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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform pros and cons

Vendor: SAP
3.9 out of 5
6,194 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Ease of report development and flexibility in designing dashboards are key features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform.
The platform is known for its stability and capability to process large volumes of data quickly.
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform's robust integration with SAP ERP and other data sources provides efficient reporting and analysis.
Its comprehensive scheduling, reporting, and publication features enhance user autonomy and decision-making processes.
The semantic layer and universe design tools offer flexibility in ad-hoc reporting and data source integration.

CONS

There are performance issues in the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, which require improvement.
Data visualization capabilities need enhancement and robust implementation to compete with tools like Power BI and Tableau.
Integration with third-party solutions is challenging and should be improved for better compatibility.
The licensing and cost structure of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform are expensive and complex, impacting accessibility for medium-sized companies.
Dashboarding capabilities are lacking and should be improved to meet market standards set by competitors like Tableau and Qlik.
 

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Pros review quotes

SZ
Jan 15, 2022
The most important feature of BusinessObjects is its integration with the SAP ERP system. If an organization is using SAP as its ERP system, and they want to do business intelligence, reporting, or analysis, SAP BusinessObjects is the only tool that I see doing that quite efficiently. That's because of the fact it is tightly integrated, and it gives a good user experience in terms of faster reporting. Its integration is the feature that I have found most valuable, but there are also other factors.
reviewer1750965 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 22, 2021
It is more user-friendly and easier to work with the report creation part, creating reports out of an established universe. Maybe a business person could liberate the existing universe and create a report on top of it, as well. So that's one cool feature.
DS
Jan 5, 2022
There are two tools inside BusinessObjects' schematic layout called the Universal Design Tool and Information Design Tool. These are the most powerful tools that set BusinessObjects' reporting from other solutions. If my organization has 300 or 400 tables, I can combine all of them into one universe, and everyone can use that. It is just a schematic layout that does not hold any data but the table relationships.
Learn what your peers think about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1664538 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 7, 2021
I like the fact that we can integrate it seamlessly within our Epic environment, but probably the best thing that Crystal Reports offers is the ability to do visualizations. They're simple to do, and they're catchy. So, it is a really great tool.
reviewer1664400 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 12, 2021
The features that I have found most valuable are that we are able to build all dashboards with self-service BI and are able to provide our business users with self-service BI. We are building a repository on top of our data warehouse and building all the dashboards and KPIs.
VK
May 20, 2025
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.
Sumeet  Zalpuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 5, 2023
The platform is a complete enterprise-level tool where everything is integrated to suffice your requirement.
EO
May 19, 2025
I rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform an eight out of ten.
AP
Nov 19, 2021
BusinessObjects can handle a lot of usage on the front end, and many users can view these reports. It's a relatively stable and secure tool.
reviewer1414839 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 24, 2021
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is definitely scalable.
 

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Cons review quotes

SZ
Jan 15, 2022
I really want SAP to focus on the dashboarding side. Based on what I have seen in the past 10 years, dashboarding has captured a lot of markets. Executives at the top-level want data that is summarized, looks good, and tells you a story. That's where Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI have an upper edge. It doesn't mean SAP doesn't give you dashboarding. They do have a dashboarding solution, but Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI are more intuitive and more attractive. I would like SAP to capture the dashboarding market as well, wherein they give at least some competition to other competitors. Presently, Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI are leading the market.
reviewer1750965 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 22, 2021
Most of the Apps right now are into dashboarding. This tool, for the Crystal Reports in the phase I'm primarily working on, does not have those dashboarding capabilities, like in the other advanced tools like Power BI or ClickView, and compared to them the dashboard generation is not that great.
DS
Jan 5, 2022
Factoring in total implementation and maintenance costs, SAP BusinessObjects is too expensive. If you deal with a huge amount of data, you can go with BusinessObjects. However, if you are a medium-sized company with a modest amount of data, you can opt for another solution.
Learn what your peers think about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1664538 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 7, 2021
We're an Epic shop, and Epic is moving away from Crystal. It would be nice if it had tighter integration with products like Epic. It would be awesome to have better integration with third-party products.
reviewer1664400 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 12, 2021
It would be good if they could integrate the possibility for end users to create end models for themselves that they can use, especially for site operators, and if they could provide the end user not only the self-service BI, but also the self-service analytics, based on a predefined model, the same way that Oracle did.
VK
May 20, 2025
We need to speed up the performance of our tool because it is slower compared to the SAP Analytics Cloud tool.
Sumeet  Zalpuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 5, 2023
The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has always struggled with dashboarding.
EO
May 19, 2025
There are areas of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform that need improvement, particularly in licensing, which can make it complex and expensive for users.
AP
Nov 19, 2021
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.
reviewer1414839 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 24, 2021
There should be more integration with other platforms.