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Oracle Essbase vs SAP Business Data Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Essbase
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (12th)
SAP Business Data Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (10th), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (3rd), Business Performance Management (3rd), Cloud Analytics (2nd), Predictive Analytics (2nd), Data Governance (9th), Cloud Data Warehouse (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Oracle Essbase and SAP Business Data Cloud aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Oracle Essbase is designed for Database Development and Management and holds a mindshare of 1.3%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
SAP Business Data Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Data Warehouse, holds 2.8% mindshare, up 0.6% since last year.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Essbase1.3%
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials4.2%
Oracle Enterprise Manager4.0%
Other90.5%
Database Development and Management
Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Business Data Cloud2.8%
Snowflake14.9%
Databricks10.2%
Other72.1%
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Bhavya N - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at Infosys
Ensuring efficient data analysis and reporting while identifying areas for calculation and export improvements
The features of Oracle Essbase are valuable, such as its multi-dimensional database used for dynamic calculations and reporting purposes. These features are valuable because they support multi-dimensional data views, allowing users to analyze relationships across various data categories and establish a comprehensive perspective on business operations. Moreover, dynamic calculations allow real-time data analysis, significantly improving the accuracy and depth of financial insights. I have utilized Essbase's data aggregation capabilities. The Oracle Essbase interface provides a good user experience, allowing users to easily navigate and analyze data with fast query performance, effective data visualization tools such as charts, graphs, and tables, and flexibility for customizable analysis and reporting, including the ability to create ad hoc reports. The benefits of the interface include improving productivity and enhancing decision-making.
Pavlina Pankova - PeerSpot reviewer
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
Brings reporting, planning, and prediction together in one seamless workflow
I think the areas of SAP Analytics Cloud that could be improved or enhanced are mentioned by users or companies, and they would definitely mention the price in terms of planning licensing. From a consulting point of view, I don't see any major weaknesses. It is reasonably well-developed, and the perfect strength is that innovations are coming on a quarterly basis. It is slightly behind other tools in terms of the number of graphical outputs. Some tools have it faster, but every increment of innovations contains new features. On the other hand, it is perfectly fitting to the SAP environment, with seamless integration to all SAP modules, not only ERP but also SuccessFactors and other tools from the SAP family, for example, integrated business planning for the production planning. This is really a highlight compared to other tools.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I have found the most valuable aspect is the user-friendly environment and current features."
"It provides for faster and more assertive forecast cycles and enables businesses to improve their process since with this tool, you can do things easily and quicker as the business can create more complex models than were possible before."
"Oracle's capability to define custom hierarchies and dimensions has helped my organization in performing nuanced data exploration and advanced modeling because we use Oracle Essbase for dimension definition and also to define the properties of these members, such as dynamic members, stored members, shared members."
"Its multidimensional analysis is great; unlike relational, where you're linking together multiple tables, with Essbase, you basically define what the dimensions are beforehand, and you define the hierarchy, and then load the data, allowing you to do sophisticated analysis so that you can drill into it and slice and dice the data."
"It is highly efficient and easily scalable, particularly for handling large databases."
"Essbase is a multidimensional database (MOLAP) is undoubtedly leading in that space."
"It's a very powerful analytical engine with Essbase as the back end. We can analyze, transform, or utilize a big chunk of data for our calculations."
"The solution can handle a large volume of data."
"There is a lot of seamless integration and you can avoid a lot of licensing costs."
"SAP Business Data Cloud has positively impacted my organization by federating SAP data, which is now available for all to use."
"The visualizations are quite eye-appealing."
"I like the product's capabilities; the clarity and scenarios are the main features that allow us to forecast using machine learning algorithms and make decisions."
"It's easy to connect Analytics Cloud with other SAP solutions, and it's also effortless to deploy. You don't need much technical skill to set it up. It's as easy as setting up a tablet. I said tablet before. It's very easy to actually set up."
"The most valuable features are the visualization and user-friendliness; it's like a self-service platform, and if the connectivity is good then anyone can log in and use it."
"SAP Analytics Cloud allows you to quickly perform various tasks in terms of virtualization. CyberArk itself requires some enhancements to better connect with other technologies. While it's easy to connect with SAP, using analytics tools may sometimes necessitate sourcing information from different platforms. You might need data from SAP or other technologies/platforms to access specific information not available within SAP. SAP is effective for managing storage and enhancing virtualization capabilities."
"The user interface is quite good for developing reports out of models."
 

Cons

"The reporting tool of Essbase needs improvement."
"It's an expensive product to use."
"They should improve the solution's performance."
"The initial setup is pretty complex."
"The consolidation engine, which is HFM or FCCS, needs some room for improvement."
"The ability to drive external reporting out for development could be improved."
"Sometimes, the current program is slow. They may have to consider the storage and the RAM, increasing the speed and performing the queries at a faster speed."
"Essbase has a programming language, and it has a couple of functions to do forecasting, however, their feature set for that is not that good."
"Though it's the best placed product when working with an SAP BW backend, it still lacks a lot of functionalities when compared to other tools such as Power BI or Tableau."
"Some algorithms are complex and can't be processed by just tagging the data and expecting results."
"In general Power BI seems to be more professional and user-friendly, it's certainly easier to find data."
"Statistical analysis should be a bit more profound than it is."
"The customizations need to be better."
"The technology used by the tool is old, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The main area that needs improvement is visualization."
"I would like to see reporting to the Analytics cloud directly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"I believe the licensing is on a monthly base."
"It is a costly solution."
"Essbase is competitively priced."
"It is a bit expensive, but really worth it, especially if you are already using other SAP tools."
"The product is expensive."
"It is not the most expensive one. You have to do the cost-of-ownership analysis and take a lot of things into consideration to come up with the conclusion that it is cheaper or not, but its price is reasonable. It provides value for money."
"I don't have the exact price for SAP Analytics Cloud, but it could be improved and made cheaper, especially when compared to Power BI."
"The platform is about 50% more expensive than Power BI."
"SAP Analytics Cloud is expensive. The price is a big issue if you compare it with other solutions from different vendors."
"SAP pricing tends to be premium, so it is slightly higher."
"This solution is pricey."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
University
5%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
6%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise51
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Essbase?
It's not that expensive, but also not cheap. I'm not sure because it's a private license.
What needs improvement with Oracle Essbase?
A significant area for improvement in Oracle Essbase is that financial statement analysis, CAPEX and OPEX analysis, and financial consolidation must be done manually, as Oracle Essbase doesn't incl...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Essbase?
The initial setup of Oracle Essbase is dependent on whether you select BSO or ASO cubes. First, you need to set up the type of information and once the type of cubes is defined, you need to define ...
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...
What do you like most about SAP Analytics Cloud?
In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?
I normally do not deal with the commercials, so I am not aware of the pricing part of it.
 

Also Known As

Essbase
SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Digital Boardroom, SAP Analytics Hub
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CHU de Rennes, Bellco Credit Union, Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd, Deutsche Telekom AG, Samarco MineraÊo S.A., PCCW Ltd., QDQ media S.A.U., Boiron Italia, Specialized Bicycle Components Inc., Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd., Air Canada, Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd.
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