What is our primary use case?
As a BusinessObjects Administrator, I work to deploy the solution, handle new installations, security setup, user management, and all of those tasks. Later, I started report development and became a BI developer, and then I did some data warehousing.
With the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we build financial reports such as P&L and income statements for financial reporting, and we also build dashboards for top management.
Through interacting with top management in our business, I have been able to meet their needs through ad-hoc reporting capabilities.
What is most valuable?
Empowering business users means they should be able to work independently without depending on the developer. One advantage of
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is self-service capabilities, allowing users to do drag and drop to build their own reports and perform analyses without needing technical know-how.
The platform has many drivers that I can use to connect to virtually all available databases, making it easy to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and many others. With the cloud version, I can fetch data on-premises and to the cloud for analysis easily. It is so flexible that I can make choices for fetching data. For authentication in an SAP environment, I can choose to integrate with SAP logon for SSO or use AD authentication for convenience, along with the flexible integration options.
What needs improvement?
There are areas of SAP BusinessObjects
Business Intelligence Platform that need improvement, particularly in licensing, which can make it complex and expensive for users. If SAP could split the analytics side from financial analytics, it would become more affordable and easier to learn for technicians.
The integration of the cloud product needs improvement, as I have faced challenges fetching data from SuccessFactors, which isn't as seamless compared to on-premises solutions. I expect improvements over time, and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is still superior compared to other reporting tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for over 15 years now.
How are customer service and support?
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services. I continue to assist old clients while supporting my colleagues as well.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
Setting up SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is one of the easiest things I've done. Having started my career as an SAP BusinessObjects administrator, I find it still easy due to my foundational knowledge.
What was our ROI?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Using Power BI as an example, most customers choose it instead of SAP, primarily due to the cost, acquisition cost, and maintenance. People choose other products because of the flexibility, though I am not sure whether any other reporting tool is as flexible as SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. Users often complain about the interface of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, saying it is not as aesthetic as Power BI, but SAC is addressing that issue. In terms of performance, other BI tools cannot compare with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, as those reports are not as fast as those built on SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, and other tools are not as robust for financial reporting.
What other advice do I have?
Based on my years of experience with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, I have worked with all the products, starting from Analysis for Microsoft Excel, then SAP Web Intelligence, and then the BusinessObjects dashboards, which graduated to Lumira. From Lumira, I moved to SAC, which is now the current product that SAP is positioning for reporting, and that is the cloud solution.
Currently, the organization I work for, Dangote, has close to 9,000 users in an SAP environment. We utilize SAP for our ERP, CRM, and SuccessFactors, and we also implement Power BI to enhance reporting aesthetics for specific users.
I am currently using Microsoft products for analysis and Power BI fabrics while fetching data from SAP ERP, SAP HANA, and BW, but I have not necessarily had any AI-driven projects within BusinessObjects.
I work on both the cloud and on-premises versions of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. While the cloud version isn't popular yet in this part of the world due to costs, some users still prefer the perpetual license of the on-premises version.
I rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
*Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.