We use the solution to manage our databases.
It has improved our work but is difficult to use
Pros and Cons
- "I have seen improvement in our work after using the solution."
- "It is not simple to use."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
The solution is more difficult to use than other products.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for five years.
What other advice do I have?
I have seen improvement in our work after using the solution. I rate the solution as a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Robust in terms of security and integration, quite scalable, and good for building well-formatted reports
Pros and Cons
- "If I were to compare it with Power BI and I wanted to build proper well-formatted reports, BusinessObjects Business Intelligence does that much better. Power BI is just getting into that space. They've concentrated more on visualization, which is what the SAP Lumira does. With Web Intelligence, you are able to build reports that users can interact with. They can also do a lot of querying themselves. It is robust in terms of security and integration. It is also quite scalable."
- "I don't like the fact that I have to use two tools. Web Intelligence is good for reporting and all kinds of stuff, but I would rather have one product. All the reporting features of Web Intelligence should be developed within Lumira. A lot of predictive abilities have been brought into the cloud version of SAP Analytics. It would be nice to see a lot of newer technologies and AI. Predictive capabilities are becoming a little more standard. Instead of having to get another model, we are just looking for one solution to deal with analytics including predictive."
What is most valuable?
If I were to compare it with Power BI and I wanted to build proper well-formatted reports, BusinessObjects Business Intelligence does that much better. Power BI is just getting into that space. They've concentrated more on visualization, which is what the SAP Lumira does. With Web Intelligence, you are able to build reports that users can interact with. They can also do a lot of querying themselves.
It is robust in terms of security and integration. It is also quite scalable.
What needs improvement?
I don't like the fact that I have to use two tools. Web Intelligence is good for reporting and all kinds of stuff, but I would rather have one product. All the reporting features of Web Intelligence should be developed within Lumira.
A lot of predictive abilities have been brought into the cloud version of SAP Analytics. It would be nice to see a lot of newer technologies and AI. Predictive capabilities are becoming a little more standard. Instead of having to get another model, we are just looking for one solution to deal with analytics including predictive.
For how long have I used the solution?
My first engagement with SAP BI was in 1998, so it has been more than 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its environment is quite robust, especially when it is on-premise.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP BI is quite scalable. It supports multiple servers and multiple combinations of landscapes. It is quite good. You can add more servers to get better performance. You can also separate services. You can separate the application server from the webserver. If you want to deploy a large on-premise setup, it would be the way to go.
How are customer service and technical support?
I work for an SAP partner company. We were the first SAP BusinessObjects partners in Nigeria, which is where I'm based. We've been partners since '98. Our goal as consultants is to be as self-sufficient as possible. We hardly need to get in touch with tech support because we are self-sufficient.
How was the initial setup?
The installation of SAP BI is an extensive function. Typically with an SAP installation, you need a combination of on-premise and cloud. The cloud functionality is still evolving and maturing. As compared to Power BI, it would take a lot more work. However, if I went the way of Lumira, I could use Lumira Desktop standalone, and I get to use the features.
What about the implementation team?
We have our own team for maintenance within our company. We used to have five people, but we have scaled down to just two full-time employees. We also have a number of people who are available on request.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
I will be a bit biased, and I would definitely recommend SAP BI. It is a bit more robust and mature as compared to Power BI. Power BI keeps changing every day, which is not a bad thing considering how old it is. For a serious setup, I would rather use SAP BI, but I look forward to having one tool rather than two.
I would rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
October 2024
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Software Engineer at KIS Ltd
Good reporting and promotes a common view of information across the organisation
Pros and Cons
- "The common metadata environment means that the entire organisation has the same definition of core measures rather than these being derived in spreadsheets or specific reports."
- "This solution is complex to configure and administer."
What is our primary use case?
I have several use cases, generally in more complex environments. These are typically corporate, requiring functionality such as strong data security, bursting, metadata-based support, scalability, fault tolerance, load balancing, support for high volume, breadth of functionality in one set of products, etc.
It has been used in Retail, Construction, Banks, and Insurance organisations.
It works well for organisations where a structured, common, and more disciplined view of larger, more complex information is required. This is generally with more complex and multiple source systems with larger volumes of information.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution provides much greater and faster access to information for a wide mixture of users. It supports and promotes a common view of information across the organisation. It also removes dependence on spreadsheets and technical resource for report generation.
It supports a wide range of types of users. It is particularly effective for information consumers. Ad Hoc information access and simpler self-service are well supported. Once we had the foundation in place, we also found we could provide most reports in under an hour for smaller company environments. Because of change control, the latter rarely happens in corporate environments but the effort involved was reduced.
What is most valuable?
The common metadata environment means that the entire organisation has the same definition of core measures rather than these being derived in spreadsheets or specific reports. It also provides a structured data security model whereby a single report provides dedicated results to a given usage, such as a branch or department-based. For instance, the same report will provide a branch-specific result depending on the user's branch and can be common to multiple branches.
Similarly, bursting enables provision of tailored static reporting to specific users or user groups that also includes data security.
What needs improvement?
This solution is complex to configure and administer. It is even more so, I believe, than it should be, even with such a complex product. As an example it has many server processes (typically 15+). In Windows these are not services rather they are individual processes managed via a single service called the SIA. Each server process can be separately configured and performs a specific set of functions
It uses Java constructions for specific customisations such as default reporting formats and using SSL for burst email reports. This requires a broad set of skills to set-up.
It is rather cryptic in its error handling when there are issues that require trawling through a number of voluminous log files that are accessed from the server.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Reliability dropped in 2017-2018 with a major release but indications are that this has been addressed.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Very scalable across thousands (if not 10,000+) users and large data volumes.
How are customer service and technical support?
Average. Technical support from SAP is mediocre. The local support is decent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used many different BI solutions. The choice was the customer's.
How was the initial setup?
See earlier comments but a vanilla install is not too complex. The moment it is not vanilla it becomes quite complex. The SAP website for software management, downloads, licenses etc makes the Da Vinci Code look simple.
What about the implementation team?
Mix of contractors and vendor. The vendor is skillful though overworked resources.
What was our ROI?
No Idea
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cost to setup and run is high as it is complex but then again one also gets a highly functional product. SAP do have a small business pricing so, at least, the licensing is not too expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The most comparable product is MicroStrategy, which is frankly a better technical product but has not been as commercially successful outside of large sites.
What other advice do I have?
I am a great believe in choosing a commercially successful product rather than technical best of breed as there is nothing worse than having an 'orphan' product. That being a product that is poorly supported, does not have a development path and limited availability of expertise. Business Objects is a commercially successful product and despite SAP's poor management of the product is likely to continue to be so.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Senior BI consultant
Sr Business Intelligence Analyst at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Web Intelligence has allowed our company to move to a self-service delivery model. The BW safety belt severely limits the performance of data through the DSL Bridge.
Valuable Features:
The dynamic scheduling and the user interactive features (input controls, drill down and drill up features) as well as the ability to export the reports to Excel or PDF are some of the best features.
Improvements to My Organization:
Web Intelligence has allowed our company to move to a self-service delivery model by allowing our internal clients to access, run and schedule reports dynamically without intervention of the BI team.
Room for Improvement:
The dynamic scheduling capabilities, the performance and ability to handle large data sets when connected via BICS to a BW warehouse needs a lot of work. The BW safety belt severely limits the performance of data through the DSL Bridge which makes Web Intelligence appear slow and unable to handle large data sets.
Use of Solution:
I have used SAP Business Objects for 4 years. I have used both the BICS direct connection to a SAP BW warehouse, as well as connecting to a Universe.
Deployment Issues:
No issues with deployment that I, as a functional user, was aware of.
Stability Issues:
Stability seems to be an ongoing issue with the tool and as much as that could be attributed to the tool, it can also be attributed to the configuration including the BICS connection, the DSL Bridge, and the tomcat server that it is installed on.
Initial Setup:
I joined after it was implemented.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI Expert at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Comparison of Business Objects & Cognos
Most of my experience is with Business Objects. I have done a little with Cognos Elite also. Comparatively I find Business Objects much easier to work with when it comes to customizing the presentation of the data. Neither of the two products does a drill-down as well as you can in Crystal Reports, but they both allow you to create multiple views of the data on one page. Business Object WEBI reports allow you to use multiple universes and multiple report pages in one WEBI document.
Both system will force you to use another layer between the presentation and data layers. In Cognos it is called Framework Manager. In WEBI it is called Universes. Both Universes and Framework Manager define the structure and connections the are usable to the presentation layer. Both middle layers can connect to any kind of database or even spreadsheets on an accessible drive.
Both products will force you to use their WEB portals as an interface into the presentation layer. Both allow you to schedule and deliver reports in multiple formats and in a variety of means. Links to reports, send the reports via e-mail, only send reports with data the user can see, and send alerts when reports fail are just a few of the common things that can be done.
When it comes to ease of use, Business Objects is a lot more intuitive and straight forward. Cognos seems to make you take a lot more steps to get the same results. Some of those steps are tough to figure out. The term "clunky" comes to mind when I think of working in Cognos.
Both products offer very similar concepts and tools to summarize and chart the data in a report.
Licensing costs and how you want to architect your server infrastructure are going to be the key driver to which product fits your organization better. Business Objects offers the advantage of another more static reporting tool with Crystal Reports.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Enterprise Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Fairly scalable and stable but WebGUI presentation layer could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "To share a metadata service layer, you don't need to add a user or write a SQL query. Instead, you can present a raw database to your end user."
- "The platform uses a lot of Java technologies so the performance and system-level management are tricky because it needs a lot of resources."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for this solution is business enterprise reporting.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform feature are metadata service layers. To share a metadata service layer, you don't need to add a user or write a SQL query. Instead, you can present a raw database to your end user. The end user can then use this data to create a report, dashboard, or whatever else.
It also has scheduling and can generate BI content for you.
What needs improvement?
Their WebGUI presentation layer could be improved. They are still a little bit behind, for example, Tableau and QlikView.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about nine years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The features SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform provides are fairly stable. I only noticed one data error in the past.
Of course, the platform uses a lot of Java technologies so the performance and system-level management are tricky because it needs a lot of resources.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is fairly scalable. You can either scale it up or create a cluster. They do have load balance and we have a cluster for important stuff. However, we use it relatively lightly, so we never have performance issues when we needed to scale up or scale out. Mostly, we have to scale up to give it enough RAM.
Currently, we have a couple hundred people using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform at our institution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform we use are not too advanced so we haven't had much need to contact tech support. When we run into an issue, we can usually solve it through community answers. We have had some SAP technical support come in a few times and every time we met with them we had a good experience. We have a fairly good relationship with their tech support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Just before switching to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we were using QlikView.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was was not bad, but it was relatively complex. It did take some time to get it to work for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't have the exact number, but SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is not too cheap.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is to try to truly understand the system. It is fairly complicated. To get this system to work, you need a systems engineer and an architect in addition to a lot of other people who understand what's going on behind the scenes.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Business Objects Admin/Developer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Web intelligence is valuable but SAP patch methodology is horrific
What is most valuable?
- Universe Designer
- Web Intelligence
- InfoView
How has it helped my organization?
Able to quickly create and publish reports using WebI. Eliminated most printed reports, they are now emailed or consumed online via InfoView. Has given users the ability to run reports on their own and get the information they need without having to ask IS.
What needs improvement?
Compatibility of Crystal Reports within BOE, especially when using universes and prompts – the prompts are turned into static values, not generated on-the-fly.
Scheduling functions. We have to maintain separate lists and custom apps of report schedules so that we know what’s scheduled when, and who is getting what reports. If a person leaves and is on distribution lists, we have to manually go through and remove/replace them. There is also no easy way to bulk re-schedule reports.
Report documentation must be manually maintained. Can’t EASILY find all reports using field X.
WebI needs a report template function so that basic re-used elements and formatting don’t have to be re-created with every report. Also need to be able to do more with custom SQL and merged dimensions.
SAP patch methodology is horrific, it was much better pre-SAP. As it is now, if you are on 6.1 and report a bug and it gets fixed in 6.2 you update and confirm it’s fixed. Then, a new release comes out and you update but because its cut-off date was prior to the date 6.2 fix, the fix isn’t included! Imagine trying to manage a system if you are waiting for multiple fixes. You can (we did!) end up with a system where major issues were finally fixed but other major problems not fixed and when the outstanding issues were finally resolved, the other previously addressed problems weren’t included in the newer update! It’s a maintenance and tracking headache.
For how long have I used the solution?
Approximately nine years -
BusinessObjects Enterprise 3.1 SP6 (CMC, LCM, WebI, CR, Universe Designer, Business View Manager, InfoView)
(previously used XI R2)
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Original XI R2 install was done by consultants, the install was a disaster and non-functional and we had to completely start over. Tech support walked us through doing it ourselves and we’ve managed it since. Biggest issue of the upgrade to 3.1 was functionality change in WebI merged dimensions, all reports using them broke and had to be re-written. Looked at upgrading to 4.0 over a year ago and installed in a sandbox, but the product did not function out of the box. It required massive reconfiguration of the default settings to run bare bones and there was no upgrade path to multi-source universes. As a result, we haven’t upgraded yet.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Rarely and was always due to bugs in new SP or FP. Current patch level is very stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
In a word, bad. Account reps constantly change and it’s impossible to find out who your current rep is. Phone calls and emails are not returned. At one point we were interested in buying additional licenses, but no one could/would help us. The licensing renewal process is severely lacking. They sent renewal emails to the wrong people, these are non-IS line staff not even on our account, and we have no idea how they even got their contact information. They refused to accept the PO that our accounting system generated, wanting one specially designed for them. Our purchasing agent, literally took a black sharpie and wrote all over the PO to meet their requirements. Who is the customer? Do they really want to make that sale? It doesn’t seem like it. Maybe we are too small for them to bother with?
Technical Support:First level support is horrible. I avoid opening cases because of the bad experiences. I would typically find myself explaining very basic product functionality to the support personnel and in the end the response is always that they will consult their resources and get back to you. After going around in circles for days or weeks, the stock response is “it’s working as designed,” yet they can’t explain why. If you are lucky enough to get to higher level support (which is rare), they are very knowledgeable and able to quickly help get to the bottom of issues and find real solutions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No previous solution was used.
What about the implementation team?
Initially a vendor, recommended by BO. They had the product installed multiple times on the server, it was a mess and had to be completely blown away and reinstalled. Since then, we’ve done it in-house.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior BI Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
LifeCycle manager needs more stability but Web Intelligence for its ad-hoc ability is a valuable feature
Valuable Features
Web Intelligence for its ad-hoc ability and user interface for allowing business users to create reports without depending on the IT department. The ability to merge data from multiple databases also allows more flexibility and business solutions.
Room for Improvement
Since SAP purchased Business Objects, they have made some nice improvements, but have still not managed to seamlessly integrate and harmonize the many products they offer.
Life Cycle manager needs to be more stable and easier to use. The Information Design tool could be improved when creating a multi-source universe for improved memory usage and SQL functions available.
Use of Solution
? I have worked with the Business Objects tools since 1999, SAP BW since 2006 and SAP Business Objects since 2011 with XI3
Deployment Issues
No issues encountered.
Stability Issues
No issues encountered.
Scalability Issues
No issues encountered.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service:
Customer service for the most part is good and a part of that may be due to the size of the investment the company has with SAP. We were provided a customer advocate on site to escalate issues within SAP as necessary.
Technical Support:The technical support has been a challenge when it comes to finding the correct support analyst who is familiar with how the various product components integrate. Many times we would get someone familiar with Crystal Reports but not with BW or Xcelsius etc.
Implementation Team
Business Objects XI 3 was implemented in house with assistance from various outside consultants. The upgrade to 4.0 was done the same way.
ROI
I don’t know the exact cost but one of the reasons the business chose to use Business Objects was that they could reduce licensing costs since it was already an SAP R/3 and BW customer.
Other Solutions Considered
Microstrategy and Web Focus were also considered back in 2010 when SAP bought and promoted the product for use with BW (replacing Web application designer). At the time none of the products were determined robust enough to use with BW as an enterprise level reporting tool.
Other Advice
Do not undersize the system hardware. Turn on all functionality for a product when installing – even if not anticipating using immediately. Spend ample time up front planning the security set up and only go with one option whether SAP, Enterprise, Windows AD or LDAP.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
H.Emre ArıkanBusiness Intelligence Specialist at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
An upgrade in SAP BO is a hard, resource consuming job. Dont underestimate it.
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Updated: October 2024
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