SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs SAP Lumira [EOL] comparison

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and SAP Lumira [EOL] are both solutions in the Data Visualization category. Additionally, 91% of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 73% of SAP Lumira [EOL] users who would recommend it.

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Read 114 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence reviews

7,875 Views
2,126 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SAP Lumira [EOL]

Read 22 SAP Lumira [EOL] reviews

73% willing to recommend

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

SAP Lumira [EOL]

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and SAP Lumira [EOL] are complementary products in the data analysis category. SAP BusinessObjects appears to have the upper hand for organizations needing detailed reporting due to its robust reporting capabilities, while Lumira [EOL] stands out with its data visualization strengths.

Features: SAP BusinessObjects offers extensive reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing for detailed custom report creation. It features a user-friendly interface, robust security features, and strong data integration capabilities. SAP Lumira [EOL] excels in intuitive data visualization tools, interactive dashboard creation, and quick data visualization capabilities, facilitating rapid insights.

Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects could simplify its deployment process, enhance user experience with more intuitive interfaces, and improve visualization tools to compete with Lumira [EOL]. SAP Lumira [EOL] could benefit from expanded reporting capabilities, improved scalability, and enhanced integration with non-SAP systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP BusinessObjects involves a complex deployment process but benefits from well-structured customer service support, which can be advantageous for large enterprises. SAP Lumira [EOL] offers a simpler deployment experience that appeals to teams focused on visualization, providing adequate customer support until its end-of-life.

Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects demands a higher initial setup cost that reflects its extensive capabilities, leading to significant long-term ROI for detailed reporting needs. In contrast, SAP Lumira [EOL] historically offered a lower setup cost, optimizing cost-efficiency for visualization and quick insights, providing substantial value during its operational period despite discontinuation.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Visualization Report (Updated: March 2026).

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Data Visualization

March 2026

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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

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (6th), Data Visualization (5th)

SAP Lumira [EOL]

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

EmmanuelOladinrin

Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited

Solution empowers self-service reporting and delivers comprehensive performance insights

Empowering business users means they should be able to work independently without depending on the developer. One advantage of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is self-service capabilities, allowing users to do drag and drop to build their own reports and perform analyses without needing technical know-how.The platform has many drivers that I can use to connect to virtually all available databases, making it easy to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and many others. With the cloud version, I can fetch data on-premises and to the cloud for analysis easily. It is so flexible that I can make choices for fetching data. For authentication in an SAP environment, I can choose to integrate with SAP logon for SSO or use AD authentication for convenience, along with the flexible integration options.

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Rafal Zaborowski

Supply Chain Manager, Proxy, Matw Global D&I Council Memeber at SAUERESSIG Group

It's stable, it keeps on improving and the technical support is excellent

I think a lot of users aren't having fun using SAP because it requires putting in a lot of information by keyboard directly because it requires some coding, so this is one area for improvement. From a user point of view, SAP is a complex system where you can learn and teach, so another area for improvement in the solution is that it needs to be more user-friendly. In the next release of SAP, I want it to have a friendlier menu for its users.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gets people off Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and sharing the same reports/dashboards, so departments receive the same figures for KPIs and company performance."

"The web intelligence reporting tool and universe designer are the most valuable aspects of the solution."

"First of all, visualization tools, productivity, and predictive forecasting are mature."

"At the end of the day, Business Objects reduces the manual process of gathering and creating reports into a much simpler and easier ways via self-service and dashboard management."

"The setup is pretty easy. It's not hard at all."

"Tableau offers excellent visualization and fast data discovery with quick turnaround time."

"The ability to merge dimensions in a report is great."

"The solution has been extremely stable."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence pros

"The best feature is the ease of developing dashboards."

"It is fairly easy and fast when it comes to using it."

"It is a product that's easy to learn and understand, with the ability to create dynamic visualizations and various integration options including next-to real-time."

"We were all sitting in a conference room, four of us, and we watched a YouTube video, which is eight minutes long, and after that we were able to build a couple of dashboards by ourselves, just from that one watch and learn session."

"It's more of a user-friendly tool, it's easy, and it speeds up the process."

"I think rapid development, geospatial coding, using it to connect to multiple data sources are all good selling points for it."

"The most valuable features of SAP Lumira are the dashboards, geographical elements, and graph filtering, and the usage is similar to a website which makes it easy to use."

"Beautiful visualizations."

More SAP Lumira [EOL] pros

Cons

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform should be made easier for the end-users and the performance could be improved."

"Technical support may not always be timely or effective."

"When we implemented BusinessObjects, the setup was straightforward. After SAP bought BusinessObjects, it gradually became more and more stepwise. There are too many steps, and they take too much time."

"We regret that versions that are initially released do not seem to be well finished (a lot of bugs), and that a lot of patching is necessary to get to a stable version (our experience for BOXIR3, BI4 and so on)."

"The combination of Lumira along with Design Studio merger last year still needs development from a visualization standpoint."

"The solution is not good for self-services, they can improve in this area."

"Its data visualization tool is not as good as Power BI and Tableau. Currently, for data visualization, you need to spend more money to buy another solution such as Power BI or Tableau. It is also very hard to integrate it with other third-party solutions. Its integration with other solutions should be improved."

"The platform should be a bit more user-friendly."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence cons

"Lumira's capabilities feel like that of a store app with the intuitiveness of a desktop app, which is not a good combination."

"The Cloud/Edge version of SAP Lumira still needs to be more user friendly."

"Don't waste your time. Lumira falls short of its competitors in this space both in capabilities and in ease of use."

"We definitely encountered issues with stability. We found a lot of bugs throughout the amount of time that we've been using the product."

"There have been some issues; the product itself is going through the improvement stages and the newer versions seem to be more stable."

"It needs an easier printing feature."

"SAP Lumira's scalability is very limited. Every time we have to involve IT if there is a change in the dashboard."

"I think probably what I was trying to do at the time was create some sort of map if you will. I work a lot with freight data, transportation data and I've been trying to find a solution to show volumes and distances out of a specific point so if we've got a distribution center in Dallas, Texas, something that I can just drop the data in and by zip code it will show a heat map of the zip codes that we're shipping to and I don't recall Lumira being able to do that."

More SAP Lumira [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is an expensive application."

"Just work with SAP to make sure you have enough licenses but don't go overboard."

"The price and the pricing model are fine. We find the solution does not give us a lot of additional value."

"There's no additional charge for a Development environment license, so build an additional development server."

"It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."

"It is not an expensive platform. The licensing is for a package of users starting at 10 users."

"We are satisfied with the solution, but we are not satisfied with the licensing cost which SAP offers. They offer one lumpsum licensing which does everything. That is not the right strategy, because sometimes you don't have power users, they are only viewers, but we need to buy the full license for them. This is not something we want to continue with."

"I have always found SAP BI to be expensive. It is expensive even when you compare SAP BI Cloud with Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is probably around $9.99 per month, and the cheapest SAP BI is around $20, which is double. In terms of price, Power BI is definitely a lot better. If you have budget issues, you may want to go for Power BI."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence pricing and cost advice

"In terms of cost, SAP Lumira is less affordable."

"PowerBI is way more capable at a much better price point: $10 per user without all the associated setup costs."

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Comparison Review

it_user6663

BI Expert at a transportation company with 51-200 employees

May 25, 2013

SAP Business Objects vs. Microsoft BI

A quick look at the whole idea on another weblogs gives you a sense that all of them just talked about very brief things like report refresh feature in BO or cube feature in MS Analysis Service. I choose MS BI and I want to share my reasons and opinions on why I choose it and give you another quick…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Government

14%

Construction Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	68

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

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Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?

SAP BTP is an expensive solution.

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Comparisons

SAP Business Data Cloud vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 26% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 8% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Cognos vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs SAP Lumira [EOL]

Compared 31% of the time

Qlik Sense vs SAP Lumira [EOL]

Compared 18% of the time

Domo vs SAP Lumira [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

eMite vs SAP Lumira [EOL]

Compared 10% of the time

More SAP Lumira [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

March 2026

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence report

Download SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Lumira [EOL]

March 2026

Download SAP Lumira [EOL] product report

Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

SAP BusinessObjects Lumira

Overview

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform offers powerful tools for enterprise reporting and data visualization, enhancing strategic decision-making through robust integration and secure analytics capabilities.

Designed for comprehensive enterprise reporting, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform integrates seamlessly with SAP ERP, supporting organizations in creating detailed financial, operational, and academic reports. The platform allows data manipulation across multiple sources using a semantic layer and provides intuitive tools like Web Intelligence and Lumira for user-driven report creation. It features centralized management, versatile connectors, and supports large-scale data analytics critical for business forecasting.

What are the key features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?

Integration Capabilities: Seamless connection with SAP ERP and various data sources.
Dynamic Scheduling: Automate report generation for timely insights.
Robust Security: Protects data with stringent security measures.
Semantic Layer: Simplifies data manipulation across sources.
Intuitive Tools: Facilitates user-driven report creation with Web Intelligence and Lumira.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

Comprehensive Reporting: Enables detailed and accurate enterprise reports.
Decision-Making Support: Enhances strategic decisions with reliable data.
Scalability: Efficiently manages large-scale and complex data analytics.
Versatility in Analysis: Offers flexibility for ad hoc analysis and KPI monitoring.

Organizations across sectors like healthcare, education, insurance, and retail leverage SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for its capability in facilitating detailed reports and integrating dashboards for key performance indicators. Its extensive reporting features support in-depth analytics vital for business prediction and decision-making processes.

SAP

SAP Lumira [EOL] is a comprehensive tool for creating detailed visualizations and dashboards. It's valued for its geospatial capabilities, handling large datasets, and seamless SAP integration, providing real-time data visualization.

SAP Lumira [EOL] is recognized for its ability to merge data efficiently and connect with SAP HANA, enhancing self-service analytics. Its geo mapping and data storytelling allow users to analyze and present data dynamically. Despite its strengths, users express a need for improved visualization flexibility and easier data integration across platforms. Connectivity issues and the demand for more intuitive interfaces indicate areas for enhancement. The platform's ability to integrate data from external sources positions it as a versatile tool across departments such as procurement, planning, and finance.

What are the key features of SAP Lumira?

Visualizations: Create detailed visualizations with ease.
Dashboards: Build interactive dashboards that incorporate KPIs.
Geospatial Capabilities: Utilize geo mapping to enhance data insights.
Data Storytelling: Effectively communicate data through storytelling.
SAP Integration: Seamlessly connect with SAP sources for dynamic data visualization.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Efficiency: Quick data merging and integration saves time.
Self-Service Analytics: Empower users to handle analytics independently.
Real-Time Insights: Access up-to-date information easily.
Versatility: Useful across multiple sectors such as finance and HR.
Data Visualization: Transform complex data into clear visual insights.

SAP Lumira finds use across sectors, including HR, finance, and procurement. It helps create tax-related dashboards and integrates external data like Workday for enhanced displays, demonstrating its application in planning, production, and reporting.

SAP

Sample Customers

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone

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