SAP BW4HANA vs SAP Business Warehouse comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP Business Warehouse and SAP BW4HANA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Warehouse solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP Business Warehouse Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"What I like most about SAP Business Warehouse is that it's a seamless integration platform. A valuable feature in the tool is the monitoring alert that makes you aware of what process chain has failed. There's no manual monitoring required if you have configured an alert system, so the process chain can run in the background, and you can get alerts about it. The functionalities I find good in SAP Business Warehouse are alerting and monitoring. If you have configured the tool and have integrated it with SAP Solution Manager, then it's a good product to use.""SAP Business Warehouse is a scalable solution.""Predominantly, our company uses SAP Business Warehouse for reporting purposes across various departments, especially for managers to gain a quick understanding of their current standing and make informed decisions.""Having the integration with the reporting tool which is provided by SAP is great.""In terms of stability, comparatively, the solution is quite stable.""The most useful feature is definitely the speed.""The most valuable aspect of the solution is the integration with SAP ERP.""Now, because of the HANA integration, the hard disk and RAM are together, and because of that, the output is very quick and very fast actually."

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"The most valuable feature is that it's robust.""The most valuable features are the speed of reporting and the HANA database.""The solution is based on SAP ERP, so there's some business content already included. For customers who use SAP ERP, SAP BW4HANA is a good choice for their DW implementation.""Out of the box, this solution has a lot of standard features.""I like the reporting features of the solution.""We like that it is an SAP product, so we can easily connect with the SAP ERP system.""The product is stable.""It is a stable solution."

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Cons
"I would like to see a different end solution in order to read the data and attract internal users.""There is room for improvement from a technical perspective.""I'm not sure if our issue is related to BW or the Analysis Office. However, we're having performance issues in terms of time. It takes a long time to generate the report.""We are very unhappy with technical support. First of all, they send their sales agents or pre-sales agents and most of them who don't know the solution as a properly trained tech would. We have an on-site SAP representative who is supposed to help us with our high priority and production issues, and they're not satisfactory to say the least.""What I'd like to improve in SAP Business Warehouse is its data structure, that's a little bit rigid. It could be a bit more flexible, so you can design your data structure and improve performance when creating a solution. Currently, the way data is stored in SAP Business Warehouse is rigid.""A few things which are missing include the visualization of reports. That's where your costs and licensing become heavy. When it comes to this database compared Microsoft Warehouse, it's an expensive solution.""The solution could offer better connectivity with other databases.""The problem with BW, and the factor that differentiated it from the original BW, is that you only get limited functionality with your runtime license. So, you have to pay extra for extracting data."

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"It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support.""The speed of operations could be a little faster.""The solution is not easy to implement. It requires a lot of learning at the beginning.""BW/4HANA could improve query optimization. For example, there could be an error message that pops up when you hover over it if any query fails. That would make it easier to find out what went gone wrong. Guided SAP help tools would make it easier for us to go forward.""I would like to be able to design new reports in a future release.""Connecting multiple sources is a challenge because you have to go through a lot of different setups.""The cost of the product might be an area that might introduce some restrictions or limitations to customers, making it one of the aspects where improvements are required.""I cannot integrate it with my other tools. It's not possible to do something in the predictive analysis. Mobile reporting is also not available."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It's moderately expensive, but definitely has its branding and price value for it."
  • "It's quite pricey. SAP changed its pricing policy, so they give you one engine and then you have to buy everything next to it, like MSS, the BPC licenses, and everything else."
  • "The license for SAP Business Warehouse is paid yearly, and there's no extra cost in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "Overall, the pricing is not fixed and is expensive."
  • "The licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse depends on your revenue. Its licensing structure is a little bit complicated. The more your revenue is, the higher the price, but SAP does have different pricing structures for various companies. For small businesses, licensing isn't based on revenue, but for big companies, it's revenue-based. There's some agreement regarding pricing for huge companies, so it's different, and SAP Business Warehouse pricing isn't fixed. On a scale of one to ten, I'm rating the licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse as five because it's very high. As your revenue grows, your licensing cost also increases, so you have to factor that in when calculating your cost."
  • "SAP Business Warehouse licensing is a bit expensive compared to other products in the market."
  • "I would not recommend it to small-scale companies. The price is too much."
  • "The solution is quite expensive."
  • More SAP Business Warehouse Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This is an expensive solution and there are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "We started as early birds from the SAP side. We got this entire suite for free. I cannot really talk about the price because we didn't have to pay anything."
  • "As an investment, the solution is very expensive."
  • "In general, it's quite expensive."
  • "SAP BW/4HANA is expensive."
  • "The cost and licensing depends on how the customer is going to use the solution."
  • "The SAP HANA application still hasn't been leveraged to the fullest extent, but it's a five-year enterprise license."
  • "It is an expensive product."
  • More SAP BW4HANA Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The solution is quite expensive. We paid a yearly subscription fee.
    Top Answer:Over a period, we realized that the license and maintenance costs were quite expensive. Every day, we had to run the background job ODS. Eventually, we moved away from SAP Business Warehouse and… more »
    Top Answer:It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution.
    Top Answer:For the on-premises version of the product, the solution offers a perpetual-based licensing model to its users. In general, SAP offers a monthly subscription-based licensing model to its users. The… more »
    Top Answer:SAP BW4HANA is a standard product that works as a very applicable system for our company. SAP BW4HANA aims to reduce all the problems and issues related to SAP BW. SAP BW4HANA is helpful in areas… more »
    Ranking
    8th
    Views
    1,355
    Comparisons
    854
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    626
    Rating
    7.8
    7th
    out of 33 in Data Warehouse
    Views
    2,238
    Comparisons
    1,518
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    429
    Rating
    7.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SAP BW/4HANA
    Learn More
    Overview

    Reporting, analysis and interpretation of business data are crucial to preserve and enhance the competitive edge of companies by optimizing processes and enabling them to react quickly and in line with market needs. SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) provides tools and functions that enable companies to attain these goals. In SAP BW, you can integrate, transform, and consolidate relevant business information from productive SAP applications and external data sources. SAP BW provides you with a high-performance infrastructure that helps you evaluate and interpret data. Decision makers can make well-founded decisions and identify target-orientated activities on the basis of the analyzed data.

    SAP BW4HANA is a data warehouse solution developed by SAP for businesses looking to analyze big data in real time. It is designed to run on the SAP HANA database, offering improved performance and optimized processing of large data sets. SAP BW/4HANA provides an array of advanced analytics capabilities, including predictive analytics, text analytics, and spatial data processing. It also offers a modern, intuitive user interface and streamlined data modeling and administration tools, making it easier for businesses to access, manage, and utilize their data.

    SAP BW4HANA Features

    SAP BW4HANA has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • In-memory data processing: The solution runs on the SAP HANA database, providing fast and efficient data processing.
    • Advanced analytics: SAP BW4HANA includes capabilities for predictive analytics, text analytics, and spatial data processing.
    • Data modeling and administration: The solution provides streamlined data modeling and administration tools for efficient data management.
    • Modern user interface: SAP BW4HAN is designed with a modern, intuitive user interface for easier data access and analysis.
    • Data warehousing optimization: The solution is optimized for big data warehousing, offering improved performance and scalability.
    • Integration with SAP ecosystem: SAP BW4HAN integrates with the SAP ecosystem, including SAP S/4HANA and SAP Cloud Platform, for seamless data exchange.
    • Real-time data processing: It supports real-time data processing and analysis, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions.
    • Data governance and security: With its robust data governance and security features, SAP BW4HAN can be used for secure data management and compliance.
    • Automated data loading: SAP BW4HAN supports automated data loading from various sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems.
    • Advanced data visualization: With its advanced data visualization capabilities, users can generate better data insights and make more informed business decisions.

    SAP BW4HANA Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing SAP BW4HANA. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Improved data processing speed: Running on the SAP HANA database, SAP BW/4HANA provides fast and efficient data processing, resulting in improved performance and reduced downtime.
    • Streamlined data management: The solution's streamlined data modeling and administration tools make it easier for organizations to manage their data, improving overall efficiency and reducing the risk of errors.
    • Improved data governance: SAP BW/4HANA includes robust data governance and security features, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements and protect sensitive data.
    • Cost savings: By optimizing data warehousing processes, SAP BW/4HANA helps organizations reduce costs and improve their bottom line.

    Reviews from Real Users

    SAP BW4HANA is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are its hierarchical alert slicing, real-time insights, and its ability to transform large amounts of data.

    PeerSpot reviewer, Srivatsav A., SAP BW/4HANA Specialist at a government, is very happy with the solution. He explains, "You can do hierarchical alert slicing and dicing out-of-box, which is not available in other solutions. I haven't come across that in Oracle or any other software provider."

    “It has got wonderful features in terms of analyzing your production data, and it gives you real-time insight into productive maintenance. You can plan your budget, and you can map them against actuals. It gives you good insights on overall performance and processes,” says Amrit J., ERP Application Manager at an energy/utilities company.


    In addition, a Technology Analyst at a tech services company mentions, "The most valuable feature is that we can transform a huge amount of data and apply business logic as per the requirements."

    Sample Customers
    Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
    Information Not Available
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Insurance Company19%
    Non Tech Company13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company28%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Healthcare Company11%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Energy/Utilities Company8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise73%
    Buyer's Guide
    SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP Business Warehouse
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP Business Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SAP Business Warehouse is ranked 8th in Cloud Data Warehouse with 25 reviews while SAP BW4HANA is ranked 7th in Data Warehouse with 33 reviews. SAP Business Warehouse is rated 7.8, while SAP BW4HANA is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of SAP Business Warehouse writes "Offers powerful analytics and integration capabilities but requires improved upgrade processes". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP BW4HANA writes "An easy-to-operate and administer tool that needs to consider revising its existing licensing cost". SAP Business Warehouse is most compared with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, Snowflake, BigQuery, Amazon Redshift and SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse, whereas SAP BW4HANA is most compared with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, SAP HANA and Apache Hadoop. See our SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP Business Warehouse report.

    See our list of best Data Warehouse vendors.

    We monitor all Data Warehouse 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.