SAP BW4HANA Reviews

I work with BI solutions along with SAP BW/4HANA, which we have on-premises, and that is my main area of work. I work with SAP BW/4HANA.

I work in finance. My company does a lot of financial reporting on SAP BW/4HANA. We load up all the finance data from SAP ECC and do analytics on SAP BW/4HANA. We also have some custom developments on SAP BW/4HANA to do further processing and generate consolidated data. We then make data available to other tools, whether it is Power BI or Qlik.

The solution's most valuable feature is that it is a very powerful tool. It can contain a lot of our data, making it a great platform for development. The solution also has the best stability, robustness, and customizability features.

The downside of the product revolves around how we might set things up in our company. Though it is a robust tool, it is a heavily controlled product. Change management can sometimes be a little bit less flexible than a Power BI setup. SAP BW/4HANA can generally be less flexible than other tools, depending on how it is set up.

I have been using SAP BW/4HANA for five years. My company is a customer of the product.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

I have been working with BW tools for ten to fifteen years.

The tool was installed by a technical team. I was not involved with the technical team.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

I was looking for the differences between SAP on Azure and SAP on AWS.

I think we have lots of different integrations, but I would say the tool's integration capabilities are okay and not perfect.

Though I haven't seen any AI features in the tool, there are others who have experienced such functionalities in the tool.

If you have enough money, you can buy it, but I don't mean to say that it is an expensive product. One needs to ensure things are well-designed before committing to the solution.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

We use SAP BW4HANA for revenue reporting. 

We can get good visualization and less redundant data. 

The product needs to improve with more performance and fewer data layers. 

I have been working with the product for six months. 

I rate SAP BW4HANA's stability a nine out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. 

SAP BW4HANA's deployment is not complex. You need five to ten people to handle the maintenance. 

SAP BW4HANA has helped us save time and money. 

I rate the product an eight out of ten. 

It is a data warehouse product. It is used to extract data from source systems, unify it, and gain business intelligence.

I like the reporting features of the solution.

The tool is not cloud-compatible. It is an on-premise tool. SAP is bringing other tools into its place.

I have been using the solution for ten years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

The tool is stable.

The product is scalable. On-premises systems cannot be scaled easily, though. Cloud solutions are easily scalable. Approximately 200 to 300 people use the solution in our organization.

The tool was implemented in my company 15 years ago. For the last 15 years, we have been in constant touch with SAP.

The initial setup is straightforward. The administration team does it. The team buys the licenses from SAP, downloads the software, and installs it on SAP servers. The deployment did not take more than one day.

The deployment can be done in-house. Our organization pays SAP, and we download the software and install it. It’s straightforward.

The product is free if we have the ECC license.

The product is not relevant anymore. Other modern tools are better than SAP BW/4HANA. I will not recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

I am working with multiple SAP clients. I am more of a tool consultant. We now have our own solutions for the supply chain, but they are more focused on complementing SAP solutions.

The problem is the expensive pricing of technical support, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using SAP BW4HANA for three to three and half years.

The solution's technical support can be expensive. If you pay the support team, the support team will offer you support. If you don't pay the support team, they will not support you. My company never had any problem with SAP, but it is very pricey.

My company uses SAP Analytics Cloud for dashboards. The data source could be BW, or it could be directly SAP S/4HANA, and sometimes we do it like that. For one of the clients, we did not do it in BW and went directly to HANA database because their requirements weren't much.

My company helps customers with the implementation of the tool. We also offer support and customize our products for the customers.

The product's implementation phase is not straightforward. A few things have to be taken care of, and it all depends on the people doing it. We have very experienced people to take care of the tool's implementation. Sometimes, people implement the tool very quickly, and if they have any issues, they will take more time, but it gets delivered. We don't have any problem with the tool's implementation.

The tool is affordable. In our company, we do have the capacity to offer the tool to others based on the cost, capability, needs and what someone expects from the tool for their overall project. Everything depends or varies because not all clients are the same. If clients opt for our company's complementing solutions, we give a different pricing model to such customers, meaning we have a model to support them.

There are multiple products in the market. People are looking for multiple things, but I am not sure.

I recommend the tool for companies involved in manufacturing and logistics. Our primary focus is on mid-sized businesses.

The clients know what is required for their companies. Our company's main focus is manufacturing and supply chain organizations. The tool can also be used in mining and certain parts of retail business.

The products offered by SAP have high levels of competence. Companies look for tools that can solve their problems at an affordable price.

My company integrates the product with other tools with the help of SAP OData's services.

Speaking about the tool's impact on the customers' data processing speeds, I would say that one of the main concerns is security. The tool is more concerned about the security of the integrations. That is the reason the tool is preferred through something like AWS or GCP. The security of SAP integration is a major concern for the client as they don't want to expose their data to unsecured links. Some customers are okay with the tool's integrations, but my company uses SAP OData for others. Sometimes, if a customer is not willing to share, we use RPA for some integrations.

The tool's modernized data modeling capabilities are mandatory, so it is no longer an option. Users need to have robust data, and if they don't have a robust data architecture, they will have a problem anyway. It is not only about their recurrent operations but also associated with future upgrades. Everybody is trying to be innovative sooner or later.

Speaking about the transition from a traditional data warehouse to an SAP tool and its impact on our customers' data governance practices, I would say that they will get all the data requirements fulfilled after migration. If they don't design it properly, then they will have a problem, and it can be technological or functional.

I recommend the tool to others.

The tool has its own challenges. Technology-wise, it is a very robust tool. From the cost and implementation perspective, I rate the tool as a seven out of ten.

We use the tool to analyze data from various sources, such as ERP. 

I like the tool's robustness and security.

The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done.

I have been using the product for more than five years. 

The product is stable. 

The solution is scalable, and my company has more than 2000 users. 

Technical support is knowledgeable and helpful.

The setup was reasonable, with no major issues. Our SAP team shares responsibility for maintenance.

We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses.

I advise others to design requirements carefully before importing data and do incremental refreshes instead of full uploads to save resources. We can integrate non-SAP data sources using XML data exchange. It's important to plan work well and design solutions properly. I'd rate the product nine out of ten.

The real-time analytics capabilities are good, but we often move data to a different platform for analysis. Overall, SAP BW4HANA provides a stable, robust, and scalable solution that integrates well with various systems, allowing us to consolidate data from different places.

We use the solution to build up complex queries that support data models and reporting.

The solution saves time and cost. Our dependability on SAP has reduced because we use BW4HANA as an intermediate system that works as a data source for different tools. We don't have to connect the other tools to SAP directly. Our data is secured. BW4HANA is like a staging environment. We can use it to supply data to other programming or reporting tools.

All the features are important. BW queries, BW views, calculation views, and calculated columns are valuable features. InfoCubes and InfoObjects are also valuable features. The product speeds up the data read cycle.

There should be a direct pipeline from Azure to SAP. Users must be able to deploy the pipeline and pull the tables directly.

I have been using the solution for four to five years.

I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten. The stability has some scope for improvement.

The tool is highly scalable. I rate the scalability a nine or ten out of ten. About seven to eight developers use the solution in our organization.

We have integrated SAP with Azure. We have migrated all standard tables and the output of standard reports on Azure. A different team in our organization coordinates with the solution’s support team to resolve the issues we face. I will recommend the solution to others. If a huge amount of data needs to be moved around for analytics purposes, we should choose SAP BW4HANA. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

As a user, I use the solution for BW data modeling, customization, remodeling, process changes, and creating queries, workbooks, and analyses.

SAP BW4HANA aids in managing data from ER to front-end analysis, contributes to ROI, and fosters business growth understanding.

I like that the solution breaks down components to a very granular level, allowing for customization and implementation based on specific requirements. Its structured approach provides flexibility.

Challenges arise with real-time client requirements when clients are accustomed to Microsoft Excel's extensive features for data analysis. They expect similar flexibility and customization in the solution, particularly regarding headers displaying keys and descriptions or just keys. Achieving this level of customization can be challenging, and it's an area that may need improvement.

I have been working with the solution for over eight years.

The solution is stable. I rate it an eight out of ten.

The solution is scalable. I rate it a seven out of ten.

The solution is deployed on-premises and cloud, and the entire process took slightly over a week. I rate the setup as seven out of ten.

The solution is expensive.

To ensure smooth deployment, businesses must clearly understand their specific business processes before opting for any solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Simplified tables, advance DSOs, and composite provider are valuable features.

I've been working with this solution for four years.

It is a stable solution.

The technical support is okay.

The initial setup is easy.

Price wise, this solution is on the higher side.

I would advise you to go ahead with SAP BW4HANA with minimal options to look into other solutions.

We found that SAP BW4HANA has better performance than NetWeaver Business Warehouse. Also, SAP BW4HANA has a simplified structure, advance DSOs, and a composite provider. These were not possible with NetWeaver Business Warehouse. This is because of the HANA database at the back end. Because of this, we have shifted 60% to BW4HANA and have 40% remaining on NetWeaver Business Warehouse. We have less than 5000 people using this solution.

Overall, I would rate SAP BW4HANA at nine out of ten.

It is used for analyzing data, finding patterns, and generating reports, especially management-level reports. So, it's an advanced and enhanced form of the traditional SAP BW, which could run on other databases. SAP BW4HANA runs only on SAP HANA, and it has certain additional enhancements and capabilities that are possible because of BW4HANA. There are very few use cases. I haven't seen many customers using SAP BW4HANA or even SAP BW because there are so many BI applications around nowadays.

The solution's performance is really good. Also, it's easy to operate, easy to administer, and relatively simple to install. Also, it integrates very easily with most other known applications, especially widely used applications.

The licensing cost could be made better.

I have been using SAP BW4HANA for three or four years. We are a sales provider organization.

It is a stable product.

It is a scalable solution. Again, it completely depends on the hardware it is running. We only have two customers using the solution.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup is the same as any other SAP product based on NetViewer. The installation can be done in one or two days. The post-processing phase to have the solution on our system may take a week, approximately. The prerequisites for deployment are pretty much standard. The HANA database must be installed, and an application server must be installed. The application server needs to be prepared with the required file system, OS libraries, and specific runtime environments.

For the solution's deployment and maintenance, we have two or three people. So, we have one senior consultant and two mid-level consultants.

It is an expensive product. The licensing strategy is pretty much the same for all SAP products, and I or my team are not exposed to it.

Its integration capabilities are good.

I would suggest those planning to use it evaluate the features and decide for your specific use cases to deduce whether this is something you really need. Some applications offer the same features, which can meet similar requirements. So compare and evaluate to see if this is exactly the solution that you need. If it integrates easily with your existing landscape and workloads, then choose it for yourself. I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

SAP BW/4HANA acts as a singular point of service for the enterprise data warehousing platform in order to consolidate and generate a single source of truth for organizational-wide data analytics and insights. 

The solution has been in use for many years and has undergone some changes since its initial implementation.

The system currently has a considerable number of users who access analytical reports and dashboards on a regular basis to aid them in making informed business decisions. Moreover, ad-hoc reporting and analytics are commonly carried out using leading industry tools, which provide flexibility in generating on-demand reports. Visualization and dashboarding solutions are also available for users to present the data in a meaningful way, with popular options including some of the widely used tools in the market.

The system's user-base is both active and vast, with a strong focus on business operations. We conduct training sessions to onboard users during the implementation of business requirements as part of packaged project delivery, including the realization of the solution, user acceptance, Go-Live, and post-Go-Live phases. These training sessions provide comprehensive end-to-end guidance on using the tool, we also conduct knowledge-based sessions to ensure that the users are well-versed with the tool's functionality. Additionally, an infrastructure team is in place to provide support for the application.

With SAP BW4HANA's ability to process large volumes of data in real-time, organizations can make more informed business decisions faster. The solution also provides a single source of truth for data, improving data accuracy and consistency across the organization. Additionally, the integration with leading visualization and dashboarding tools allows for a better understanding of data, further supporting effective decision-making. However, successful implementation of SAP BW4HANA requires a well-informed and experienced team to ensure that it is rolled out effectively and efficiently.

One of the unique features of SAP BW4HANA is the out-of-box preconfigured business content information models and metadata solution that caters to different lines of business. This solution can be customized and enhanced according to the customer's specific business process and industry requirements, which sets it apart from other data warehousing solutions.

The toolset provided by SAP BW4HANA is comprehensive and can connect to various data sources, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. It also supports historical trend analysis and real-time reporting, enabling users to gain insights and context from their data.

SAP is facing tough competition in the data lake and big data analytics market from other established vendors, such as AWS, Databricks, and Microsoft Azure Data Lake, among others. According to Gartner peer review insights, most customers prefer SaaS-based platforms offered by these market leading vendors.

Although SAP has its own data lake solution, SAP IQ, it lags behind market leaders in this domain. SAP is working to enhance the capabilities of SAP IQ to bridge the gap, but it still has a long way to go before it can compete effectively with other players.

To stay relevant in the ever-evolving IT landscape, SAP needs to adopt an open environment and allow third-party applications, such as Azure Synapse Analytics, AWS Redshift, and Google Big Query, to connect natively with its flagship enterprise warehouse solution, SAP BW/4HANA. This move will help SAP become the market leader in enterprise warehouse solution.

Many customers currently rely on third-party integration solutions to integrate data from various sources with SAP BW/4HANA. Enabling integration with third-party applications through cloud connectors and open-source APIs can enhance the capabilities of the solution and increase its appeal to customers.

I have been using this solution for over five years now, which has given me a deep understanding of its capabilities and limitations. During this time, I have been involved in multiple projects that have leveraged this solution, including implementing new functionalities, improving performance, and troubleshooting issues.

I have also seen how the solution has evolved over time with new features and upgrades, and I have kept up to date with the latest trends and best practices in the field to ensure that I can maximize the value of the solution for my organization.

Overall, my experience with this solution has been very positive, and I feel confident in my ability to use it effectively to support my organization's data warehousing and analytics needs.

Despite being in existence for over 20 years, the SAP Business Warehouse solution has persevered as one of SAP AG's finest products. It has continuously progressed in line with SAP's enterprise data warehouse strategy roadmap. As part of this strategy, SAP advocates for an enterprise-wide consolidated data warehouse solution to serve as the authoritative source for all reporting needs, including financial, sales, workforce, departmental, and procurement reporting.

The setup process may be prolonged and intricate due to the organization's size and level of maturity. However, once the system is operational, the process runs seamlessly.

The present-day configuration of the enterprise data warehousing solution, encompassing SAP BW/4HANA on cloud, boasts exceptionally flexible computing and memory capabilities. Leveraging SAP HANA as an in-memory engine, expanding the solution can be accomplished rapidly and smoothly, leading to enhanced performance at the application layer.

As the organization grows and expands, it has initiated plans to scale up its usage of the enterprise data warehousing solution. Several business units have already begun migrating to the latest operational system, with a major program currently in progress. Upon the completion of this business-wide consolidation, a substantial number of users are expected to leverage the solution. To ensure the enterprise data warehousing solution remains aligned with the organization's future needs, a strategic direction must be established. This could include implementing a cluster data warehouse solution or an agency data warehouse solution, based on user footprint and performance.

Due to the substantial number of employees within the organization, it is challenging to estimate future usage levels. It is noteworthy that each employee may potentially access the system at some point. Despite this level of uncertainty, the present architecture has exhibited its resilience in managing considerable user volumes without causing significant performance degradation. It is critical to recognize that no system can achieve complete perfection.

The organization has a support team responsible for day-to-day operations. A third-party vendor provides support for application maintenance, security, user authorization, and other related tasks. Additionally, a few internal consultants handle other aspects of the day-to-day support activities.

Positive

The implementation of the data warehousing solution was carried out in a streamlined manner, with the aim of creating a single platform for enterprise-wide reporting.

The initial approach involved establishing analytical reporting for the primary lines of business, followed by the phased rollout of the reporting solution to other areas within the organization. The ultimate goal was to implement the reporting solution across the entire organization, ensuring comprehensive and accurate reporting capabilities.

I'm an independent contractor on the project.

The platform provides a centralized and unified data platform that enables businesses to manage and govern data more efficiently. This can result in higher-quality data, better decision-making, and increased productivity.

In-memory databases and advanced analytics capabilities can help businesses gain deeper insights into their data, leading to better decision-making and increased revenue.

The organization previously had a legacy setup for its data warehousing solution that did not fully utilize the capabilities of the in-memory application. However, in line with the organization's digital transformation and cloud-first strategy, a decision was made to migrate to the latest cloud-based solution hosted by a third-party vendor.

The migration process involved careful planning and execution to ensure a smooth transition from the legacy setup to the new cloud-based solution. While the details of the licensing arrangements for the migration are confidential, it is important to note that the organization's decision to move to a cloud-based solution aligns with industry trends and best practices in the field of data warehousing.

By leveraging the capabilities of the cloud and the latest technologies, the organization can now benefit from a more scalable and flexible data warehousing solution that is better suited to its evolving business needs. Additionally, the migration to the new solution has enabled the organization to fully utilize the capabilities of SAP HANA and take advantage of its in-memory computing and analytics capabilities.

On a rating scale of one to ten, I would give this solution a nine, acknowledging that it is a robust data warehousing solution. However, in the current landscape of digital transformation, there are certain features that seem to be lacking. With various complex systems, multi-stack architecture, and multi-cloud hyperscalers involved, it is essential for organizations to have a comprehensive data warehousing solution that can aid them in making informed business decisions and drive success. SAP has room for improvement in this regard to make their product a more holistic data warehousing solution.

It's important to have a well-informed and experienced team when rolling out this kind of application. For a Greenfield implementation, you will need skilled business analysts, architects, and functional solution specialists who can translate functional requirements into detailed designs. Additionally, a seasoned technical specialist will be necessary to design and roll out the solution.

When undergoing a migration, it's imperative to consider additional factors beyond technical challenges. These may include converting third-party legacy artifacts, connectors, and data. Furthermore, aspects such as change management, data migration, governance, and security must also be taken into account when implementing an enterprise data warehouse solution.