are currently evaluating Power BI because Tableau has a limitation of 50 columns for a drill-down report. If we want more than 50 columns, we have found a hack, but there is no ready-made option for doing it. So, we have to use another tool in case we need a drilled report with more than 50 columns. There are many instances where users need 80 or 90 columns for their analysis, and switching between two technologies becomes a challenge. It is not a cost-effective approach for us. Their support should be improved. We are not happy with their support. Whenever we raised queries, we were pointed to a few blogs, and we didn't get a proper solution from them. Their licensing should also be improved. They want us to purchase a Tableau Creator license for business users, whereas Power BI Desktop is free for business users. They should come up with a basic license with one or two connectors that our business users can use for preparing their visualizations. Tableau also charges us per user for users who want the data only through email.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is the most efficient ERP that is in the market right now."
"The sales and wholesale distribution are great."
"Business One's best feature is that all the modules are integrated."
"We have been happy with the command line interface of SAP Business One."
"It's useful for users and it's simple to work with."
"Business One's best feature is transport management and collections."
"The product seems to be quite stable."
"The most valuable feature of SAP Business One is the price and reputation of the vendor. The solution is widely accepted around the world."
"It's the ease of use. It is also a self-service tool so it decreases the burden on having centralized IT-type teams or developers."
"It is a complete solution allowing a lot of integrations, different graphics, multiple operations and analyzes our date and gives us meaning from it."
"The platform's most important feature is predictive analysis."
"It gives us a new dimension to the way that we analyse our data."
"You are able to see and follow trends."
"When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources."
"There is a lot of APIs available, which means that Tableau can be customized to a large extent."
"The product offers an intuitive user interface, detailed screens and widgets, and the absence of data limitations"
 

Cons

"SAP Business One could improve asset management, inventory management, banking system, and production. Additionally, SAP Business One did not deduct TDS, withholding tax on payments."
"Production area and Bill of Materials: effective date and Subcontracting process."
"SAP Business One could improve project management, quality assurance, material management, forecasting, full costing, and quality control. Many modules are missing in this solution."
"It could have RPA automation and RPA elements. There could also be add-ons for a Document Management System and Warehouse Management System."
"Business One doesn't have a proper master data management function."
"There are a lot of good improvements coming out in every version. They release a new version every quarter, with all new up-and-coming things on each one. However, it might be lacking specifications for the specific verticals. However, SAP Business One is a generic tool. It's very widely used, and I understand why it's not into each vertical. There are solution partners available out there to give it those extra areas of what it needs, but this is depending on what kind of business you run."
"The solution could improve by adding HR and payroll, and consolidation should be included by default."
"More support can be provided on the web client end."
"The pricing is a bit higher than the competition. They'll need to lower it to stay competitive."
"SAP BusinessObjects has some semantic layer designs that give the flexibility to do ad hoc reporting or dashboard designing. If that can be brought into Tableau, it would be great. We have the data in the database, but we should also be able to bring something between the database and the dashboard and do some semantic layer modeling for ad hoc reporting requirements."
"Tableau has so many functions, so sometimes it's hard to find the right solution quickly. I have to search multiple menu bars to find the right command."
"I have used Power BI as well as Tableau. There are a couple of interesting features that I like in Power BI, but they are not present in Tableau. For example, in Power BI, if I am looking at country-wise population, I can type and ask for the country that has the maximum population, and it will automatically give an answer and address that query. This kind of feature is not there in Tableau. Similarly, in Power BI, for integrating with the latest ML algorithms, we have decision trees and primarily multiple machine learning algorithms. The decision tree essentially visualizes the patterns in the data. We don't have such a feature in Tableau. If Tableau can integrate with the machine learning algorithms and help us to do visualizations, it would be a wonderful combination. Most of the people are going for Tableau primarily for visualization purposes. However, in the data science industry, users want to do model building as well as tell a story. As of now, Tableau is fulfilling the requirements for visualization purposes. If they can bring it up to a level where I can use it for machine learning purposes as well as for visualization, it would be very helpful. Many people who want to do data science don't want to write a code. Tableau is anyway a drag and drop tool, and if they can provide those options as well, it will be a powerful combination."
"To be the best in the market, Tableau has to improve its user interface and also look into developing implementing the best machine learning algorithms."
"Reports should be downloadable as PDF files."
"When you're working on a dashboard, you can't select multiple components at a time and align them, so you have to go one by one. This is very cumbersome."
"From the developer perspective, the data connection handling the target data set is what most needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution can work with a very small company, but the price may not be the right, it may not be the right fit for them. We can't help with this because we have to really understand the market, the target audience, and we have to position the product accordingly. The price is not a very big concern because if the customer is finding value or the dealer, distributor, or implementation partner can show real value in the solution, then the price will not be a question at all."
"Its price is reasonable. People are able to spend that much."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"I would rate Business One's pricing five out of five."
"SAP has a high cost of licensing."
"Business One's prices are really high."
"We compared the Microsoft solution with Oracle NetSuite, as they have a price decrease. It is, however, not that much cheaper, and the price is comparable to SAP."
"The licensing cost for SAP Business One is affordable, and I'd rate it as four out of five. The license covers the software, the configuration, and the services, but if you want technical support, you'd need to pay for that separately."
"The price is definitely a point because smaller firms don't use Tableau as it's an expensive tool."
"For big business, Tableau could be expensive as having a lot of Tableau server users (entering with a browser to reports) could be a bit expensive."
"At $70 per month, I think the price is a bit scary. I have a small consulting firm in Ghana, working in about 15 different African countries, and when it comes to our part of the world, $70 a month is a lot of money for software."
"Pricing is not bad. It's competitive."
"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is on a per-user basis. The server is free but the users you have to pay for."
"I'm using Tableau Public, which is free."
"I downloaded the solution online for free."
"The licensing model of Tableau has changed since we initially purchased it three years ago and it is more complicated, and I have found it to be more expensive. They have lost market shares to Microsoft BI. My company will probably change solutions this year because of the increased pricing model."
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Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Answers from the Community

Tomasz Rabong - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 20, 2022
Apr 20, 2022
Dear Community, Many thanks for yor support and help!
2 out of 6 answers
EB
Apr 18, 2022
Hi @Delmar Assis, @Angel Pineda, @reviewer1318779, @George McGeachie, @Carel Van Der Merwe and @Moorthy Natarajan, Can you please assist @Tomasz Rabong ​with their question?​​ ​ ​ ​ ​
Leandro Sodré - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 18, 2022
Hi Tomasz Rabong,  I believe that if you have a developer team in Amundsen it would be possible.  Alternatively, you can look at Informatica EDC or at Data Virtualization Data Catalog (from Denodo).
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Educational Organization
44%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Are there any advantages of SAP S4 HANA over SAP Business One (SAP B1) apart from the cost?
SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and com...
What do you like most about SAP Business One?
It's user-friendly and comes with comprehensive manuals. So, it is easy to learn to use SAP Business One
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business One?
The pricing model of SAP Business One is average. It is neither too good nor too bad, and there is room for more flexibility in pricing.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
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...
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...
 

Also Known As

Business One
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ego Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd
Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.
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845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.