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Looker vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform comparison

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Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews
2,193 views|1,766 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Read 102 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform reviews
8,854 views|6,867 comparisons
90% willing to recommend
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Buyer's Guide
Embedded BI
March 2024
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Tableau, Qlik, MicroStrategy and others in Embedded BI.
To learn more, read our detailed Embedded BI Report (Updated: March 2024).
Download the complete report
767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Anonymous User
Though it is a user-friendly tool that is easy to integrate, its visualization capabilities need improvement
With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.
Miguel Vargas
A stable tool with an easy setup phase that helps with the creation and manipulation of scenarios
I can create and manipulate scenarios, which has helped me a lot because before we started with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform,... Read more →
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The product is easy to use.""It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product.""I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability.""With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.""Looker allows you to generate the most optimal SQL queries in a DC through UI actions. We had signed a contract with Google Cloud to use BigQuery. That was the primary reason we adopted Looker. It works better with BigQuery than any other BI platform. We also like how this tool was developed. It was designed with an eye toward microservices architecture.""From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great.""We can centralize all our data models.""It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

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"The platform uses a lot of Java technologies so the performance and system-level management are tricky because it needs a lot of resources.""Way of creating reports.""Has features that can be leveraged to scale out and scale up.""SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is definitely scalable.""Enables us to present data with Smart Objects that can be embedded within presentations and which automatically update when the presentations are run.""The reports are most valuable. If it is a single-source universe, based on only one database, the performance, and the reporting tool is user-friendly, and users are very familiar with the tool and are comfortable using it.""Ease of report development is a key feature.""The features that I have found most valuable are that we are able to build all dashboards with self-service BI and are able to provide our business users with self-service BI. We are building a repository on top of our data warehouse and building all the dashboards and KPIs."

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Cons
"It needs to be more user-friendly.""The visualization capability of the product is limited.""The integration with different databases must be improved.""The product does not have documented material.""Stability needs improvement.""Looker doesn't connect to Excel, which is a huge disappointment because a lot of data is presented in Excel. Also, it can't consume data directly from REST APIs, which is necessary. Looker needs to expand its horizons when it comes to data sources. The inability to connect to different data sources is hampering our use cases. Currently, it only has an ODBC connection that connects to a database. It needs to connect to other data sources, such as Excel, APIs, and different platforms.""Integrations with other BI tools could be better.""The main area of concern in Looker is probably related to blending the data from the different sources, including the data present internally in the company and on the cloud."

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"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is lacking dashboards and this would be the only reason we are looking for another solution.""When we implemented BusinessObjects, the setup was straightforward. After SAP bought BusinessObjects, it gradually became more and more stepwise. There are too many steps, and they take too much time.""Recently, it's become less stable if I am working on Citrix.""It needs to be more flexible for the end-user.""Technical support may not always be timely or effective.""This solution is complex to configure and administer.""We would like to see a native version of BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence created for the cloud.""The biggest area for improvement would be the dashboarding capabilities due to the recent change from Xcelsius to Dashboard Designer. This has created a gigantic ripple in many companies because the skill sets required are drastically different."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."
  • "It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."
  • "The price of Looker usually depends on the solution's provider, but it is usually cheaper than the other products in the market. Looker is offered at different prices for different companies."
  • "It is cheap."
  • "I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

    • More Looker Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Just work with SAP to make sure you have enough licenses but don't go overboard."
  • "​It is not an expensive platform. The licensing is for a package of users starting at 10 users."
  • "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.​"
  • "Depending on your size, try to stick with SAP BusinessObjects BI Edge. Most people tend to overthink the licensing. Remember that one concurrent user means that one person can be performing a task at a given time. That does not mean that only one user can be on the system at a time, it means that only one person can be refreshing a report or designing a dashboard. There are tons of ways you can access your data or reports without consuming a license. I've seen cases where five concurrent licenses support thousands of users."
  • "There's no additional charge for a Development environment license, so build an additional development server."
  • "Its price is fair."
  • "It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."
  • "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."

    • More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    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 but a little deeper compare on these two BI platforms. As we all know both Business Objects and Microsoft are big companies who are working on BI solutions and both have their own advantages. It’s not true to compare them in term of which one is better, we have to check what is our requirements and then depend on requirements take the decision whether MS or BO. A vision like this could help us relief from religious decisions against a software or technology. In a BI architect first of all we have the data store level, I mean the storage of the raw data not the stage or olap cubes or universe data source, I mean the first place of our data. This is important to know that where your raw data is and what is the type of storage used to store them. Whether file system or Access or Fox database or a complex database solution like oracle, sqlserver or a web service can made our place of raw data. We have to check our tools against them; check to see which one gives us a smooth way to transfer them among ETL process to destination. So take a look at what Business Objects gives us. There is a Data Integration platform in Business objects but the problem is that you have to buy that… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    What do you like most about Looker?
    Top Answer:With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.
    Read all 7 answers   →
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Looker?
    Top Answer:I do not have to make any payments to use the solution. In the beginning, Looker may work fine for its users. If advanced users who have experience with BI tools use Looker, then they may find it to… more »
    Read all 8 answers   →
    What needs improvement with Looker?
    Top Answer:The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more visualization capability. I can't clean data in Looker, and if I try to do it… more »
    Read all 7 answers   →
    Seeking lightweight open source BI software
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Read all 8 answers   →
    Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualizati...
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Read all 18 answers   →
    What do you like most about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Pla...
    Top Answer:What I like the most about SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is that it has significantly improved our decision-making process.
    Read all 39 answers   →
    Ranking
    5th
    out of 31 in Embedded BI
    Views
    2,193
    Comparisons
    1,766
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    634
    Rating
    7.7
    6th
    out of 108 in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
    Views
    8,854
    Comparisons
    6,867
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    562
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
    Learn More
    Google
    SAP
    Overview

    Looker is a powerful data analytics platform that empowers businesses to explore and analyze their data in real time. 

    With its intuitive interface and robust features, Looker enables users to easily create and share interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations. 

    The product's advanced data modeling capabilities and seamless integration with popular data sources make it a top choice for organizations looking to gain valuable insights from their data.

    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. 

    Sample Customers
    Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer
    SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Retailer8%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization33%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Healthcare Company11%
    Energy/Utilities Company9%
    Insurance Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise39%
    Large Enterprise46%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise71%
    Buyer's Guide
    Embedded BI
    March 2024
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    Looker is ranked 5th in Embedded BI with 19 reviews while SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is ranked 6th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 102 reviews. Looker is rated 8.0, while SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Looker writes "The APIs are exposed at every level, so it's highly modular". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform writes "Web intelligence will work with any amount of data even if you have 10 million rows". Looker is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Databricks and ThoughtSpot, whereas SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is most compared with SAP Analytics Cloud, Microsoft Power BI, Oracle OBIEE, IBM Cognos and Oracle Essbase.

    We monitor all Embedded BI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.