Paul Grill - PeerSpot reviewer
President & CEO at Infosol Inc
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Once you are stable on a BusinessObjects release, it is worth staying there for a while
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a SAP BO partner - http://www.infosol.com/about/partners/
PeerSpot user
it_user282606 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user282606SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook Author at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor

The Free hand SQL is a none issue ,there are even better dynamic solutions for implementing free hand SQL with edit abilities even in Web intelligence 3.1

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Paul Grill - PeerSpot reviewer
President & CEO at Infosol Inc
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Easy to set up, good reporting, and very efficient
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to merge dimensions in a report is great."
  • "We would like to see a native version of BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence created for the cloud."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for BusinessObjects today is for comprehensive Business Intelligence reporting. Most organizations using BusinessObjects today primarily use Web Intelligence or Crystal Reports or both for critical enterprise reporting and ad-hoc query and analysis. 

We managed multiple BO deployments for multiple organizations, from the local and federal government to healthcare providers and from insurance to manufacturing. 

In all these organizations, timely and accurate reporting is essential, and BusinessObjects is solid, reliable, and versatile. You can produce professional drillable formatted reports quickly and either interact with them or publish and distribute them in commodity formats like PDF and Excel.

How has it helped my organization?

They've made it more efficient and able to respond to both report and ad-hoc requests in a timely fashion.

The world still runs on reports. Reports are needed for financial statements, compliance, auditing, and dozens of other areas.

BusinessObjects has proven to be a report engine powerhouse where we can quickly create these reports and get them to the right destination in the right format.

The speed of turning around report requests has really had the most impact on the organizations we manage.

What is most valuable?

The semantic layer or BusinessObjects universe behind the Web Intelligence report provides the ability to create contexts and calculations that can be easily shared across multiple reports.

The ability to merge dimensions in a report is great.

The new features in BI 4.3 that allow you to use a Web Intelligence report as a data source have helped to create "master" reports that can be delivered to casual users, who can then create their own derived reports from this "master" report.

Shared Elements allow commonly used charts, tables, and graphs to be saved and re-used in other reports.

What needs improvement?

We would like to see the semantic layer opened up to other popular BI tools like Tableau and PowerBI. This integration makes a lot of sense for most organizations.

We would also like to see a native version of BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence created for the cloud.

It would be nice to see some native integration with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and capabilities to really take Web Intelligence to the next level of Business Intelligence. This could be integrated with existing popular AI tools instead of new development.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using BusinessObjects almost as long as the product has existed - 30 years, believe it or not. The most current version BI 4.3 has been out for just over 18 months and is currently at Service Pack 2 (SP2). The new version SP3 will be released in December 2022.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. After 30+ years of development, this is a very solid platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

BusinessObjects scales all the way from one or two users to global enterprises with hundreds of thousands of users.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is not bad. Sometimes the responsiveness could be better. Once someone is assigned to the call, it is handled well.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward after you have done it at least once. You would need some hand-holding the first time.

What about the implementation team?

We are the vendor team that helps with implementation.

What was our ROI?

We saw an ROI within six to 12 months.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are an SAP Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
November 2023
Learn what your peers think about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2023.
746,723 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Great web intelligence reporting tool and universe designer but can be expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "The web intelligence reporting tool and universe designer are the most valuable aspects of the solution."
  • "Recently, it's become less stable if I am working on Citrix."

What is our primary use case?

I'm currently using the solution for a client. We use it for general reporting in the bank.

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

Recently, it's become less stable if I am working on Citrix. 

If you want to make a change in one part of it, you cannot track the change. They need something to help track changes. That would make it better. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for over ten years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't use it to do any system administration. Therefore, it's hard to really gauge the scalability.

I don't know how many people use it currently. I'm on the client-side. I'm only in one department, and I don't know who else is using it or where in the company.

How are customer service and support?

From SAP, I honestly have never used technical support. I usually have enough knowledge to figure out any adjustment that's needed. I have not used support in over ten years. It's been a long time. I can't provide good feedback.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't install it, however, it's not simple as just using a cloud group. You have to install it and provide services. I'm using the onsite version. It is, I'd say, relatively complex.

I'd rate the solution a three out of five in terms of the ease of setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with the licensing. I can't speak to the costs. 

I know it has a reputation for being expensive. The thing is, it ensures that you do have continuity. It's also easy to use, whereas other tools that people build on their own don't offer that. You can control everything much easier and make it much more user-friendly for non-SAP users.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Shylaraj AK - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Architect at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
BI reporting is useful, but there are issues with instability following patch releases
Pros and Cons
  • "Business analytics are the most valuable features of this solution; I don't have experience with the other functional features offered."
  • "The initial setup could be simplified."

What is our primary use case?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is used for a variety of reporting purposes. 

We have data from the business warehouse that has been affected by the S/4HANA system.  Various reports have been created in the BOBI.  This would reflect those reports based on the various requirements.

What is most valuable?

Business analytics are the most valuable features of this solution; I don't have experience with the other functional features offered.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup could be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable, but we do experience issues around the time SAP releases patches.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes, the scalability is satisfactory. We have the authority, and we will run the systems on-premises. It is possible to scale both up and down.

We have 2,000 users in our organization.

We have no plans to increase usage. We will gradually migrate to the SAP cloud platform.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is the same as that provided by the cloud platform.

We are a premier partner with a premium SAP account. We have biweekly calls with SAP account managers and SAP to promote the product as needed. For example, we currently have a large number of applications running on the SAP data center. It is known as the Neo data center, and SAP is gradually reducing its use of the SAP data center. SAP encourages the use of multiple clouds. It's called Cloud Foundry, which is an open-source platform where you can develop for all of the different hyperscalers. SAP is assisting us in transitioning from the Neo platform, which is the SAP data center, to the Cloud Foundry data center.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

All of the systems were running on-premise. However, when the SAP Cloud Platform was introduced, we began using SAP's native solutions and native applications. You can use the SAP cloud connector to connect backend systems that are running on-premise. This is the type of usage we began with when we first used the SAP Cloud Platform, and we have been very pleased.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a bit complex.

The implementation took about six months. We installed the development systems first, followed by the quality system, test system, and production system.

We have a team of six to deploy and maintain this solution.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third-party service to help us with the implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is a standard licensing fee. 

It is not a subscription model, but you must purchase a perpetual license for this.

What other advice do I have?

The SAP Business Objects BLB platform is available in the SAP business technology platform, which is accessible via the cloud platform. Instead of going with on-premise, it is better to analyze software as a solution.

I would rate the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partners
PeerSpot user
Paul Grill - PeerSpot reviewer
President & CEO at Infosol Inc
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Using Xcelsius dashboard instead of Qlikview

When I first started presenting Xcelsius dashboards back in 2006, I said that it should carry a warning sign stating “May Cause Xtreme Xcitement”!

Despite all the advances in technology and tools over the last decade that statement not only remains true today, but maybe should be changed to “Will Cause Xtreme Xcitement”.

In the last month, I have both seen and heard stories from companies singing the praises of Xcelsius and hailing it as the savior of BI user adoption in their organizations.

A company specializing in reporting and analysis of employee business travel was looking for a client facing BI application that would help sell their solution. The client showed me their current solution running in Qlikview bemoaning how rigid, limiting and unexciting it was to use. They then showed me an example of something they found on the web that was an animated PowerPoint dashboard much closer to what they were looking for. Of course, I recognized it as an Xcelsius dashboard embedded in PowerPoint immediately. It had been developed over seven years ago, but it still sizzled. So, we mocked up a new prototype in Xcelsius for the client and to say they loved it would be an understatement. The VP of Marketing came up with the best quote of the day when he said, “It’s alive!”

A multi-national vehicle leasing company developed a super cool Xcelsius dashboard for improving their vendor management with built-in location intelligence using the GMaps plug-in and the InfoBurst XML Data Caching for high data volume performance. They presented it at their annual sales meeting last month and it stole the show. The excitement generated was so contagious, the VP and Director responsible spent the evening at the bar designing the next dashboard together! (I can’t wait to see that one!).

A new finance director of a global software company needed a way to provide better visibility to their financial statements and reports. She remembered using Xcelsius many years ago and said it really helped then. We put a prototype together for her in a day and everyone loved it, so they are buying it next week.

So why is Xcelsius so amazing and still slaying the BI data visualization competition everywhere? There are dozens of reasons from its ease of use, animations, ability to embed in everything, fast prototyping to its “what if” scenarios and cool components. But it goes deeper than all these features which you can also find in other BI visualization tools. The real secret to the success of Xcelsius is that it was initially designed and developed by computer gamers. To develop a winning computer game, you need to engage your audience visually, make it cool and fun to use and have limitless possibilities. You can find all these elements in Xcelsius dashboards allowing you to create killer BI applications.

That is why Xcelsius dashboards is still the best show in town. Xcelsius lives!

Update Nov 2015 : Lots of activity around Xcelsius HTML5 for deployment on mobile and on desktop with dCode add-on (www.getdcode.com). Now that Xcelsius generates HTML5 output, I see it being around for many, many more years

Update April 2016 : Xcelsius continues to thrive with many organizations using and deploying it for the first time in 2016. SAP provided updates to it with latest BI 4.2 release including full support for Excel 2013

Update Sept. 2016 : Xcelsius HTML5 definitely seems to be the dashboard solution of choice and many new add-on HTML5  components are becoming available including D3 charts, flat components and query drag and drop discover.

Update Sept 2018 : Adobe announced end of life for Flash for Dec 31, 2020 and SAP announced it would no longer support Xcelsius after this date since the development client uses Flash. While some Xcelsius users are looking for a viable alternative solution, others vow to continue to use the tool regardless. There are some new Xcelsius compatible solutions in development so let's see what materializes in the coming months.

Update Feb 2019 : Xcelsius still heavily in use. Some companies looking to replace with Tableau or PowerBI but just not the same. Web Intelligence dashboards may be a viable alternative for simple dashboards .

Update July 2019 : SAP has announced it will no longer support Xcelsius after Dec. 31, 2020 to coincide with Adobe no longer supporting Flash in the browser. However, most Xcelsius users have been generating HTML5 dashboards for a number of years now and are continuing to do so and their Xcelsius HTML5 dashboards should not be affected. SAP has no equivalent follow-on product and is recommending customers move to SAC (cloud only) and rewrite their dashboards - this will require programming skills . An alternative to Xcelsius, called Squirrel,  that requires no training for an existing Xcelsius developer and has a built-in XLF migration utility is due for beta release by InfoSol in October and will be GA in December.

Update Dec 2019 : Squirrel has been in beta for the last few weeks with multiple organizations and is scheduled for general release on Dec 31. Initial feedback is very positive with Xcelsius users who require no re-training to use it. They have been able to both migrate or recreate existing Xcelsius dashboards. This is great news for the Xcelsius community who now have another option when Flash goes away and SAP stops supporting Xcelsius in 2021.

Update May 2020 : Squirrel is now at version 1.3 with multiple Xcelsius customers having converted their dashboards and running with the Squirrel HTML5 versions in production. This appears to be a very viable path forward for those customers left with Xcelsius Flash dashboards that will probably no longer work starting in 2021.

Update Nov 2020 : Squirrel 1.6 which has a cloud based version and allows you to embed dashboards in PPT was just released last week. More and more Xcelsius customers have now successfully moved to Squirrel and companies like Salesforce are using it too. Xcelsius has about a month to go before Adobe and SAP stop all support.

Update June 2022 : Squirrel365 has now replaced hundreds of Xcelsius dashboards and has become the de facto follow-on solution for Xcelsius

Disclaimer: My company is partners with several vendors including SAP BO.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: OEM Partner of SAP
PeerSpot user

I absolutely would like to hear your point of view and anything you wish to share about the app.
I would like to know things like:

1) Is SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, personal edition 2013 really the upgrade to Engage 2008?

2) How is it possible that they are asking such an outrageous amount of money for it?

3) How is it so different to the Xcelsius dashboard presentation apps they offer for under $500?. Am I missing something?

4) What justifies the kind of money they are asking? I am interested in things like, a fully updated MAP component, brand new dashboards, the possibility of a video component to insert videos, and the like. I guess it is possible that they are including some arcane stuff I don't care about, but I am ready to be surprised by you.

Thanks

See all 7 comments
Vedat Gunes - PeerSpot reviewer
BI & Analytics Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Beneficial presentation layer, scalable, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform's most valuable features are it has a great presentation layer. We can develop the presentation layer with drag-and-drop capabilities. For end-users and for our interns in the company can create reports and do their data analysis processes or works by using the objects that we created on the presentation layer by themselves."
  • "SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform should be made easier for the end-users and the performance could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is an enterprise reporting platform. We use it to read data from the data warehouses and serve the internal usage of the company for reporting purposes.

What is most valuable?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform's most valuable features are it has a great presentation layer. We can develop the presentation layer with drag-and-drop capabilities. For end-users and for our interns in the company can create reports and do their data analysis processes or works by using the objects that we created on the presentation layer by themselves.

What needs improvement?

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

In a feature release, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform the visual should improve, such as dashboards. They need to improve the visualization issues. The analytics are a bit behind the sector because alternative tools have integration between other platforms, such as Microsoft Office or Cloud. SAP BusinessObjects is trying to move all the platforms to the cloud, but we couldn't use the cloud and we are in the middle of a division. They don't offer an on-premise solution for the platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for approximately 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is good.

We have approximately 200 power users and 1,000 report users using this solution in my company.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the support from SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform.

I rate the support from SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a two out of five.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used another solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is in the middle range of difficulty. It is not easy or complex.

I rate the initial setup of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a four of five.

We have three people who do the maintenance and support of the solution. They are data and BI engineers.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third party for the implementation of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is an annual license to use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform.

I rate the price of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a four out of five.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others the solution has a great presentation layer, but it needs to be managed well before you receive the most out of the performance.

I rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Business Intelligence & Data Management Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Simple setup, beneficial documentation, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The features which the solution has been awesome. The way the data is fetched from the database, and the queries are executed, is unique using the Universe of Business Objects. That makes it unique and we could not find another solution that functions in a similar way. It's has a great way of receiving and executing queries."
  • "SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is lacking dashboards and this would be the only reason we are looking for another solution."

What is our primary use case?

The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is useful for all kinds of analytics, reporting, and alerting.

What is most valuable?

The features which the solution has been awesome. The way the data is fetched from the database, and the queries are executed, is unique using the Universe of Business Objects. That makes it unique and we could not find another solution that functions in a similar way. It's has a great way of receiving and executing queries.

What needs improvement?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is lacking dashboards and this would be the only reason we are looking for another solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for approximately 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform depends on your infrastructure. However, the solution itself is very stable reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are other solutions that can be implemented alongside SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform to make it more scalable, but in our environment, it's not used in that way.

We have approximately 500 to 1,000 users using this solution. We are working on this self-service BI strategy and therefore the number of users will be increased in the future.

How are customer service and support?

We sometimes receive technical bugs, especially with the new releases, and some patches are required. We then speak to BusinessObjects SAP support for assistance.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the solution is simple and the documentation provided was straightforward. It was not a difficult task.

What about the implementation team?

The first time we used it when SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform was when it was not an SAP solution, it was owned by Business Strategies, we brought in consultants to deploy. Later we have created our own team who can manage the implementation.

We have one person who does the administration and upgrades of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

We are on an annual subscription to use this solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

We are using an on-premise version which is good but the cloud version is more up-to-date.

I rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
BI/BO Hana Application Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Flexible solution for reporting and broadcasting, but its performance, look, feel, and technical support need to be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "This reporting and broadcasting solution has a lot of flexibilities and can connect to multiple source systems."
  • "SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to be improved performance-wise. The look and feel of this application, its scalability, setup, and technical support also need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for reporting, dashboards, and broadcasting.

What is most valuable?

What I find useful in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is that it has a lot of flexibilities. It's where you can develop so many reports, and it's able to connect to multiple source systems.

What needs improvement?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to be improved performance-wise. The look and feel of this application also needs improvement.

The scalability of this application has to be improved, and its setup should also be more simplified.

Technical support for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform also needs to be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform in our company for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The application is now stable, but there are still some things they have to improve on the hardware side.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is scalable, but the scalability of the servers and other parts is complex. SAP has made scalability complex. It's not so easy, and it's not so quick, while in other solutions, we can increase the scalability of the servers very easily and very fast, e.g. in Microsoft, but in SAP, it's complex and it takes more time.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is okay, but it depends on the priority level. For example, if you raise a ticket that's high priority, then they'll respond to that ticket, but if you raise a medium priority ticket, they don't respond at all. Technical support needs to be improved in that sense.

How was the initial setup?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has a complex setup, and could still be simplified, especially if you want to increase your capacity, which could be difficult in the SAP side.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is an expensive application, e.g. compared to Power BI. The analytics cloud is complex to set up. It's very hard. It takes a lot of time to complete the setup, because there are so many prerequisites to set it up before your analytics cloud. It's complex and it's expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We've evaluated Analytics Cloud and Power BI.

What other advice do I have?

Just recently, we moved SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform over to the cloud. Before, it was on our home site, but recently, e.g. just two days ago, we moved it to the cloud.

We've been using three different products: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Analytics Cloud though not fully on it yet, and Power BI.

I would rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a seven out of ten.

You cannot compare SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform with Power BI, but WebI, or SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence, is there. Power BI is more powerful compared to WebI, because there are a lot of flexibilities, and you can use them in a simpler way, e.g. these are also possible in WebI, but it's more complex, especially during the setup.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2023
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.