SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

it_user265632

SAP Business Objects Lead Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Feb 5, 2018

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Provides autonomy for all the business users to develop their own reports

Pros and Cons

"Provides autonomy for all the business users to develop their own reports."
"The report development tool called SAP Web Intelligence under the BI Launch Pad portal has been the most valuable feature."
"It is a very good product, stable, and has good technical capabilities."

"This product could be improved with Cloud Integrations and Predictive Analytics functions integration."

How has it helped my organization?

Autonomy for all the business users to develop their own reports.

What is most valuable?

The report development tool called SAP Web Intelligence under the BI Launch Pad portal.

What needs improvement?

This product could be improved with Cloud Integrations and Predictive Analytics functions integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is not an expensive platform. The licensing is for a package of users starting at 10 users. Currently, 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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Cognos and OBIEE.

What other advice do I have?

It is a very good product, stable, and has good technical capabilities.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.

GB432

Manager of Architecture/Design at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Apr 27, 2016

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License price is prohibitive and it should go back to CPU based. Connectivity with databases is good.

What is most valuable?

Universal concept
Connectivity with databases
Good visualization

How has it helped my organization?

It's improved decision making process.

What needs improvement?

Better visualization
Better portal
License price is prohibitive should go back to CPU based
Improve customer service.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There were no issues with the deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I've had no issues scaling it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Not good. SAP does resolve issues in time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are retiring SAP Business Object Webi and Xcelsius, they will be replaced by IBI Web Focus.

How was the initial setup?

The security set up is complex, and there are compatibility issues with Internet Explorer.

What about the implementation team?

We built some dashboards and an application brought some reports out of the box.

What was our ROI?

It is too expensive, charging by user and if you have hundreds of them you won’t be able to get ROI not even in many years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Be careful with the license model. If you want to promote personal BI or ability to run your reports in disconnect/passive mode this is not the product.#

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

December 2024

Free Report: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.

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831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user252576

Business Intelligence and Decision Support Team Leader at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 30, 2015

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We had to deal with data quality problems on deployment, but we can now develop time-based, visualized analyses.

What is most valuable?

The ad-hoc reporting in a web environment is great.

How has it helped my organization?

We have integration with 30 different systems now. Business users manual data-entry load has decreased, and data between different systems are consistent in almost-real time.

We can develop time-based, visualized analyses with our BI platform, and four years ago, business users had to prepare their complex records in Excel every time they needed data reports. Now they only need to refresh reports. On the other hand, business users were only able to query data four years ago, but now their visions are changing and they are now performing data mining and forecast analyses.

What needs improvement?

Data mining and more visualized reports are the next steps.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for four years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We had to deal with data quality problems.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has inadequate data analysis and data profiling, which has increased testing and user acceptance duration.

BO Web Intelligence, v4.0 is more unstable than XI v3.x. We’ll upgrade to v4.1 in Q3.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were issues in v4.0 SP1 but we are now using SP5 and it has improved.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, we did not.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was straightforward, but the customization and implementation process was complex.

What about the implementation team?

We started with a vendor-partner, but now we have in-house team and still get consultancy advice from the partner.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Cognos
Microsoft SSIS
SSRS

What other advice do I have?

First, perform an analysis of your business users' requirements.

The data quality and your data warehouse models are the most important parts of a BI project. Design the model from both business requirements and source data. Make sure you involve business users from the beginning and explain the advantages of business intelligence to the data life-cycle well. Assign a short and attractive name to the web site and/or tool that users can remember easily and will like.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user6969

Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jun 10, 2013

Considerations for Upgrading from Business Objects Enterprise 3.1 to 4.0

I recently performed an upgrade from SAP Business Objects 3.1 to the SAP BI Platform 4.0. In the process, I noted a few idiosyncrasies you should consider if you plan to upgrade your 3.1 environment. Not all of these items may pertain to everyone but you should at a minimum consider them when planning your upgrade. These three items include Connections, Excel and Life Cycle Management (LCM).

The first topic is Connections and only need addressed if you are using Universes in your current 3.1 environment. For those with only Crystal Reports in the environment that do not access Universes, this does not apply. Specifically, it addresses Custom Access Levels that you may currently have in the environment. In order for users to access Universes in 4.0 you need to ensure the following rights are granted within the Custom Access Level. Under the System category, you should see Connections and Relational Connections. Under these subheadings, ensure that Data Access is granted for both of these items. The migration will only enable rights to Connections, not Relational Connections. You will need to grant Data Access to the Relational Connections otherwise users will not be able to refresh Universes.

The second topic is Excel. If you current 3.1 environment includes reports that are scheduled with a format of Excel, consider the following. During the upgrade, these reports get transformed to use the new DLL’s in the 4.0 environment. The reason this may present an issue is that the 3.1 environment saves to an .xls format whereas the 4.0 environment will save to an .xlsx format by default. You will have to determine if the organization has Microsoft Office 2007 or above in to order to read these files. If not, then you should note all of these schedules and change to the prior Excel format, or ensure that all of the client machines have the ability to read and open .xlsx formats.

The final topic is relevant to almost everyone in the 4.0 environment, since LCM needs to be installed on the 4.0 environment. However, this specific ‘gotcha’ only occurs if you change the default port for LCM. The default port for LCM is 3690. In Support Pack 4 and above, Version Management is an item in the Central Management Console under Manage. If you changed ports and click on this item you will be prompted for a system, user name, a password and authentication mode. As part of the SAP Business Intelligence Platform installation using Windows, it installs a service called LCM_Repository which uses port 3690. The port number you enter during the installation of the Platform is only the port number that the platform looks for and not the port number in which the subversion tool gets installed by default. In order to change this port so that it can start the LCM_Repository server at the correct port number you need to use the regedit tool. Note that any time you edit the registry there are profound implications. Please only do so if you are sure you’ve exhausted other issues and know for a fact that this is your problem. Peform a search for the LCM_Repository service and you should see the command line as one of the registry items. Add the following item to the string in the registry key –listen-port PORT. Where PORT is the port number that you told the platform to look for during the installation.

These are but three specific items to keep in mind when upgrading your SAP Business Objects Enterprise platform. Ideally you will provide ample time and attention to planning your upgrade prior to diving it. It will make your journey to the newest version much smoother and reduce downtime and other negative impacts.

Disclosure: My company is partners with SAP Business Objects, Microsoft & QlikView

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user430635

Senior Managing Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Apr 24, 2016

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Dashboards are one of the best features of SAP BO tools.

What is most valuable?

SAP Business Warehouse for its pre-built BI standard contents as it contain best practices generally and specific to industries both. Also standard analytic reports are very valuable.

SAP BO because of its functionalities, ad-hoc reporting, drill down, formatted reporting features. SAP BO tools like Explorer and Lumira for data explorer and trends.

All these things have benefit the main stakeholders to check and observe the trends and take the decision for the betterment of the company. Dashboards are one of the best features of SAP BO tools.

How has it helped my organization?

It helped the organization in analysis. It always helps the C level and upper management in monitoring the progress of the company by using dashboards and reports which contain important KPIs and trends. Based on such things, then main stakeholders take the decision for the betterment of the company.

What needs improvement?

Of course every product needs some room for improvement but currently nothing is coming to my mind. However, because SAP lacks a professional services offering, we had issues with deployment, stability, and scalability. Also, the initial setup had a medium level of complexity, so it should be done by someone with relevant knowledge.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for eight years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There were issues because they lack professional services.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were issues because they lack professional services.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were issues because they lack professional services.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

8/10

Technical Support:

8/10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Because of its features and ease for adoption for the user. IT become strategic after adopting these tools.

How was the initial setup?

It was on medium level.

What other advice do I have?

Have a capable resource who knows how to work and have a good knowledge and experience in the relevant field.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're partners

it_user266763

SAP BO/BW Consultant at KIIT University

Jul 26, 2015

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The query-prompt and query-refresh selectors are valuable features, though I've only been using it for 1 1/2 years.

What is most valuable?

1. Dynamic Visibility

2. Query Prompt Selector

3. Query Refresh Selector

For how long have I used the solution?

1.5 Years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Very Good

Technical Support:

Excellent

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward

What about the implementation team?

Excellent. Through the vendor SAP India.

What other advice do I have?

A very creative tool to present the data in graphical and pictorial form, so as to make better decision for the growth of the organization.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user266763SAP BO/BW Consultant at KIIT University

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Nov 3, 2016

Very correct Saraswati. Business Objects is a set of tools and i will add one more i.e. it is a Complete Suite of tools, which are used as per Industry requirement (basing on kind of user i.e. top level, middle level and Subordinate level) and fitment.

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reviewer1311126

Managing Partner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jan 8, 2022

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Can cover any business need, but SAP needs to focus on customers and quality first instead of money

Pros and Cons

"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."

"The integration could be improved. The SAP suite has some integration problems and it has some huge development needs. For example, when you use Power BI, if you publish a dataset to the web, there is no issue in seeing the data with the report. The data and report are integrated automatically. Or when you use QlikView, when you publish the QVD file, the report is integrated with QVD. Also, with Tableau, when you publish the data, it's in the hyper database, in the memory, and the dashboard with data is integrated seamlessly. In the SAP side, it's not easy. There are lots of business layers. There are also some performance issues in the SAP BusinessObjects suite. They should focus on the technologies. We are partners and every step of the way, SAP asks us for money. If you want to see the products, the PDFs, if you want to learn the product, online training, etc., everything has a cost on the SAP site. Because of this, partners try to get to know the products on their own. SAP only focuses on the sales side—only money is important for SAP, not the quality. In that way, the operation is not easy on the SAP side. As a suggestion, they should focus on customers first instead of money."

What is our primary use case?

SAP BusinessObjects can be used for operational reporting. It is an enterprise solution and a suite of products.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

The integration could be improved. The SAP suite has some integration problems and it has some huge development needs. For example, when you use Power BI, if you publish a dataset to the web, there is no issue in seeing the data with the report. The data and report are integrated automatically. Or when you use QlikView, when you publish the QVD file, the report is integrated with QVD. Also, with Tableau, when you publish the data, it's in the hyper database, in the memory, and the dashboard with data is integrated seamlessly. In the SAP side, it's not easy. There are lots of business layers.

There are also some performance issues in the SAP BusinessObjects suite. They should focus on the technologies.

As far as additional features, SAP needs a BI analytics solution. I mean, a fully integrated BI analytics suite.

We are partners and every step of the way, SAP asks us for money. If you want to see the products, the PDFs, if you want to learn the product, online training, etc., everything has a cost on the SAP site. Because of this, partners try to get to know the products on their own. SAP only focuses on the sales side—only money is important for SAP, not the quality. In that way, the operation is not easy on the SAP side. As a suggestion, they should focus on customers first instead of money.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SAP BusinessObjects for 20 years.

What other advice do I have?

I rate SAP BusinessObjects a six out of ten.

To those looking into implementing this solution, in the SAP side, there are modules. You should focus on one of the modules. There's HR, FI, SDMM, et cetera. Also, there are BI modules, and there are lots of products on the BI side: BW, Hana, SAP BusinessObjects. There is also a cloud side of SAP. So, they are time consuming. You should focus on one of them before jumping to the second one.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

it_user7434

VP of Data Analytics at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 1, 2013

Mixed response of success

Been using BO since 2010 - mixed response of success

High level points from our experience:
Ad-hoc reporting capabilities are hit and miss:
For lite needs such as simple quires, summary level, what happened last month- it's pretty good.
For transactional level data we see universes that spin up for 3-10 minutes and then time out.
Robustness of the universe doesn't allow us to do the types of detailed analysis that we would like to be able to perform.
Static reporting works really well. We have reports that are scheduled and reports that are distributed via email. We also have a self service que- works well, well tested, great for our customers

Dashboarding- we have leveraged the Excelisus product- we have 25 dashboards- includes simple graphs, more detailed analysis with limited drill through (can do drill throigh back in the BO report). What's really missing is the ability to do any clickthrough in the dashboard itself. It's parameter driven and a little clunky (unlike products such as Tableau). It doesn't give users (at least the way we implemented it) the flexibilty to interact with all the graphs around the dashboard
Overall: It's great if you have a static customer base that has standard expectations who knows what they want and need to perform, but if they're trying to do self guided analysis, it's not a robust enough environment

We're upgrading to 4.x and also moving from a unix platform to a linux one. We're looking to see some savings and performance improvement. We're also looking to take advantage of the new dashboarding capabilities in 4.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.