SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and Microsoft Power BI compete in the business intelligence software category. Microsoft Power BI seems to have the upper hand for small to medium-sized businesses due to its ease of use, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Features: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is known for its advanced reporting and dashboard development capabilities. It features Web Intelligence for ad-hoc reporting, Crystal Reports for publication, and a robust semantic layer for data consistency. It also connects to a wide variety of data sources. Microsoft Power BI excels in advanced analytics and visualization, providing seamless integration with Microsoft products, which is beneficial for flexible and accessible business insights.
Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects users point to integration challenges, particularly around patch updates, performance issues with large data sets, and a complex setup process. Microsoft's Power BI could improve in handling large data volumes, provide clearer error messages, and offer more customization options in its visualizations without technical complexity.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP BusinessObjects is primarily installed on-premises and through private cloud options, requiring significant technical expertise, which some users find cumbersome. Microsoft Power BI is deployed via public and hybrid clouds, offering easier integration with existing Microsoft ecosystems. Microsoft's customer service is generally responsive, with quicker setup processes benefiting from community support and updates.
Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects is often considered expensive, particularly for small businesses, with complex licensing perceived as a hurdle. In contrast, Microsoft Power BI is viewed as cost-effective for smaller enterprises, with competitive and clear pricing that offers good value for its comprehensive features.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.
Unfortunately, with Microsoft, you must accept the product as it is.
The support is good because there is also a community available.
We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.
With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.
We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.
The entire ETL process is easy and supports many databases, allowing data pipelines from multiple sources to be gathered in one place for visualization.
The important features include a dashboard and reporting capabilities through SAP Analytics Cloud, which I consider to be a better version than the initial BusinessObjects platform.
Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.
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
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.
We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools 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.