SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Reviews

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is currently deployed as on-premise solution and recently the server got hosted into cloud, but it's more or less assembled as on-premise solution.

It was a tool that was established in its current form a very long time back, so most of the uses are familiar. The familiarity is very good with that tool. Since it is familiar, they're able to navigate and get the reports and even share the requirements needed for anything new that needs to be developed. To an extent, they know its features and capabilities. So that's one thing.

It is providing a wide range of reports in different departments. Especially for the department I'm working in, they are mostly interested in the regulation side. So they are looking for the information or properties regarding the products and getting their details on the regulation, which will help them to manage or make sure that all the regulatory standards are maintained for the information captured in the database.

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.

It has additional capabilities like scheduling and getting the reports in the various forms, like through the mails and through the shared locations, and all those sorts of formats, so those features are good. The user friendliness helps create the reports out of the data source available.

It's not like apps. 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.

But there are other products, like SAP Analytics Cloud, all of which actually provide this information under the Business Intelligence platform. But I have not used it much because my customer has not moved onto those platforms yet. That may be one thing that may need improvement - the dashboarding side. Also sometimes the performance is not that great when getting millions of records out of it. It'll take its own sweet time to get that report refreshed.

Feature-wise, it's a slightly old technology, so I don't expect anything getting updated much in it, rather just continuing with their current thing.

I'm right now using other dashboarding tools for the dashboarding requirements. As I mentioned, it's not that capable of providing the current dashboarding requirements. I was introduced first to this tool then later to others.

I'm using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform in my current project. One of my roles is to develop the reports and universes, so I'm currently using it for that.

On the backside, there is not much that needs to get fixed. Occasionally we used to figure out some bugs with the versions, mostly compatibility issues with the latest databases, for example with Snowflakes. But we used to get the patches for that compatibility issues. But so far I haven't seen those sorts of issues in the environment that I'm working in.

In terms of the maintenance, we have seen some server slowness or shutdowns or something like that. We have noticed it, but not much on the admin side of activities. But if we see some issues in the system then we usually reach out to SAP to see their point of view and they may be coming with a fix for it or with a solution to adjust the system parameters.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is not that scalable. I will say the scalability is medium. It's not as easy to scale it up as we need it to deploy. We have an option to cluster it with multiple servers, but it's not like it's just a configuration change. It should be repeating the process of the entire installation in a different box, and linking those up.

It is being widely used and we have people from various departments and roles. It is covering some of the finance reports and it covers from the financial side. On the VP level, they are getting some sales reports and other data, with daily refreshes on it. It is used by the analyst for day-to-day activities. It is widely used. I cannot pinpoint one specific use we set for it for the current client I'm working for.

Maybe I'm planning to increase usage. The BI platform has different components in it. The current components I'm using are mostly the Web Intelligence and the Crystal Reports. I feel like it's a little outdated, it's a little more like old technology. But under that they have an SAP Analytics Cloud platform that they're building up under the Business Intelligence itself. I guess eventually the roadmap will be inclined to that solution.

We usually use both the forum and the support group for SAP. As I mentioned, if there are some serious issues, we are in contact with SAP, so we'll raise tech issues with them and they will come back with a fix, like connectivity to a new database. And if there are any ongoing issues that we identify in our landscape which need to be addressed, they usually get back with the fix or they usually analyze our system and give us suggestions.

We also interact with the forum. The blog forums and the social forums for this product are well established. We will get most, 60% to 70% of queries, addressed in those forums. I have observed most of the very similar issues already registered in those forum, which will be helpful for debugging or solving our issues.

Occasionally we may have to do multiple follow-ups for a product with tech support and get them to understand and then have a debate to get it fixed. That's little challenging. It'll take some time since maybe our issues are specific to a landscape, the way that we operate with this huge, massive amount of records. So at times they may not be easily open, but with more proof and if we can provide more justification, they usually pick it up. But it's not very fast, it will take some time.

The deployment process is quite easy. We have a dedicated admin team to manage the queues of deployment. It is very easy to get that once we deploy the changes in dev, it can be easily moved across environments to different test environments and to the cloud. It also has the capability to roll back the changes if there are any issues that we identify, so I don't see any issues with the deployment process.

To set it up, provided we have all the infra support needed, it will mostly be handled by different teams, like database. From that perspective, maybe a couple of teams may be involved as repositories are mounted on top of database, but the installation side can be handled by one person. That can be possible if it is a small scale deployment with not too many clusters involved.

But if there are cluster servers and multiple servers needed to be deployed and linked, it may be worth having a considerable effort to deploy this solution. I'm mostly talking about the installation of the product. But it can be handled with a couple of people, provided we have the support from the infra team with the servers, with required specification for the server, as well as any other support needed, including admin support for the servers.

If it is standalone, a simple server installation can be completed in a day or two.

It is very widely used across different departments and it definitely serves a purpose to give insights on the data. It is surely giving the returns, but I may not be in a position to give the exact figures or how much it will be in connection with the purchase demand or purchase cost. But it is definitely a tool that is needed for the day-to-day tracking.

I think the licensing depends upon the user base. If it is a limited license, the user base has some restrictions. If we need to expand our user base, I guess there needs to be enhanced licensing. At a high level I can share that, but we haven't faced it as we have the full premium license with them, but I know the starter packages are limited on the number of users. Maybe not for all licensing, but only the lowest range licensing fee may have some limitation on the number of concurrent users.

My advice to anyone considering SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is to keep an eye on the requirement side that they need. If you are looking for a flashy dashboard with a lot of user interactions with click and dicing the graphs, I don't recommend the Business Intelligence component or the Crystal Reports. They may have to look into other products.

On a scale of one to then, I would say SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is a 7.

I've used BusinessObjects for projects in finance and healthcare. Also, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies uses it as a reporting tool. We had the data source and ad hoc requirements, so we created semantic layer data modeling for the database and reporting system. Then we used BusinessObjects as a tool for reporting and dashboards.

BusinessObject's most useful feature is the semantic layer, which offers us the flexibility to go for ad hoc reporting.

I want BusinessObjects to have more flexibility like Tableau or Power BI. The interface could be slicker and more user-friendly. SAP could add more ability to design and customize the dashboards.

BusinessObjects is not that user-friendly. They have different tools for designing dashboards like Discovery— previously called Lumira. That isn't as user-friendly as Tableau. 

I've been using BusinessObjects for four to five years.

BusinessObjects is stable.

BusinessObject's main advantage is the ad hoc capability.

I've contacted SAP support once or twice. We raised a support request, and they responded promptly. They organized a call and helped us resolve the issue. 

BusinessObjects' installation is comparable to Tableau, but BusinessObjects requires a skilled administrator for management and maintenance because it's a little more complex than Tableau.  

In terms of flexibility and user-friendliness, Tableau is better than BusinessObjects, but if you have ad hoc requirements, then BusinessObjects is better.

I rate SAP BusinessObjects eight out of 10. I would recommend BusinessObjects, but it depends on the requirements. SAP is a better choice if you are doing daily reporting where you need to drag and drop objects and create ad hoc reporting then export to Excel or CSV. 

We are using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for a lot of things, such as simple reports and business dashboards, and in all the business areas, for example, finance, sales, and purchasing.

The most valuable feature we have found to be the SAP BW, which is a warehouse tool. Additionally, it is an easy tool to use.

The dashboard tool is called Lumira and it is very uncomfortable for developers to use. They should improve this in the future.

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

The stability is good. However, the performance could be better.

We have several hundred end-users using this solution and we use the solution on a daily basis.

The solution is scalable. We feel comfortable with the infrastructure that we have, but we can expand if we want to. 

The technical support is good, I am satisfied.

I previously use Oracle BI. I think the Oracle BI is stronger and has more functionality than SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. However, it does not connect to SAP ERP which is a disadvantage.

The initial setup is simple, it took us two days to complete.

The implementation, maintenance, and updates can be done by staff within the company. There are times we have used local support or integrators in our area.

This solution is not meant to be very complicated, solutions that are complicated require other tools.

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

The planning and dashboarding features have been useful. Additionally, the fixed-format reports are good.

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

We are in the beginning stages of the implementation and once we roll it out to end-users then we will see further improvement areas.

In SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform we use Lumira Designer, or the earlier version is Design Studio, where we create management dashboards. We feel that the tool is very complex in terms of implementing the dashboard. Lots of coding and performance issues. We require particular skillsets and resources, regular users cannot understand it. The management dashboards should be easy to configure. The only option right now is Lumira Designer, but it is complex to implement. Maintaining and supporting it takes time, and something should be done to improve the experience.

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

The solution is stable.

I have found the solution to be scalable.

We have approximately 1,000 users using this solution in our company.

We did not find any major support areas that needed the support from SAP. The majority of the application support our team managed fine and we did not suffer any hardware issues. Our issues were resolved. 

The installation was a medium difficulty level because we do not have complex scenarios in our use case. There are some complex portions but there were no roadblocks that prevented us from continuing.

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

Our organization prefers one visualization tool, that's why SAP will be in our roadmap.

I think companies prefer self-service. BSAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform seems a little typical tool in terms of self-service. We recommend other solutions, such as Microsoft BI, because they can do a lot more functions.

Our company is in the healthcare industry and we are using BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for a lot of our data, such as eligibility, claims, premium, plan. We run all kinds of different reports for our customers and our brokers on how the claims and planners are performing and what is the utilization of different services throughout the claims.

The feature that allows pivot users to create the report dashboards and run them when they want with a lot of flexibility with the drill-downs is very useful. The drill-down features are very good because, in other solutions, such as Excel, you have to create separate pivot tables and a lot of other operations to do drill-downs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform tool does the drill-downs automatically. Overall the solution is user-friendly and has a lot of drag and drop features.

Tableau was easier for me to use because the interface is more similar to Excel which I was used to using.

I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for a short period of time.

The solution has been stable in my usage. Our company has had SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for as long as I have been here, which is 20 years. I think we have had dashboards with it before. I did not know how it worked with the data universes and we did not have a lot of data in the universe. Using software for service we will upgrade when they upgrade. I have heard that when we move to version 4.3, the user interface looks entirely different and I do not know how that experience will go.

Our IT department does the data and the universe design. We have a universe designer who does it and it is their full-time job. Additionally, they do all the ETLs and many other operations within the company. My team is more focused on business analysts and is trying to learn the report-building side of the solution, designing the reports, and working with the interface. I have one person that does works with the designer to try to make the connections better and they have a good understanding of the data. The IT people do not understand the data, we understand the data. We are trying to learn how to write the reports and we only have five people in training. I have five users that I want to learn how to be involved in the process and create these reports.

I have previously used Tableau.

For anybody who does not have a BI solution and is thinking about implementation should look at them all before deciding. We have another vendor we have worked with, Cognos, and I have worked with Tableau and it is important to evaluate all of the solutions to see which one makes more sense for their use case. I downloaded a list of the top five and they all are pretty similar, I will not say they are the same because there are a lot of differences but they are all heading in the same direction of getting the information to the universe and pulling out the data.

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

We primarily use the product for reporting and dashboards. We only have those two use cases, although there are other ways to use them.

I have a 24-hour company, and the business layer on top of the database can translate database data into business language so that people can easily understand what's happening. It allows us to quickly create reports without IT or programming skills.

The stability is quite good.

According to our experience, SAP BO is too heavy and very difficult for customers with medium, or smaller-sized businesses to install and maintain. It is such a heavy reporting tool.

Even though they provide the business layer, it's difficult for the programmer to create their own business layer. It's too complex for them. They need to simplify this.

The user interface should be easier to use and navigate.

The initial setup is difficult. 

Technical support could be more responsive. 

I've been using the solution for five years already. I've used it for quite a while. 

The stability is pretty good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable and the performance is good. 

We only have three or four people who are using the solution at our company at this time. They are the admins and the ones who generate the reports for us. 

We haven't really looked into scaling as the data volume is very limited. I can't speak to how easy it is to expand or how well it handles extremely large data sets.

Technical support could be better. We tried to get them to help us with the implementation, and they were not quick to respond.

We currently also work with Crystal Reports, which is dated, and Jasper, which is also not that great of a product.

When we began to switch to SAP, we really wanted customization capabilities and we wanted the business layer. We needed something to provide a middle layer or translation layer so that people can generate reports much quicker, and, at the time, SAP was a good option.

The initial setup is not easy. We need a very experienced developer and they need to get enough training from SAP in order to be able to do anything effectively. It's not like other reporting tools that are really easy to use or easy to install and maintain. This one is complex and takes work and inside knowledge. 

There isn't too much maintenance required. You just need to update it every once in a while. 

We needed some help implementing the solution, however, in the end, we weren't completely satisfied as the level of response time was slow. 

I cannot speak to the exact cost of the product, as it's not an aspect of the solution I handle. 

We're currently looking at Power BI and Splunk among other options.

We are SAP partners. 

I use the latest version of the solution. I cannot speak to the exact version number.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the product to others. Even now, for ourselves, we are looking into an alternative option. 

I would rate the solution at a six out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for reports regarding sales inventory and production.

The reporting features the solution offers are excellent.

Technical support is quite good. They are responsive when we reach out.

The solution can scale.

We are not on the latest patch, the latest version. There are different pain points, such as data loading or inventory issues. It can take a lot of time to load.

The solution could be less expensive. It's a bit pricey now.

We've been using the solution at the company for around six or seven years at this point. However, I've only used it for the last two years or so.

The stability isn't quite as good as it could be. It's not a perfectly scalable solution.

The solution is very easy to expand. It scales quite well. If a company needs to expand the solution, it can do so relatively easily.

I'm the only one who is using this solution and I'm publishing the reports and a few others are using Microsoft Analysis for SAP, doing the reports.

I've used technical support in the past. I've found them to be responsive and knowledgeable. They are quite helpful. We're satisfied with the level of service we receive.

I was not a part of the initial setup. I can't speak to how long the deployment was or how easy or difficult the process ended up being.

In terms of upgrading, we have no need to at this point. 

Licensing is paid on a yearly basis.

There is room for improvement in the pricing. It could be more reasonable.

We're just an end-user and a customer. We don't have a business relationship with SAP.

We are not yet on the latest version of the product.

I would advise new users to not go for these old versions and instead go for the new versions that at least use embedded analytics, et cetera.

I'd rate the solution at around seven out of ten. There are a few areas it could improve upon.