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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
4.5
SAP Business Data Cloud boosts ROI through time savings, efficiency, improved insights, and reduced manual tasks, enhancing decision-making.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP IQ boasts high ROI with substantial hardware savings, low maintenance costs, though some users lack authorization to confirm it.
We have saved a lot on the number of employees, and implementation time for the projects has reduced significantly since we started using the standard features of SAP Business Data Cloud.
Principal Architect at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
Once the content is available, then it is a faster go-live with lesser cost in implementation, and that would give an ROI.
Director & Co Owner at INFRABEAT TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD
It will definitely reduce the need for more staff to handle this technology.
SAP BDC Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
SAP Business Data Cloud support is generally positive, though complex issues need time and improvements in first-level attention.
Sentiment score
5.6
Customer service is 24/7 but varies in quality; technical support lacks experts, causing slow escalation and limited advanced assistance.
I would give the technical support for SAP Business Data Cloud a 10 out of 10.
Business Data Lead (Egypt And North Africa) at Reckitt Benckiser
On a scale from 0 to 10, I would rate their support 10 out of 10.
Owner at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
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.
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
7.2
SAP Business Data Cloud excels in scalability and integration, efficiently managing growth and supporting various platform connections.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP IQ offers scalable solutions with Simplex and Multiplex architectures, accommodating vast data volumes across PCs or servers.
The scalability of SAP Business Data Cloud has been strong, as it has handled growth in data volume, user demand, and reporting requirements without significant performance issues.
Technique at Digitaltrack
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.
Since SAP has consolidated everything on one platform, there is ample room to expand as much as needed.
Sap Data & Analytics Consultant at Dezert Innovation Technology Company
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
7.5
SAP Business Data Cloud is seen as stable and reliable despite occasional performance issues, especially with large datasets.
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 has been reliable for reporting, analytics, and data integration activities.
Network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
This really allowed virtual access to data, which means there was no heavy replication of data involved, greatly improving performance.
Associate Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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 Business Data Cloud users seek improved customization, analytics, integration, cost reduction, onboarding, automation, and enhanced transition from legacy systems.
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.
If SAP can come up with innovative options to reduce licensing costs, many customers would incline toward SAP Business Data Cloud.
Principal Architect at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
If I compare the cost with SAP competitors, I find that when creating an enterprise data lake, if I don't use SAP Business Data Cloud and make it directly in the hyperscalers, it is pretty much cheaper than doing the same in SAP Business Data Cloud.
Director & Co Owner at INFRABEAT TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD
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 Business Data Cloud pricing is high but justified by features, though users find it expensive compared to competitors.
SAP IQ is cost-effective with various licensing models, though price understanding and negotiation are essential for optimal implementation.
If I compare the cost with SAP competitors, I find that when creating an enterprise data lake, if I don't use SAP Business Data Cloud and make it directly in the hyperscalers, it is pretty much cheaper than doing the same in SAP Business Data Cloud.
Director & Co Owner at INFRABEAT TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD
From a planning license perspective, SAC on that side is very expensive if you need developer features.
Director Of Analytics at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
SAP Business Data Cloud is at a disadvantage when compared to tools like Talend or Informatica, which are cheaper and more capable.
Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

SAP Business Data Cloud offers seamless integration, real-time analytics, AI support, and centralized data management for enhanced productivity and decision-making.
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
SAP Business Data Cloud has positively impacted my organization by federating SAP data, which is now available for all to use.
Associate director, SAP technical at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The main standout feature is BDC Connect, as it is very useful for sharing data without replicating to third-party tools such as Enterprise Databricks, Snowflake or even in the near future, Google BigQuery as well as Microsoft Fabric.
Principal Architect at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
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
6.4
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (7th), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (3rd), Business Performance Management (2nd), Cloud Analytics (2nd), Predictive Analytics (2nd), Data Governance (5th), Cloud Data Warehouse (6th)
SAP IQ
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (24th), Data Warehouse (14th)
 

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
14%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise69
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 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 needs improvement with SAP Analytics Cloud?
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 c...
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, SAP Digital Boardroom, SAP Analytics Hub
Sybase IQ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ericsson, Vodafone, Google, Team Liquid, Ryder Cup, Accenture
ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
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