SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Reviews and Pricing

BI Junior consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 23, 2014

We found the deployment of SAP BO to be very complex, and the initial setup complex as well

During my project work (by group & at school), I’ve had the opportunity to work with Qlikview & SAP BO. I've been working with SAP BO for 1 year. On a scale from 1-5 (1=worst, 5=best), I would give SAP BO a 1. My experiences with SAP BO were not positive. But on a technical level, the way BO works to handle the loop is very good.

In our company we have to build lots of complex things to answer simple requirements. Luckily, the solution still works, nonetheless this product has a lot of room for improvement: we found the deployment of SAP BO to be very complex, and the initial setup complex as well. If I were advising others about to implement this product, I would tell them to search for a company who specialize in implementing BI.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

H.Emre ArıkanBusiness Intelligence Specialist at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Apr 10, 2015

Best on publication functionality especially if you dont schedule the publication:-). it doesnt work since we are on 4.1 SP5 namely. Tech Support is really sick I agree. If you have a major problem, be ready to discuss to death with the support engineer over a ticket.

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reviewer1473648

Entrepreneur at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Feb 4, 2021

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A robust solution with pretty direct integration with SAP ERP, but needs better pricing and more dashboarding metrics

Pros and Cons

"It is stable and robust. It has pretty direct integration with SAP ERP. It is easy to use."

"Its price should be better. It is expensive and not cost-effective. It should also be improved in terms of end-user experience. It requires further improvements for usability and ease of use. It should have more dashboarding metrics and much faster integration with ERP so that when you double click, you can instantly see the scenario-based result."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for dashboarding. We are using the previous version of this solution.

What is most valuable?

It is stable and robust. It has pretty direct integration with SAP ERP. It is easy to use.

What needs improvement?

Its price should be better. It is expensive and not cost-effective. It should also be improved in terms of end-user experience. It requires further improvements for usability and ease of use.

It should have more dashboarding metrics and much faster integration with ERP so that when you double click, you can instantly see the scenario-based result.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about ten years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have about a hundred users of this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is all right.

What about the implementation team?

It was a partner who did the installation. It took about one week. You need two people for its deployment.

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

It is not cost-effective. It is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform a 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.

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it_user415707

Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 31, 2016

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With some of these tools, the technical dependency is much lower.

Valuable Features

Easy interface for business users
Advanced functionality in BI
It connects any data sources with SAP Business Objects tool

Improvements to My Organization

There are many tools that help the organization like SAP Lumira, SAP Business Explorer, SAP Design Studio and Dashboard to give you the summary and detailed analysis. With some of these tools, the technical dependency is much lower.

Room for Improvement

The Events feature needs to be improved, and I have already suggested this in the SAP Ideas portal. It is related to BOBJ.

Use of Solution

I've been using it for the last seven years.

Deployment Issues

We have had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues

The stability is again dependent on your sizing activity. If you don't have enough hardware and use it a lot, the tool will crash.

Scalability Issues

We have had no issues with scaling it for our needs.

Customer Service and Technical Support

10/10 - technical support is brilliant.

Initial Setup

It's dependent to the client requirement. As I said earlier if sizing is done properly then you will not face any issues. If not, you may face issues if your utilization is high and resources are low.

Implementation Team

I performed multiple implementations and upgrade projects for the BOBJ and BODS tool.

ROI

It depends how the customer is utilising the solution.

Other Advice

Business users can learn it very fast because it is easy to operate.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user489897

Consultant BI at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Mar 31, 2017

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You can use Universe Designer to manage joins or derived tables as you wish.

What is most valuable?

Universe Designer is the product's most valuable feature because you can manage joins or derived tables as you wish.

How has it helped my organization?

The business can create their own reports and dashboards.

What needs improvement?

Maybe they can improve some features in report designer, like the possibility of associating colors with the dimensions. For example, if you could associate blue with the dimension "France", red with "United States", etc.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not yet encountered any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not yet encountered any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I rate them 9/10. Very good and very fast support from SAP.

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

I used Jaspersoft and I changed at the same time as I changed jobs.

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

I think the pricing and licensing is expensive, but the tool is aimed at the big companies.

What other advice do I have?

If the business case calls for creating static reports/dashboards, this tool is awesome. If the business case is for dynamic reports/dashboards, I don't recommend it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.