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SAP Business Data Cloud vs SAP IQ 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
SAP Analytics Cloud boosts ROI by streamlining data automation and reporting, accelerating decision-making and improving business processes efficiently.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP IQ boasts high ROI with substantial hardware savings, low maintenance costs, though some users lack authorization to confirm it.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
SAP Analytics Cloud support is generally responsive, but users desire quicker responses, more expertise, and improved training resources.
Sentiment score
5.6
Customer service is 24/7 but varies in quality; technical support lacks experts, causing slow escalation and limited advanced assistance.
The technical support is a very well-organized service, with a lot of tools for me as a consultant and for the end user on how to contact SAP support and get issues solved.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
We are satisfied with the technical support from SAP because when we reached out, we were able to get very good support from SAP colleagues.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I am satisfied with SAP's technical support team; they provide very good support.
BI Lead Consultant at Intercom Enterprises
It seems very difficult to get proper advanced assistance on advanced or complicated problems.
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The quality of support from SAP is very good; if it's a known problem, they will have a knowledge base, so we will get immediate assistance.
Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
SAP Analytics Cloud is scalable and versatile, supporting large user bases while integrating well with other SAP products.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP IQ offers scalable solutions with Simplex and Multiplex architectures, accommodating vast data volumes across PCs or servers.
SAP Analytics Cloud can be used by a small company, and it can be used by a large corporate.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
I would rate its scalability up to nine on a scale of one to ten.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
SAP IQ is actually quite effective when it comes to scalability.
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We can span the read and write load into multiple nodes, and that scalability is there.
Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
SAP Analytics Cloud is stable and reliable, though minor connectivity and performance issues occur with large datasets and variable updates.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAP IQ is stable, effectively managing complex transactions despite occasional issues, making it a reliable choice for implementations.
You have a chance to test it on your test tenant in small increments, so it should not break your productive reports and productive environment.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
It's usually something external, such as lack of disk space or problems arising from the integration to other systems.
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

SAP Analytics Cloud users seek improved integration, compatibility, visualization, programming support, pricing, analytics, documentation, technical support, and interface design.
SAP IQ faces challenges with high costs, inadequate training, stability issues, and integration limitations, impacting performance and adoption.
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.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
Documentation-wise, we see some gaps when trying to connect different solutions.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
When there is an issue, the error messaging we get is not always sufficient to do a fast and solid fix.
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is easy to deploy SAP IQ; the implementation and installation are easy.
Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

SAP Analytics Cloud is pricey but valuable for SAP integration, requiring careful cost analysis and license management.
SAP IQ is cost-effective with various licensing models, though price understanding and negotiation are essential for optimal implementation.
 

Valuable Features

SAP Analytics Cloud is valued for its predictive analytics, integration, user interface, AI features, and cost-effective comprehensive functionalities.
SAP IQ features column-based architecture, high compression, rapid queries, large-scale data handling, and integration with SAP BusinessObjects.
For SuccessFactors and S/4HANA Cloud, there are pre-built reports available which are commonly used by customers.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud that I consider the most valuable are that all three functionalities are in one tool.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
The feature I appreciate the most about SAP IQ is the compression, which is very good; we cannot compare with any other type of EDW.
Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable feature of SAP IQ for us is that it works very effectively with the SAP BusinessObjects which we use it with.
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP Business Data Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (18th), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (5th), Cloud Analytics (2nd), Predictive Analytics (3rd), Data Governance (11th), Cloud Data Warehouse (12th)
SAP IQ
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (24th), Data Warehouse (15th)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
KK
Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Works well with existing platform integration but could improve error messaging and technical support
I do not use SAP IQ's machine learning capabilities. I cannot assess the benefit of SAP IQ's distributed query processing for complex queries, as I am a non-technical operator. I am not sure if we use SAP IQ's data compression features. I think the compression we are doing is on the data storage level and not on the database level. I believe we do not use it, but I'm not certain. We do not utilize SAP IQ's support for unstructured data, as we do not have unstructured data. I do not have any strong opinions on SAP IQ's security features such as data encryption. It's not been something that has been much in focus, neither in our choice of the platform, nor in our daily operations. I guess they're satisfactory as they have not been a problem. I am not aware of the pricing and licensing of SAP IQ, as it's part of a bigger agreement, and I'm not the owner of that agreement. My impression is that SAP IQ is a rather expensive tool in terms of value for money. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SAP IQ a 7.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
33%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise39
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?
IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.
What needs improvement with SAP IQ?
When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an issue, ...
What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?
Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its data f...
 

Also Known As

SAP Analytics Cloud
Sybase IQ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Live Oak Bank
ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
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