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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs Sigma comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

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
5.8
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform offers varying ROI, with potential savings and positive returns, depending on usage and implementation scale.
Sentiment score
6.0
Sigma enhances productivity by 25% through efficiency, reducing development time and manual tasks for quicker data-driven decisions.
The initial investment will be more, but the ROI is also good, so they can consider it if they're looking for something in the long run.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
For most of my clients using the on-premises version of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, the return on investment is positive due to its affordability and ability to handle diverse reporting needs while automating information distribution.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
It's essential for everything data-related within our company.
CEO at PeerSpot
I have seen a return on investment with Sigma; we already said that it saves about a quarter, it gets me to answers about 25% faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
I have definitely seen a return on investment through time saving because once the dashboards are built, they are built.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform support is mixed, with some praising reliability and others noting slow, complex issue handling.
Sentiment score
7.2
Sigma's customer service is praised for its accessibility, professionalism, real-time expertise, and efficient problem-solving during transitions and urgent issues.
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
Sometimes, they forward my ticket to the technical team, especially when my issue involves technical aspects that basis people may not be familiar with.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
Their support I really think is a 10 out of 10.
The support staff are all professional users of the product itself and they are available almost 24/7 and helped me to come up with solutions to all of the problems that I had.
Business Intelligence and Analytics Intern at Workato
As Sigma is a cloud platform, you do not need to do all that maintenance work.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is scalable and adaptable, though some report complexity issues in specific scalability scenarios.
Sentiment score
6.0
Sigma's architecture offers scalability and flexibility, managing large data and users efficiently, supporting expansion with accessible features.
The scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is adequate; it is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
Sigma seemed to scale just fine with our large data sets and could handle anything we threw at it.
Business Intelligence and Analytics Intern at Workato
Permissions are easily set, so you only get to see what you need to see and you can share what needs to be shared.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BusinessObjects is generally stable, dependable, but performance can vary with configuration, sizing, and resource management challenges.
Sentiment score
8.2
Sigma offers stable, reliable performance for daily analytics, with users experiencing smooth functionality and no major issues.
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
We did not face typical errors during our project with Sigma.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

SAP BusinessObjects needs better integration, improved UI, enhanced scalability, reduced licensing complexity, and improved self-service BI for broader adoption.
Sigma requires advancements in complex queries, visualization, user interface, data modeling, collaboration, and faster processing, with improved Snowflake integration.
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
SAP enterpise cloud architect at ECC Experienced Certified Consulting
I would appreciate integration with Outlook as an additional feature in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Sigma lacks a versioning feature to track changes.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It would be great if there was a way for me to create reports without relying on a data analyst.
CEO at PeerSpot
 

Setup Cost

SAP BusinessObjects BI is costly and complex, best for large enterprises with significant data needs, compared to cheaper alternatives.
Sigma offers moderate pricing with flexible licensing, though high admin costs may limit report creation access, saving infrastructure expenses.
SAP BTP is an expensive solution.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
The price is very competitive and reliable.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
The pricing of Sigma is a concern, as it restricts our ability to provide more users with report-creating capabilities due to the high cost of admin or report creator licenses.
CEO at PeerSpot
 

Valuable Features

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform offers dynamic scheduling, robust security, and seamless data integration, enhancing reporting efficiency and decision-making.
Sigma offers a user-friendly, scalable platform for data analysis, integrating Snowflake and enabling dashboard creation without SQL expertise.
For calculations, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform outperforms all other tools such as Power BI and Tableau, showing more accuracy, reliability, and flexibility compared to all other BI tools worldwide.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
Since we started using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we have been able to make faster, data-driven business decisions based on actual data insights and data analysis, which has accelerated our ability to make better decisions for our business productivity.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
The use of Sigma in decision-making, presentations to customers, and reporting to investors showcases its value in handling data-related tasks.
CEO at PeerSpot
Sigma has positively affected my organization by saving us time in accessing information, which ultimately gets us to complete projects faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Sigma has positively impacted my organization because I think it has been a huge impact, and we use it for all our reporting and our dashboards for tracking.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sigma
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence is 2.2%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sigma is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform2.2%
Sigma1.6%
Other96.2%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

EO
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.
reviewer2729628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Great collaboration with intuitive interface and dynamic visualization capabilities
As we are exploring multiple features in Sigma, I think Sigma can add more functionality. As Power BI gives multiple modeling options in its interface with the query editor, those features can be added in Sigma for intuitiveness or for making the data very clean. From the dashboarding perspective, it performs well. However, from the modeling perspective, it requires more capabilities that can be added in Sigma. The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities. If they add those features in the near future, it would be very helpful for us to implement the same or do the data cleansing part in the Sigma tool itself.
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Comparison Review

it_user6663 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise68
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sigma?
I do not know much about my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because I am not heavily involved in that.
What needs improvement with Sigma?
I think Sigma can be improved by continuing to do what they are doing in leaning into AI and leaning into the Snowflake integration with AI. All of the conversational features that they have recent...
What is your primary use case for Sigma?
My main use case for Sigma is for enterprise dashboards, which is originally why I brought it in, and self-service analytics. A quick and specific example of how I used Sigma for enterprise dashboa...
 

Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Snowflake, Fivetran ,Autodesk, Flowspace, Super League Gaming, Zumper, Clover, Volta, Olivela
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. Sigma and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,664 professionals have used our research since 2012.