SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Sisense comparison

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and Sisense are competitive products in the business intelligence category. Sisense appears to have the upper hand due to its ease of use, rapid deployment, and competitive pricing for quick and effective BI tasks, even for non-IT users.

Features: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform offers robust tools like Live Office, Crystal Reports, and Web Intelligence, which are ideal for larger organizations. It provides extensive data connectivity, scalability, and security, essential for complex report and dashboard development. Sisense is noted for its ease of use and rapid deployment capabilities, handling large datasets efficiently. It integrates seamlessly with various data sources and offers an intuitive dashboard-building experience, ideal for simplifying complex BI tasks.

Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects has room for improvement in streamlining the upgrade process, reducing instability, and resolving integration complexities with other SAP tools. Sisense could enhance its capacity for managing very large datasets and offer more customization options for advanced users. Integration with statistical tools like R and improving its administrative controls are also areas Sisense could develop further.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP BusinessObjects provides Private Cloud, On-premises, and Hybrid Cloud deployment options offering flexibility but often requiring significant setup expertise. Users report mixed experiences with customer service, noting difficulties in navigating support channels. Sisense offers Public and Private Cloud deployments focusing on easy setup and efficient customer support, which aids in the faster resolution of issues and is generally rated better by users.

Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects is considered a costly solution, ideal for large enterprises with complex BI needs, but its licensing can impact ROI if not efficiently managed. Sisense, on the other hand, offers competitive pricing and strong value, providing good ROI through its comprehensive feature set and scalability options, even though it remains more expensive than tools like Power BI.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs. Sisense Report (Updated: April 2025).

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs. Sisense

April 2025

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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 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

Sisense

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

19th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Analytics (4th), Reporting (14th), Data Visualization (15th), Embedded BI (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 3.7%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sisense is 1.5%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Sumeet Zalpuri

Data engineer at ASR Nederland N.V.

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.

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Wiboon Thabsuwan

Senior Consultant at IMD Company Limited

Helps businesses save time and offers good integration features

I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone. I am more familiar with Windows than Linux. With Windows, the system performs very fast. Even if your data size consists of like 10,00,00,000 loads or whatever, it works very fast. When using Sisense, it is better to have some people with a very good understanding of Linux. I need more technical people who understand about Linux OS. Only two people would be enough to operate the tool.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is solid and stable."

"The web intelligence reporting tool and universe designer are the most valuable aspects of the solution."

"The planning and dashboarding features have been useful. Additionally, the fixed-format reports are good."

"The solution is stable."

"The report development tool called SAP Web Intelligence under the BI Launch Pad portal has been the most valuable feature."

"The Dynamic HTML (DHTML) client option of Webi has been enhanced adding features that were previously only available with the Java client including conditional formatting and support of XLS as a data provider."

"We use it to identify critical KPIs to senior management."

"We find the product to be very stable."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform pros

"A very simple setup: Easy to download, install, and updates are pain free."

"ElastiCube Manager is a very easy to use ETL tool, which includes the ability to easily transform raw data into reusable data."

"The solution's technical support team is good."

"Support is very responsive and clearly one of the strengths of Sisense. I have always received a fast response and the staff is very helpful."

"It has allowed me to move my data to the cloud."

"Sisense can integrate with multiple sources at one time."

"I have found the dashboard creating feature helpful."

"There are many built-in connectors, which allow us to easily add new sources of data, often in minutes."

More Sisense pros

Cons

"The solution could be less expensive. It's a bit pricey now."

"It is not simple to use."

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform should be made easier for the end-users and the performance could be improved."

"They could reduce the licensing expenses. There is nothing really wrong with the product in terms of what it does. It works well. If you are a part of BI Launch Pad, then you could run ad hoc reporting, but for the integration, you need access to BI Launch Pad, which is quite expensive. We're an organization with 18,000 employees. It is not really practical to give people access to BI Launch Pad. So, from a customer perspective, in terms of saturating our employee base, we don't really have great saturation because of the expense."

"We would like to see a native version of BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence created for the cloud."

"The calculation engine requires some improvement."

"It would be good if they could integrate the possibility for end users to create end models for themselves that they can use, especially for site operators, and if they could provide the end user not only the self-service BI, but also the self-service analytics, based on a predefined model, the same way that Oracle did."

"The solution can improve by having more analytical features."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform cons

"This solution does not have tabs. In order to have tabs, you have to download an add-on to mimic the tabs. They should be integrated to improve the solution."

"I would love to have more customization capabilities for building dashboards, especially in creating custom widget sizes."

"The administrative side of Sisense is a little cumbersome and confusing."

"They should improve the filters to create downloaded data by moving them to the top of the dashboard."

"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."

"I would like Sisense to improve its performance, particularly when we are dealing with large-scale data."

"The solution's setup process could be easier."

"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."

More Sisense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to improve its licensing cost."

"Just work with SAP to make sure you have enough licenses but don't go overboard."

"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."

"It is not a subscription model, but you must purchase a perpetual license for this."

"There's no additional charge for a Development environment license, so build an additional development server."

"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."

"Its price is fair."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform pricing and cost advice

"Compared to Power BI or Tableau, Sisense is much more expensive."

"This solution is more expensive than Tableau, Qlik and Dundas. It is an expensive tool. They charge $75,000 while Tableau is $45,000."

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Comparison Review

it_user6663

BI Expert at a transportation company with 51-200 employees

May 25, 2013

SAP Business Objects vs. Microsoft BI

A quick look at the whole idea on another weblogs gives you a sense that all of them just talked about very brief things like report refresh feature in BO or cube feature in MS Analysis Service. I choose MS BI and I want to share my reasons and opinions on why I choose it and give you another quick…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

University

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...

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 do you like most about Sisense?

The solution's technical support team is good.

What needs improvement with Sisense?

I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster. Additionally, incorporating more self-service capabilities would benefit the product.

What is your primary use case for Sisense?

I was looking into some of our business operations with tow truck companies. I focused on evaluating turnaround times for tow trucks to arrive on-site for accidents and how long it took them to cle...

SAP Analytics Cloud vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Comparisons

Compared 22% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 16% of the time

IBM Cognos vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 9% of the time

MicroStrategy vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Sisense

Compared 35% of the time

Tableau vs Sisense

Compared 23% of the time

Apache Superset vs Sisense

Compared 14% of the time

Databricks vs Sisense

Compared 6% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Sisense

Compared 6% of the time

More Sisense Competitors

Product Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

March 2025

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform report

Download SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform product report

Download Sisense product report

March 2025

Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects

No data available

Overview

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is a versatile and flexible solution for reporting and dashboards, focusing on analytics and ad hoc reporting. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. The solution includes tools such as Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, SAP Lumira, and Analytical Cloud and is primarily used for comprehensive business intelligence reporting.

The most valuable features include excellent reporting features, good technical support, scalability, and the ability to translate database data into business language. The solution has helped organizations by providing analytics, monitoring KPIs, and making important decisions as a financial business.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Key Features

Central management: Access all your BI from a single, central launchpad that can be customized to meet user-specific needs. The launchpad provides business users with access to all their BI tools, reports, notifications, and applications in a single place. This includes the ability to launch SAP Analytics Cloud.
Data visualization and analytics: Create powerful visualizations, dashboards, and applications to assess risk, improve efficiency, identify opportunities, and enable users to analyze developments and data. Business insights can be shared with colleagues across enterprises.
Integration with Microsoft Office: Integrate with SAP Business Warehouse and SAP HANA to power real-time analytics. For large-scale data analysis, you can integrate with Microsoft Excel to discover in-depth business insights and forecasts. Data analytics information can also be embedded into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
Cloud support: Extend and expand your BI on the cloud. SAP Analytics Cloud connects your BI to the cloud and offers enterprise planning and advanced analytics from a single online solution.

Reviews from Real Users

SAP BusinessObjects BI stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its user-friendly dashboard, its impressive reporting and analytic features, and its ability to integrate with multiple solutions.

A managing partner at a tech services company writes, "One of the most valuable features of SAP BusinessObjects is that it's not a dashboarding solution. It's a real product. You can create operational reports and publish it to anyone. You can create schedules. You can create a Universe, semantic layers. There's also a security configuration. It's a huge product, so if there is a business need, SAP BusinessObjects can cover it."

An associate manager at a consultancy notes, "It provides flexibility for creating reports. It is very good for creating highly complex reports. I like this solution because when I buy BusinessObjects, it comes with many components, such as reporting, dashboard, and data visualization tools. Its performance is good. It is running on top of SAP BW and SAP HANA."

A manager of data analytics and interfaces at a healthcare company says, "It has got great flexibility. As a reporting tool, it has a great deal of flexibility for numerous data resources that you can bring into it. It allows you to write your SQL query directly within the product. It has great visualization.

SAP

Sisense is an end-to-end business analytics software that enables users to easily prepare and analyze large, complex datasets. Sisense’s Single-Stack BI software includes data preparation, data management, analysis, visualization and reporting capabilities.

Sample Customers

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.

Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo