SAP Business Data Cloud Reviews

SAP Business Data Cloud's main use case and most powerful capability is strengthening the integration pattern between ERP and Azure Data Lake using BDC Delta Share. This has already been tested and worked end to end. The second use case involves a BW roadmap of migration to SAP Business Data Cloud.

The ERP to data lake integration pattern has traditionally involved multiple middleware systems: Managed Data Transfer, GoAnywhere, replicating data via SLT sidecar HANA database, and BusinessObjects Data Services. The integration use case aims to eliminate all of these systems and use BDC Delta Share directly from ERP, replicating via Cloud Connector SLT directly to data lake. This represents the main use case and the basis of TCO comparison. Additional use cases include BW on-prem to SAP Business Data Cloud migration, data lake migration, and Datasphere migration, which has its own greenfield parallel run path.

The most powerful use case is the integration piece with Delta Share to eliminate middle layers, followed by People Intelligence app and integration, which has also been tested with reporting on SAP Analytics Cloud dashboard on top of it, followed by BW roadmap migration to Datasphere, and then AIML capabilities, which is a nice to have.

BDC Delta Share has been one of the big impact areas for SAP Business Data Cloud, as integration has always been a pain point for organizations. Customer managed data products follow as another valuable feature. While standard data products are maintained by SAP, customer managed products help integrate native SAP data by joining tables directly using analytical views and joins for real-time reporting. The priority is integration by Delta Share, followed by customer managed data products, which help join SAP and non-SAP data and integrate them using modeling on analytical views in Datasphere and real-time consumption in SAC.

BDC Delta Share has brought down cost significantly. By eliminating the BODS and SLT layers, a 30 to 40 percent reduction in overall total cost of ownership has been achieved, followed by BW integration roadmap, which is longer-term. However, BDC Delta Share had a limitation of not allowing delta only. The delta only feature on replication flows was not available for standard ERP replication flows, which was a significant limitation. More accelerators are needed for how BW greenfield implementation can happen.

SAP Business Data Cloud is still in a phase of considerable evolution with a long roadmap. SAP has planned many releases and features, especially around accelerators for migrating and upgrading BW, which has end-of-life support in 2030, onto SAP Business Data Cloud. A strong roadmap exists for the next six to eight months. The BW journey will be tricky for organizations with heavy legacy BW footprints. Since this is a greenfield implementation, it is not easy to implement on the go. How organizations choose to move from BW on-prem to BW PCE and conduct greenfield Datasphere implementation to retire BW because of end-of-life support is going to be a critical decision, and how SAP helps organizations accelerate that journey over the next three years will be critical.

BDC Delta Share had a limitation of not allowing delta only, as the delta only feature on replication flows was not available for standard ERP replication flows. This was a significant limitation that prevented organizations from migrating from BODS to replication flows. As a result, it mandates loading the entire history from source, which is not recommended and not possible. SAP is planning to overcome this limitation in the next one or two quarters with releases enabling delta only. Additionally, more accelerators are needed for how BW greenfield implementation can happen. The ABAP stack does not work, customer exits do not work, and all custom ABAP logic has to be rewritten. Accelerators for how history data can be migrated are needed. SAP has releases planned for the next two quarters around accelerating the BW migration roadmap to Datasphere. Along with that, they need to increase their scale-out capabilities on cloud, as they have limited hardware capacity on cloud. This scale-out is due in the next two or three quarters, which will help organizations speed up.

Engagement with SAP Business Data Cloud has been ongoing for close to the last three quarters since its launch at Sapphire last year, with work on project assignments for the last three quarters, spanning six to eight months.

The documentation for SAP Business Data Cloud is comprehensive. The initial setup and prerequisites are complex but documented thoroughly. The native front end includes SAP Analytics Cloud, Delta Share, and analytical models already existed on Datasphere. The documentation SAP has provided is detailed as needed. Following the documentation takes time, and getting the notes implemented on an ERP system is complex and cumbersome, but there is no issue with the documentation that is available.

SAP Business Data Cloud is rated a nine on ten as of now from a long-term strategy perspective. It will evolve, and from an overall five-year or six-year roadmap, SAP looks to integrate Joule, integrate Databricks AI, and bring it all together into SAP Business Data Cloud, RISE, or the Private Cloud Edition. From a long-term strategy perspective, this was much needed for SAP and is the way forward. This represents a big leap from an organization's SAP analytics and AI strategy for the next five years on BTP and SAP Business Data Cloud.

Like any other products, there are product challenges and limitations. Organizations have their own custom variations and corner scenarios. There will always be situations and limitations that SAP Business Data Cloud cannot handle, though SAP has plans to release features in the next two or three quarters. The rating of nine on ten is based on the overall long-term strategy rather than the current capability. Long-term, SAP wants to reduce the number of hops and allow organizations to keep their legacy BW investments and data lake investments in place while simultaneously onboarding to SAP Business Data Cloud without completely disregarding their current investments. For these reasons and from a strategy perspective, a rating of nine on ten is justified.

A sandbox implementation was completed using public cloud, which included a Datasphere component, an SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit, and an SAC tenant deployed on public cloud. Connection to an on-prem SAP using a cloud connector was established, connecting to on-prem S/4 using Cloud Connector to replicate the end-to-end Delta Share via the embedded SLT on S/4. A private cloud edition is available for BW as a component, while the Datasphere and SAC components are deployed on public cloud.

SAP Business Data Cloud AI, whether integrated with SAP Databricks or an organization's enterprise Databricks, is governed through access control driven by Unity Catalog. Organizations need to take this through their Infosec architecture approvals and alignments before onboarding the journey. Joule, whether enabling Joule agents on top of ERP or agentic agents which SAP has a roadmap to release close to 200 agents in the next two to three quarters, requires organizations to align and get approval from their architecture and Infosec teams. Access is then governed using the Unity Catalog, which is part of the SAP Business Data Cloud roadmap. The overall review rating is nine on ten.

One of the key use cases for SAP Business Data Cloud is integrating the financial information from various underlying ERPs from a finance standpoint and bringing it into SAP Business Data Cloud, harmonizing it, and creating that semantic layer where everything from across all regions comes together. We then have a global view of how the business is run as a whole, and we use it more often every single day from a financial review standpoint.

Integrating data with external parties or third-party platforms allows us to track sales progress for our consumer client, marshalling data from external sources to provide a broader picture of sales influencers, including consumer behavior and competitors' pricing. By marrying SAP data from S/4HANA with external third-party data, we can help the client make strategic decisions based on a clearer understanding of pricing, discounts, and market trends.

The most useful features of SAP Business Data Cloud include integrating data without necessarily having to replicate it from those various environments, which we can do through data federation in real-time, reducing latency from a data standpoint. Secondly, it integrates with Databricks where we can run AI capability on the same dataset brought from ERP while also integrating with external datasets like weather or consumer behavior data. Thirdly, since we were already using SAP Analytics Cloud, it now comes as a package with SAP Business Data Cloud as a front end, allowing us to consume the same information without having to connect a third-party tool, making it work beautifully from a visualization standpoint.

SAP Business Data Cloud ensures that data maintains the same meaning and relationships when moving between different systems by allowing connection to most of our SAP sources, particularly S/4HANA, which is used across our regions including US, EMEA, and APAC. The seamless integration ensures that harmonization and building that harmonized semantic layer is done without requiring additional developer knowledge; those models come pre-built as data products. This reduces our cycle time.

SAP Business Data Cloud is definitely reliable; once data is in the system, it serves as a reliable semantic layer, allowing users to trust that their data is accurate. Pre-built reports enhance confidence in its reliability, making it a recommended unified platform.

I think improvements could be made for areas where there is a need for historical data; storing data in SAP Business Data Cloud can be expensive, so any way SAP could help streamline keeping a large amount of historical data would be a great win. Additionally, bringing data from non-SAP environments more seamlessly is another area for enhancement. SAP Business Data Cloud can connect to almost every SAP source but expanding on non-SAP datasets would broaden the client base, as many of our clients have substantial architectures containing systems outside of SAP.

I have been working with SAP Business Data Cloud for a year and a bit, starting around January or February last year with my hands on in the system.

We expect SAP Business Data Cloud to be highly scalable, starting with our major region, the US. We are replicating models across EMEA and APAC regions and find it is scalable, although we are still navigating aspects around storage and capacity units.

We have rolled out SAP Business Data Cloud for our US clients globally, starting with the US and planning for EMEA and APAC next. The initial go-live took eight months, but subsequent rollouts have been achieved in under four months, confirming the solution's scalability.

We frequently communicate with SAP Business Data Cloud's technical support to resolve various issues. As a platinum partner, we are able to work closely with them to clarify product functionality and address any operational challenges.

I would rate the technical support around nine; they are attentive and responsive. I deduct points due to the sometimes lengthy solutioning process with new features, which can delay implementations.

Before using SAP Business Data Cloud, we primarily used solutions such as SAP HANA, Enterprise HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, and some clients are still using others such as Google BigQuery or Microsoft solutions.

In terms of the initial setup for SAP Business Data Cloud, there is a learning curve, and we have gone through discussions with SAP to understand the pricing and setup process, similar to any new product. Clients encountered varied questions requiring collaboration with SAP to find answers.

I would not say the initial setup is straightforward, but the hurdles were expected ones. We anticipated the need to understand pricing, setup requirements, and infrastructure needs, which we worked through with SAP.

We are going live internally with SAP Business Data Cloud for our financial reporting across the globe and have ROI measures over the first five years, expecting a target of about seven percent in the first year, going up to thirty-two percent by year four. Clients have seen significant value by reducing the time taken to access data from a week to just minutes.

We did not evaluate other options beyond SAP Business Data Cloud since we were using BW earlier. The quick migration path offered by SAP made it a seamless choice, minimizing implementation time while maximizing efficiency.

As a consultant, I belong to a consulting firm, so I help others who are the customer of the product, and I help them as an integrator to build their required configurations in the system. SAP Business Data Cloud is also used by Deloitte Consulting for our in-house financial information.

We use our company's real official data for AI, but we are still working on leveraging AI capability and have not integrated Databricks that comes with SAP Business Data Cloud yet. We plan to use it because we understand the power of data in SAP Business Data Cloud is huge, and we want to build on those AI use cases.

We have used SAP Business Data Cloud's self-service analytics feature, and it gives IT personnel more flexibility. If access is controlled adequately by security, it allows a super business user to make necessary tweaks without always waiting for IT. We have not used it extensively yet because we want to ensure our data remains secure, but we are aware of this feature and plan to use it.

Transitioning from BW to SAP Business Data Cloud made our daily data operations faster because SAP provides a clear path for migrations. Clients are willing to make the journey as it typically does not take a long time, usually about two to three months, which has encouraged many to start that migration.

Connecting SAP Business Data Cloud to other platforms such as Snowflake or Google changes how our team manages and moves data by allowing different resources with various skill sets to work together. SAP Business Data Cloud serves as a central location for accessing data, eliminating the previously scattered nature of data across multiple systems, thus streamlining operations.

We have not actively used the integration between SAP HANA, SAP HANA Cloud, and SAP Business Data Cloud yet, but it is in development for us as part of our current internal project.

We are using the Data Product Studio in SAP Business Data Cloud for our ERPs, primarily SAP S/4, to handle our business needs from a financial reporting standpoint by moving data through standard data products.

While discussing the pricing of SAP Business Data Cloud, I believe that more than being higher or lower, there is a lack of education regarding how pricing mechanics work. Understanding how to allocate capacity units and determining business needs is crucial; the economics of SAP Business Data Cloud is not sufficiently socialized, making it less clear for potential users.

The decision to switch to SAP Business Data Cloud stemmed from the latency issue; moving data to the platform and creating the necessary layers was an overhead. With SAP Business Data Cloud, data seamlessly integrates, allowing visualization and AI use cases without needing to move data.

I have worked on two implementations of SAP Business Data Cloud for clients in the US and currently have a third internal implementation that I am working on.

SAP Business Data Cloud is deployed on SAP Cloud in our organization. I rate this review overall as a nine out of ten.

I have been working with SAP Business Data Cloud for a while now, and the main use cases for it are to streamline data integration and automate processes to improve efficiency.

I use SAP Business Data Cloud to ensure that data keeps the same meaning and relationships when it moves between different systems.

The best features in SAP Business Data Cloud from my perspective include its user-friendly interface and powerful analytics capabilities. I also utilize the AI within SAP Business Data Cloud.

I have used the self-service analytics features in SAP Business Data Cloud to change my data models quickly. I have also used SAP Business Data Cloud's Connect to integrate data with external parties or third-party platforms.

Moving my old BW data to SAP Business Data Cloud greatly improves my daily data operations by making them faster and easier.

SAP Business Data Cloud support for AI/ML has enabled new cases in my organization. Connecting SAP Business Data Cloud to Databricks has changed the way my team manages and moves data. At the moment, I am using the integration between SAP HANA Cloud and SAP Business Data Cloud.

In terms of stability, I find SAP Business Data Cloud stable. On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the best, I would rate the overall stability of SAP Business Data Cloud an eight.

Regarding scalability, I find it scalable.

My experience with the technical support team has been positive, and I would evaluate them as effective. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the tech support a seven.

Prior to adopting SAP Business Data Cloud, I worked with different products and solutions from competitors. The key differences, both pros and cons of SAP in comparison to Azure technologies are significant.

Regarding the pricing aspect, setup cost, and licensing of SAP Business Data Cloud, I think it is excellent. Although it might be too early to assess fully, I have seen some return on investment so far.

When it comes to the initial setup, I am involved in the setup process and the deployment part. My company has a business relationship working with an SAP partnership.

Regarding the pricing aspect, setup cost, and licensing of SAP Business Data Cloud, I think it is excellent. Although it might be too early to assess fully, I have seen some return on investment so far.

Regarding the pricing aspect, setup cost, and licensing of SAP Business Data Cloud, I think it is excellent.

For other organizations considering SAP Business Data Cloud, I would share the advice to take full advantage of its capabilities. Given my experience with SAP technologies and SAP Business Data Cloud specifically, I would recommend planning thoroughly before implementation. I would overall rate SAP Business Data Cloud as a product and solution a nine.

We are a implementing SAP Business Data Cloud for one of our customers, a UK customer.

We are using Datasphere from SAP Business Data Cloud and have integrated it with Databricks using the SAP Business Data Cloud Connect service. We have included SAP Analytics Cloud within this package.

We installed all the data packages available on SAP Business Data Cloud and leveraged several out-of-the-box applications from SAP for modeling purposes.

Our business decisions are taken quickly using SAC dashboards. We import all standard data products from S/4 directly with SAP Business Data Cloud, which provides data governance. We pull additional tables from S/4 through a normal connection and perform modeling in Datasphere.

Data is shared through SAP Business Data Cloud Connect from S/4 to Databricks using Delta Sharing. We have connections with CRM through Microsoft CRM via open connectors. We use a CPI tool to connect other third-party systems to Datasphere.

Datasphere serves as the central point of contact for all data, integrating both third-party systems and SAP, which makes reporting easier.

We use Datasphere from SAP Business Data Cloud for data warehousing and have integrated it with Databricks using the SAP Business Data Cloud Connect service.

All the services are available under one service, and the usability is easy with a user-friendly interface.

Connecting to Databricks using SAP Business Data Cloud Connect is particularly useful, and having all the architecture in one place is beneficial.

The data products provided by SAP Business Data Cloud are valuable. We installed all the data packages available and leveraged several out-of-the-box applications from SAP.

I see intermittent slowness in connectivity and data sharing to Databricks.

While installing the data products and data packages, the error messages are not clear. Improvements in this area would be helpful.

We receive error messages only after two days while installing standard data products, which was one of the major issues I encountered during implementation.

More clear error messages when connecting to S/4 would be beneficial. The error messages were not straightforward, so we had to contact SAP multiple times.

I would not say the system is stable at this point because we receive new updates and fixes from SAP every week. Many parts still need to be worked on in terms of stability.

I have been using SAP Business Data Cloud for approximately six months.

I would not say SAP Business Data Cloud is stable at this point because we receive new updates and fixes from SAP every week. Many parts still need to be worked on in terms of stability.

Scalability is generally easy in cloud environments because of cloud infrastructure benefits. However, on-premises deployment is completely dependent on client decisions.

I have contacted technical support twice or three times.

Technical support is good in terms of responding and providing fixes.

I raised support tickets primarily for data package installations where we missed installing a few SAP notes. They shared information about places where we had authorization gaps.

Initial setup requires purchasing SAP Business Data Cloud licensing. Once that is completed, you receive all tenant details through the SAP for me portal. After that, you must create formations, and within formation creation, you must include all the services you require. That is how the setup is completed on SAP Business Data Cloud.

There were some challenges, but most of them were not complicated. The process was straightforward.

Challenges occurred in terms of formation creation, specifically when creating multiple formations and removing objects from formations. We faced some issues in those areas, but they were resolved quickly.

The licensing cost is quite expensive. Since it is bundled with multiple items, the minimum cost itself is quite high. Many customers were hesitant to move because of the pricing.

We did not leverage AI services. We were only interested in integrating the data. I have no experience with AI on data.

Some requirements are still mandatory for certain clients, so they are proceeding with SAP Business Data Cloud.

Most prefer on-premises deployment, but some prefer cloud as well.

Decisions are most likely based on pricing and licensing. When compared to on-premises, cloud pricing would be better for scalability. On-premises might cost more in the scaling aspect, but that depends on the security requirements of each client.

I would rate this solution an 8 overall.

SAP Business Data Cloud brings a unified foundation and solution for using AI from the embedded Databricks, and it is helpful for creating dashboards or reports in a short span of time using intelligent applications, which also reduces manual errors.

When creating dashboards, consider a working capital or revenue dashboard; you may have your own calculations which might not be suitable for the business you are developing for. However, with SAP Business Data Cloud, you have a unified structure for all businesses with a whole semantic structure. You won't have manual errors, and you can directly plug into the data source or data products to have dashboards and reports.

If you need dashboards or reports regarding a working capital application, you can search in the intelligent application to find a suitable application. For example, if you need a working capital dashboard, you can find it there and connect it with the data source. You can then have real-time data processing in SAP Business Data Cloud with whatever data source you have, whether it is from a third-party source or SAP source. You can connect and have working capital dashboards or reports in a small amount of time without much development. You can use it directly, and even if you need any customization or custom logic, you can make a copy of the model and make the changes accordingly to have it as a separate copy.

SAP Business Data Cloud has prebuilt data products and insight apps, which are intelligent applications, and a unified data platform that brings together the semantic constructs of both SAP and non-SAP data. It also has a zero-copy delta sharing approach, which means we won't persist or store the data in some places. We will directly get it from the source system and process it accordingly. We can also use the AI features and the embedded Databricks, so we can use the features of Databricks.

Zero-copy delta sharing means SAP Business Data Cloud can share data with another platform without physically duplicating it or storing it. This is helpful because the data stays in the original place, which reduces data movement and avoids extra copies, making the sharing easier and more efficient in a governed manner. Regarding AI features, we can use Databricks where we can use Python or script language for planning or any other use cases.

SAP Business Data Cloud helps the company by providing a space where we can trust all our data to SAP, and leadership can make decisions faster with less effort. It reduces the time spent on developing objects like reports or dashboards and also helps in planning, forecasting, and AI features across all modules including Finance, HR, supply chain, and others.

SAP Business Data Cloud is a new tool, and we need much more time to use its full capability and understand the advantages and disadvantages. As of now, it is based upon the consumption unit; whatever dashboards or reports you use from the AI will consume the capacity unit. We will need to figure out the consumption unit or the units spent on the business for a particular report and compare it with the manually developed report, which will be accessible at all times without any restrictions.

I have been working for the past four years and I have known multiple technologies including SAC, Databricks, Datasphere, HANA, and native HANA.

From what we have worked with, SAP Business Data Cloud is stable. There are no issues in the connectivity.

SAP Business Data Cloud is a SaaS product, so it comes as a BTP solution, and the scalability is better.

SAP Business Data Cloud subscription-based pricing is completely based upon the capacity units used by the business users. If you are using dashboards or intelligent packages often or repetitively, the capacity units will also increase, so the pricing and other factors will vary.

We directly chose SAP Business Data Cloud since it is a SAP product which exists in our SAP environment. It also has the features of Databricks and a few other applications which will be added more in the future, and the existing BW can be supported in the system. We can also connect with Datasphere and HANA Cloud.

We have not used a previous solution based on AI.

Currently, if you are using an on-premise system, you first need to move your system to the private cloud edition and connect with SAP Business Data Cloud. If you are using HANA Cloud directly, you can use SAP Business Data Cloud directly. It would be much more helpful if SAP Business Data Cloud features were available directly in the on-premise system by having any external software or application instead of moving it through the private cloud editions.

We can go for SAP Business Data Cloud if we can use the intelligent application or any third-party data products. If you need to use the AI features, we can use it from SAP Business Data Cloud corporate and the LLM models we have. If you are expecting many other features, you can first cross-check with the SAP team or you can have a trial account, then you can make the evaluation on purchasing or having SAP Business Data Cloud.

Since we are using zero-copy delta sharing, the speed and reliability of the data are much faster and easily governed since we don't have duplications in multiple layers.

Regarding how the integration affects our management process, it will actually reduce the difficulty in maintaining and governance of the data.

For example, if you need to create a dashboard, and if the same report or development also exists in the intelligent application, instead of replicating or redeveloping the whole logic from scratch, which will be time-consuming and incur costs in manpower, you can save money by using the intelligent applications that already exist and just need to plug in with the data source.

Data products hold the metadata and semantic layer with the meaning of the fields or the data. For example, a material number and what it stands for, including the description and other details, are stored in the metadata.

I have used the self-service analytical feature in SAP Business Data Cloud. The embedded AI tools include predictive modeling features. This helps the team to make developments quickly, so we can have the reports in hand in a short span of time, and the accuracy is also better. We just need to recheck the logic and make sure the business is aligned with the existing logic, and it will help the business to make quick decisions.

We can expand the semantic layer with the knowledge graphs and have AI agents such as Joule in our backbone which will be helpful in understanding complex business relationships. We can have more data products which will be useful in the future, and SAP has promised to have more data products from other sources in the future. This will be very useful for the business.

Accuracy depends upon the logic; it will give 100% accuracy, but the logic behind it needs to be suitable for your business case. It may be different in some cases; at that point, we need to go into the customization logic. Otherwise, it shows 100% result.

We can have multiple data products and much more flexibility by connecting to third-party sources, which will be helpful in the future. I would rate my overall experience with SAP Business Data Cloud as an 8 out of 10.

My main use case for SAP Business Data Cloud is the analysis of intelligent applications and customization of intelligent applications, which also includes analytic models and SAC dashboards.

I use SAP Business Data Cloud as a copilot to install the intelligent application, but the actual customization takes place in the analytic model in Data Sphere, and also on the S/4 side. We had some customized fields that we had to bring up and then use them also in the SAC dashboards. You get an intelligent app that also gives you already standardized SAP managed dashboards, and what we do is customize those. We add those fields and then save them under our own folders.

We had a couple of attempts with the CDS views that didn't work to load it up in the customized or in the intelligent app spaces, but in the end, we found a way and we even did a KT about that internally for our IBM colleagues because this is a use case that comes up more often on projects where people already have customized fields. It makes sense to be aware of that before installing SAP Business Data Cloud. In this case, you have to reinstall the intelligent app if you have a new customized field and that needs to be taken into consideration.

SAP Business Data Cloud offers several valuable features. The idea of data products is quite useful and reusable, and you have the data product generator, the data marketplace where you can look for individual data products and intelligent applications, and you can even build your own intelligent applications and publish them. SAP Business Data Cloud intelligent app takes away a lot of work because it installs the complete model and then the customization can set in. I think the most useful feature is the intelligent applications and data products in the marketplace.

I haven't built my own intelligent applications yet, but we have a team that started to dig into that, and I'm accompanying this process right now. I'm looking forward to finding out how they did and I volunteered to help, but at the moment, they are still collecting the data they want to use for that.

It's actually a bit difficult at the moment to explain to the clients all the benefits of SAP Business Data Cloud. However, we are also in progress because it's so new. We have some cases where we are doing the implementation right now or the transfer from the old BW/4HANA to SAP Business Data Cloud or we do it in a hybrid way. In the long term, the customer has a profit that they can automate a lot of things going forward using the intelligent apps, and also you have the business, the partner connect features. For example, if you use Databricks, you can load them directly into SAP Business Data Cloud and then do some prognoses and use machine learning. I think Databricks is a very interesting feature that is a selling point to the client. There are even more partner connects. I'm just working on a KT on that and am in progress to do that.

SAP Business Data Cloud, Data Sphere, and SAC work together in this direct connect environment, and I think this is the future where it's going.

We don't have anything measurable yet. It's running because it started in August and we just have those couple of projects, and we don't have anything measurable yet. However, that's a good point. We will look into that and we're not that specific yet.

Especially with these customized fields, it would be helpful if you don't have to reinstall the intelligent app in case you want to add something.

The customer support is good; if you have a problem, you first look for existing notes, and we found some that helped us a lot. Then you open a ticket with SAP in the worst case, which we haven't had. We also have SAP people or employees that we can address directly to support us since IBM is a business partner; we are quite close to SAP.

We used BW/4HANA, or that's what we supported, and what's mainly used on the client side. If not, they even use BW 7.5. SAP Business Data Cloud is the new offering in town, and we're glad to have some projects where we can work on this and take advantage of the intelligent apps there.

We had a couple of attempts with the CDS views that didn't work to load it up in the customized or in the intelligent app spaces, but in the end, we found a way and we even did a KT about that internally for our IBM colleagues because this is a use case that comes up more often on projects where people already have customized fields. It makes sense to be aware of that before installing SAP Business Data Cloud. In this case, you have to reinstall the intelligent app if you have a new customized field and that needs to be taken into consideration.

In my case, we only used Databricks for integrating data with external parties or third-party platforms, but I know there are more connect partners. I can only speak about my little world, the project I've been on, and there, Databricks is quite an interesting feature for the customer. I'm currently preparing a KT on partner connect and looking deeper into Microsoft Fabric and Google. We're looking into Amazon; there are some partners, and there are different ways to connect. They have Delta sharing; I think Databricks doesn't have that because it's straight connected to SAP Business Data Cloud, so that's the easiest way to do it.

We don't have anything measurable yet. It's running because it started in August and we just have those couple of projects, and we don't have anything measurable yet. However, that's a good point. We will look into that and we're not that specific yet.

I was not involved in the proposal for the customer with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, so this is something people do when there's a contract with the customer and then they dig deeper into the prices they offer to the customer. We are a business partner of SAP, but I'm not involved in that.

The other options would have been to build everything manually and to stay with BW/4HANA.

In the long term, all arrows point to SAP Business Data Cloud, so it's worth getting acquainted and having a look at the possibilities and opportunities, then looking into what you want to achieve long-term with BW/4HANA, and then maybe go for it. Not necessarily as a main big bang, but in a hybrid way and on another project do it. Especially for Databricks, it's a very good idea for forecasting and machine learning, so this is a good opportunity to start with SAP Business Data Cloud because all the reporting features are included then.

You have the business model and the data model, so the user can go into the business model if they want to do more features or modeling by themselves. Once you get into it, it's kind of straightforward, but it's a case of doing it and understanding how the analytic model works, and then using SAC. If people tend to use Power BI, we haven't tried that yet. You can do that as well, but SAC is probably the main reporting tool. That's what we use now because you got all the dashboards already predefined from that and can build on from there.

I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

SAP Business Data Cloud is our primary solution to centralize business data from multiple sources and provide trusted analytics for reporting and decision making.

We recently consolidated financial and operational data from different business systems into a unified platform, which allowed the management team to access dashboards properly and generate reports without manual data combination from multiple sources.

SAP Business Data Cloud offers several best features, such as unified business data management, data governance and quality control, real-time analytics and reporting, and strong security and compliance capabilities.

The real-time analytics feature has been particularly valuable for our team because it provides real-time visibility into business performance and operational metrics. During monthly financial reviews, our management team needs up-to-date sales and revenue data from different business units. Instead of waiting for manual reports, SAP Business Data Cloud provides a unified dashboard with current data, allowing management to easily identify trends and make decisions based on the solution's insights.

SAP Business Data Cloud has improved data accessibility, increased reporting capabilities, and strengthened data governance across all departments. Improved data accessibility and reporting have had a noticeable impact on both productivity and decision making. Before this solution, our team often had to gather information from different systems, but now users can access trusted, up-to-date data from a centralized platform.

SAP Business Data Cloud provides strong AI capabilities and robust access control, with data governance mechanisms that are helping our organization. The solution delivers accurate and reliable output, and the recommendation features are helping us identify trends and business opportunities while reducing manual analysis efforts.

We have used the self-service analytics capabilities in SAP Business Data Cloud to make adjustments to data models and reporting requirements without going through lengthy deployment cycles, which benefits us through faster decision making.

We use SAP Business Data Cloud's centralized data governance and standardized data model capabilities to ensure that data maintains the same meaning and relationships when it moves between different systems, creating a single source of truth and improving reporting accuracy.

Connecting SAP Business Data Cloud with platforms like Snowflake, Google Cloud, or Microsoft solutions has simplified data management for our team, enabling us to access and analyze data without complex manual data movement, reducing data issues and improving data consistency.

Scalability is excellent, as it can accommodate growing data volumes.

SAP Business Data Cloud works very well for us and operates very smoothly.

The initial setup requires some time to implement and could be more simplified for faster deployment. Apart from this, everything is perfect.

Apart from the initial setup that requires expertise, everything is very well aligned and provides proper use cases.

I have been using SAP Business Data Cloud for more than two years.

Customer support is responsive and knowledgeable, providing technical troubleshooting steps and assistance with troubleshooting or any operational issues.

We have not switched from any previous solution. From day one, we have been using SAP Business Data Cloud.

The initial setup requires some time to implement and could be more simplified for faster deployment.

The implementation team is handled by a different team, not by me.

We have seen great ROI with this solution and are able to save time and money due to reduced report preparation time by 50 to 60 percent and faster access to business insights.

The setup cost looks perfect, and no change is required as of now.

We have not conducted an evaluation of other options.

My advice would be to start by clearly defining data governance and business analytics objectives, and you should invest time in data quality and planning. A phased-wise implementation approach would be best for results. I would rate this solution a 9 out of 10.

We are using SAP Business Data Cloud for reporting purposes. We work on amortization reports for a car brand company where we need amortization data. For this, we require amortization reports, and we also have purchase contract and purchase order reports. We currently use SAP Business Data Cloud for this purpose.

The integration of bringing data from non-SAP sources and sharing the data to non-SAP clouds are the best features SAP Business Data Cloud offers in my experience. This was a barrier before when we had SAP classical BW or SAP BW/4HANA. We had options using ODP extractors or OData services we used to share, but it was in a limited way. Now, since we are migrating Databricks and everything into the same platform, these features are more useful. I could find the integration of AI also as SAP Joule is coming to be a good thing from my point of view.

Now with the inclusion of SAP Business Data Cloud, we are able to use SAP Joule. The developers who have started to learn SAP Business Data Cloud find it easier. It is not demanding to learn SAP classical BW where you must learn so many things about source systems and other components. With SAP Datasphere, everything is easier for us. As it is a cloud platform, the amount we spend on it and the licensing comes as a whole package, and that is good for us.

There must be more AI included within SAP Business Data Cloud. BW modernization has been complex with SAP. If it had been simplified into more detail, that would have been good. Data governance which can be automated would be beneficial. Manually doing it each time will be a hectic job.

Security-wise, I feel it is good, but data governance needs more improvement. More AI improvements are still required. It is not 100% accurate, but it needs more improvement.

I would say it is 80 to 90% accurate and reliable, but still, I do not feel satisfied. It needs more improvement.

I have been using SAP Business Data Cloud for seven to eight months now. We are doing a migration project and we are working on it.

I would say for the people who are planning to migrate to SAP Business Data Cloud, it is a good option. Without any hesitation, they can proceed with the migration to SAP Business Data Cloud. It is a great tool.

I felt it is good. It is not what it was before. There are many more improvements and AI integration with this has made life easier. For persons who are planning to shift to SAP Business Data Cloud, I have spoken to some customers and clients, and they are happy with SAP Business Data Cloud. This is the feedback I have received from the clients. The cost-effectiveness has been reduced for us. Rather than buying a separate license for Databricks, then buying a separate license for SAP, we now have consolidated costs. The migration tools have been useful for us to migrate to SAP Business Data Cloud. It is not an easy task if we want to do it manually, but it is going great, and the performance has been good with SAP Business Data Cloud.

I would rate SAP Business Data Cloud a nine out of ten.

My clients mainly use SAP Business Data Cloud for financial planning and financial reporting. For example, clients in the public sector use SEC reporting to evaluate projects, budgeting, and percentage from the budget according to the completion tasks. All of the financial reports on SAP Business Data Cloud as a reporting tool are very accurate and very smart.

In my opinion, the most useful and valuable functions in SAP Business Data Cloud are the financial reporting, which is the main component. In the project system, you could find a good reporting tool because there are standard reports in SEC. You could use it by plug and play, as the creation of the story and the dashboard is already embedded in the system, so you could use it directly.

SAP Business Data Cloud makes daily operations with the data faster and easier for the end users. The platform is very user-friendly because there is not much coding or any complicated scenario. The end user could use it very easily.

The main benefits end users receive from SAP Business Data Cloud include deep insight analytics on cloud to plan and to get the real live data on a unified view or consistent view to be aware and to take decisions, to speed up performance, and to know the gaps and to fix the gaps. It is a very smart analytic tool.

A potential area of improvement for SAP Business Data Cloud is the component between the intelligent data which is actually coming from outside of SAP. Datasphere needs to be affordable for all customers because it is a new technology and it is a very good start for SAP to shift to cloud in this tool, especially because this tool actually works with another one in the database. SAP acquired database tooling and new tooling to absorb this data into SEC or in the SAP umbrella, for example on BTP because SEC is one of the analytic pillars in Business Technology Platform. Data intelligent, data flow, and data pipeline are all very much more expensive now. What we need is to decrease this cloud solution because it is a cloud and we have to democratize this.

I have been working with SAP Business Data Cloud for over ten years, since the beginning of the year.

I would rate the stability of the product at ten.

I would rate the scalability of the product at eight.

My mark for SAP technical support and vendor support depends upon the region, but I can rate it at eight also.

A main competitor for SAP Business Data Cloud in the market is Microsoft. Microsoft has a reporting tool that is not bad, but not for planning because SAP in planning is advanced. The competitor now is dying in front of the German software, so there is no competition. SAP is acquiring a lot of solutions to make it very smart. For example, Signavio provides a reporting tool for process mining, and another one for user adoption called WalkMe for teaching the end users how to use this solution or how to make the persona. In addition, they are now embedding a lot of AI algorithms everywhere. At the end, they become good in integration tools because the integration suite has no competition also. If the integration is fine to use and stable, the data will be a good source and a true source to be live. A lot of tools providing SEC with a lot of data could be good, but AWS is using SAP in financial cloud, and Google is using SAP. Microsoft is using SAP and Microsoft itself is using SAP in their selling their products all over the world. So why are those big names using SAP? There is no competition.

The integration between S/4 HANA, SAP HANA Cloud, and SAP Business Data Cloud is effective as it is a cloud to cloud integration. It is much easier than the integration between hyperscaler or on-prem systems and SAP on cloud. Cloud to cloud is very easy because the database is already designed for that. HANA Cloud and Vector options are all well-defined because they created this for that. However, the Datasphere layer is too expensive to put it inside the integration to make the data unified and very smart. SAP has to make this layer much easier for implementation and they need also to decrease the cost for this integration tool because it is a catalog.

Integrations with platforms including Snowflake, Google, or Microsoft work in SAP Business Data Cloud through SAP Integration Suite, but in a platform called Business Technology Platform. Even if I need to adjust SEC to absorb the data from on-prem solutions using cloud keys, SAP provides the iFlow and already free to see it in Discovery Center. You could apply only the iFlow according to certain technical connections or connectors or even Event Mesh. Integration Suite is the first one all over the world. You could connect SAP and non-SAP directly in BTP. If you need a certain data to be a certain data view or certain sensitive data, it could be very valuable for certain reporting tools in SEC. You could do that with the data view. The core data view, which is actually a very essential setting in Fiori, the front-end system, allows you to select a certain data and a certain standard reporting dashboard or whatever you need. If you need non-SAP to merge non-SAP systems to be merged with SAP data, at the end you could see an integrated scenario data set and data dashboard. For example, reporting tools, you could do that because we already did it in CX and ERP on SEC and also Salesforce and ERP on SEC at the end. It is multi-linking and a multi-tenant solution and you could link SAP and non-SAP together in SEC.

I ensure that data keeps the same meaning in relations when it moves between different systems through what is called live data.

I would rate the pricing of the product as moderate in SEC without tools. However, if we need to complete the solution for planning and for Datasphere, it will be very expensive. But for reporting, it is acceptable.

It is very easy to integrate SAP Business Data Cloud with third-party platforms as it is very easy to connect the data source for SAP and non-SAP because it is a cloud setup.

I am still intensively working with SAP Business Data Cloud.

People use SAP Business Data Cloud to work together with some AI assistants as it is embedded actually in SEC, the Ask Joule. It is called Ask Joule and it is free. It is free to create a story and create a dashboard by using long language model. You could chat with the Copilot or the Joule assistant to create your certain reporting tool, dashboard or certain reporting after you write the prompt. It is easy to use and it is free to use SAP Business Data Cloud. You can ask SAP Business Data Cloud to create for you a sales report or a financial closing report and actually in SAP Business Data Cloud it is easy to do that because they have the template of the story and only they could activate the story and show you the data in a dashboard.

The self-service analytic feature in SAP Business Data Cloud helps to change the data model quickly. The self-service is actually through an app in Fiori. The embedded analytic is different from SEC. The embedded analytic per module or per functional area could be at the end of the transaction, you could see the embedded analytic in Fiori, in the system itself. For example, S/4HANA Cloud or S/4HANA on RISE program. You could see it in Fiori apps, which is the front end of the system. But in SEC, the analytic provides more deep insights because you have to create the story and you have to mention the dimension of the data. Also, you have to set up to figure out the dashboard with a certain dimension and certain view. In SEC it is deeply analytic, but in self-service analytics which is in Fiori, it is embedded and automatically displayed. But there is a self-service in SEC also, another one, but it is also working with the SEC app.

There is an embedded AI which is handled in SAP. It is already embedded and there is no decision to take it or leave it. It is already embedded. There is advanced AI above the base. There is a base AI which consists of assistants and chatbot called Joule. Joule could assist the user to create sales orders, create purchase orders, mention maintenance orders or search for something very advanced or create something very complex and complicated workflows, and could show the customer what they have to do today according to their role. The baseline for AI is already free also. The only setup we have to do is in the implementation. But above this, with a specific scenario and specific model, because you have to buy the license and the license is already offered in the bill of material, it is by AI unit. So if you need a specific or customized AI scenario or model, it is called a model in AI Launchpad. You could activate a certain model for certain business processes, then you can use it per AI unit.

There is nothing to suggest for additional functions for SAP Business Data Cloud. They created a design according to a latest UI or UX design, which is actually very easy to use and they did not leave anything actually because we do not need to make the screen very busy for the end user. We have to make it simple to use. The back end is the technical connection, which is in BTP setting, but in SEC, it is fair enough to use it that way. My overall review rating for SAP Business Data Cloud is nine.

My main use case for SAP Business Data Cloud is to utilize data primarily for intelligent application deployments, especially in finance, for working capital insights and applications, as well as for data ML/AI use cases with the use of Databricks integrated within SAP Business Data Cloud.

For an example of how we use SAP Business Data Cloud, we utilize in-built applications for finance and working capital. We activate the building content in the VDC and configure connections with the SAP side, resulting in a final dashboard layer built on the SAC side with data movement to the datasphere.

The best feature of SAP Business Data Cloud is that it is cloud-based, offers multiple connectors, and serves as the foundation for Datasphere and Databricks, which allows systems to work in harmony.

The connectors in SAP Business Data Cloud are very useful because they allow us to consolidate data from various application servers as different departments use their applications, enabling management to obtain a consolidated view of data across those applications.

SAP Business Data Cloud is rapidly rolling out new quarterly features, and one of its best features is the help portal providing documentation on upcoming launches and recent deliveries, helping us leverage this tool better.

Since our organization began using SAP Business Data Cloud, it has had a positive impact on our efficiency. Specific positive changes we have seen include improvements in decision-making speed, where development of new dashboards and insights applications has become rapid using the Xyle methodology, and cost savings, as we have reduced the costs of multiple software licenses to one packaged license.

The trial version of SAP Business Data Cloud did not provide the flexibility we needed to connect with our quality and development servers, and we encountered struggles, but with SAP support, we eventually managed to establish those connections.

Regarding performance and user experience in SAP Business Data Cloud, it is currently a product that is not fully matured yet. However, user experience is improving with quarterly upgrades, and users are adapting to the technology. I chose an eight because the initial learning curve and adaptability were challenging, in addition to the rapidly changing environment of SAP Business Data Cloud, which accounted for a reduction in points, but this is not a major issue.

They should continue upgrading to keep pace with competitors like Cognos Analytics, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services.

I have been using SAP Business Data Cloud for the last fifteen months.

SAP Business Data Cloud is stable, while also continuously evolving.

SAP Business Data Cloud is highly scalable as it is a cloud-based solution.

The customer support for SAP Business Data Cloud is nice and allows for various ways to connect.

We previously used BW as a different solution.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for SAP Business Data Cloud has been simple, with bundle pricing that was also easy to communicate to top management.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing SAP Business Data Cloud because we were already on SAP, and it is the flagship product we could not migrate away from as it integrates seamlessly with our existing SAP ERP system.

We have definitely seen a return on investment, as we save money and time by consolidating software licenses into one subscription, which is far easier to manage.

Moving old BW data to SAP Business Data Cloud has helped us with our daily data operations.

Connecting SAP Business Data Cloud to platforms like Snowflake and Google has changed the way our team manages and moves data, allowing us to get data from various SQL servers and Snowflake.

For others considering SAP Business Data Cloud, I advise them to leverage multiple data sources and AI training, while also paying attention to the infrastructure since SAP takes care of that. I provided this review a rating of eight.