SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. SAP HANA Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
The SAP® BusinessObjects™ Business Intelligence Platform provides users with ad hoc queries, reporting, data visualizations, and analysis tools. Its integrated, unified infrastructure aims to offer scalability from one-to-many tools and interfaces on-premise, in the cloud, or as a hybrid approach.N/A
SAP HANA Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
SAP HANA is an application that uses in-memory database technology to process very large amounts of real-time data from relational databases, both SAP and non-SAP, in a very short time. The in-memory computing engine allows HANA to process data stored in RAM as opposed to reading it from a disk which means that the data can be accessed in real time by the applications using HANA. The product is sold both as an appliance and as a cloud-based software solution.N/A
Pricing
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsIncludes a one year free trial.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Considered Both Products
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
This has the biggest drawback of handling the large data volume which I feel is needed as this is time-consuming and making decisions at the right time is getting harder and we have decided to move to this platform considering the time taken to process the data.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
We are using SAC as well but the Schedule part of SAC cannot be compared to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence schedule.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Microsoft's Power BI has certainly gained a lot of attention and became a leader in Gartner's magic quadrant. This is certainly a good product for average data volume which can be handled in the cloud, however, SAP BI is capable of handling much more data with complex reporting …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP Business Objects have better security model than Tableau. One can setup a lot of security permissions as compared to a tool like Tableau. Tableau is good for creating visualizations/dashboards but not very great for operational reporting. Scheduling features are much better …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Other offering include PowerBI and Tableau. Both alternatives have different licensing options to consider, in terms of capabilities, they increase in conjunction with the license price.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
When we get the installation of the SAP BO BI Platform done on one of the BO servers, we get a whole of stacks of SAP BO BI suite tools installed. This is a package that has reporting tools inside it. For instance, web intelligence-rich clients, sap crystal reports, etc. We can …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Board is a great ERP software. Business Objects is more nimble and flexible. Board is good if the Dash Boards and screens are relatively static and have selection/filter options. Business Objects is if you do lots of ad-hoc analysis and reporting on the fly.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
I'd say they are on a par with each other. AppD definitely provides very technical insights, whereas BI provides better business reports.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
MicroStrategy Analytics and IBM Cognos Analytics is costlier compared to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform stacks. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform stacks is user friendly, easy to adapt, easy to train resources and get them …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Even though all these tools are very similar to each other, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform does have better integration with the database than other competitors such as Microsoft Power BI. On the side of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SQL Server Integration Services, Tableau Prep and Tableau Desktop
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP BO BI is very similar to Microsoft Power BI. However, SAP BO BI is much stronger in terms of analytics and document management while Power bI is stronger in data visualization and big data integration. SAP BO BI is a great tool within its ally, which is performance analysis …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
There is no special differentiation point. My companies were using SAP as their main ERP and therefore using the SAP BO BI for reporting and analysis purposes. Some reports were defined to be released periodically but these reports were needed for day to day information. We …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Earlier, I used SAP BW's BEx tools for reporting, but it was challenging to format the report data and export to different formats. SAP BEx tools can access data from limited sources where as SAP BO can access data from most of the datasources which is why I prefer using BO …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
An upgrade to SAP BW/4HANA could be considered to get better performance. But if performance is not a huge problem, SAP BusinessObjects BI is a good solution on-premise.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
We tried YellowFin BI but it did not work for our business model. It was nice and the user-experience was good but ultimate we sided with SAP Business Objects BI Platform because the visual reports that were produced were simple and easy to understand. We need that level of …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Crystal was part of the platform prior to my tenure. Explorer has always had a limited use case. I helped drive the conversation for Visual Intelligence and by the time we acted, it turned into Lumira which can't hold a candle to Tableau or Power BI.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform is an on premise solution that allows you to display information hosted on an SAP BW / 4 HANA server.
SAP Analytics Cloud is SAP's business intelligence solution that works in the cloud and is complemented by SAP …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
As we have been using SAP ERP, having SAP BI was one of the key factors in our choice. Also design efficiency, variety of data sources' integration and document versioning gave better advantages to SAP BI over others. Also adding SAP BI during the SAP ERP rollout provided …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Crystal Reports has the most features that we need for our custom and purpose built reports.
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
We selected SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) based on price. It can stack up against others in terms of price and honestly, that's about it. Salesforce Commerce does a hell of a better job at handling it. However, in the space of Business Intelligence, SAP can do …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Sometimes configuration is challenging (unless you are also very familiar with setting up Java VMs). I like the meta-data layer design tool. I like that there are thick and thin versions of the tools users use. Users at this point try to build a report themselves rather than …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
We currently have implementations of both Microsoft BI and SAP Business Objects so our enterprise has found reasons for both. Some users prefer BI over SAP and it depends on the department they are working for. SAP was chosen for the more complex tasks that require large data …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
I use the platform as it is all that is available to me. I have no ability to query the warehouse directly probably for good reason. I have been using PowerBI and I know it can connect to the warehouse and do the query and visualization in real time. However, our admins will …
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
That was the best alternative that could connect to our ERP instances. The availability of SAP Rapid Marts that could be leveraged to pull data models for specific SAP areas such as Sales tables, Production, Maintenance, and others was also a very important differentiation. …
SAP HANA Cloud
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
It enables preview and better cloud service than other cloud platforms. Easy document transfer and faster document transfer are the key points for the selection of the HANA cloud server. The preview of data before its execution is also one of the factors in the selection of the …
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Multiple things as SAP HANA Cloud is used to handle large volumes of data with smooth use of different data types, including great real-time data storage.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Ease of use, real time storage and update.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Better tools and more integrated to BTP solutions.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
This is our main erp, very stable and intergrated
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
The main reason is purely HANA database performance, and it supports both row and column store data. And the way optimization is running behind the schedule is another added benefit.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
It's better with regards to real time or live data analytics in comparison to SAP BW
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
We use them in integration as it makes us provide best solutions and products for our clients as we are using the available software in the market.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Value is the reason we choose SAP
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
I have deep knowledge of other disk based DBMSs. They are venerable technology, but the attempts to extend them to current architectures belie the fact they are built on 40 year old technology. There are some good columnar in-memory databases but they lack the completeness of …
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
HANA Cloud would be same as on premise, only hosted
Would save the hassles of maintaining a data center but still allow full HANA functionality.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
One area where SAP HANA Cloud stood out for us is in its support for real-time analytics on live transactional data. As a business that relies on up-to-date information to make critical decisions, this capability was essential for us. We found that SAP Analytics Cloud was more …
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Both SAP Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud Platform provide the API management, data and application integration, using real-time insights to develop and deploy integrate applications, but SAP proved more beneficial for our firm and was mostly a decision taken by management.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
Earlier, the cloud-based database of azure was being used, and since it is also a cloud-based database solving all the analytical problems but once using Sap Hana, it seems to be more modern type problem solving and highly secure and highly user-friendly, solving a lot of …
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
The reason remains the same , The dataflow between SAP application works seamlessly with SAP HANA cloud . The in memory capability really helps here a lot to make the reports run faster . Where as the other database engines that doesn't have the in-memory capability.
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
In any software selection process, considering all options is critical to ensuring the best system is selected.It's even true for top-tier products like S/4HANA, SAP's newest ERP platform. For larger, more complex global organizations, an enterprise-class option from SAP may …
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
On the BTP stack, SAP HANA Cloud has no alternative which can compete in terms of performance and integration to the overall platform
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
SAP HANA Cloud allows for more advanced custom developments compared to comparable solutions build in the Business Warehouse. SAP BW, on the other hand, still has far more build in tools, like system monitoring, delta loading, advanced scheduling, and other data loading …
Features
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.2
Ratings
1% above category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.8
Ratings
3% below category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.8
Ratings
6% below category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Publish to Web9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.2
Ratings
10% below category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9.2
Ratings
8% above category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
5.8
Ratings
30% below category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application3.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile3.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.0
Ratings
11% below category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
REST API6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 7.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 7.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
SAP IQ
SAP IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceSAP HANA Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
The proper management of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards requires an expert on the team to manage and build reports. If an organization does not have the proper expertise on board to build and deploy reports it will fail. Data analytics, dropping into excel, and broadcasting of information are major bonuses for the use of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.
Read full review
SAP HANA Cloud works effectively with SMBs or small to medium-sized enterprises and requires an affordable, scalable ERP system. Companies that must implement SAP S/4 HANA as soon as possible. Companies looking to take advantage of the newest innovation from SAP are looking to cut expenses on their IT infrastructure. SAP HANA CLOUD is not suitable for 1. Large companies with intricate operational procedures. 2. Companies with stringent policies regarding data residency. 3. Businesses with a sizable SAP landscape on premises 4. Companies must closely integrate SAP HANA CLOUD with non-SAP systems.
Read full review
Pros
  • This software is easy to initially learn, and very powerful in producing reusable reports.
  • It is much faster than my company's internal manual queries. The ability to build off of a saved query and share queries to other users is a great positive.
  • My favorite part is that you can run queries in the background and it does not interfere with your current work or slow your computer down.
Read full review
  • SAP HANA Cloud can help drive data analytics, data migration, and data management exceptionally well.
  • It offers an integration service that lets you integrate data and processes with 3rd party app or any other cloud app.
  • In-memory capability helps in faster data processing.
Read full review
Cons
  • The installation can be very complex and time-consuming, it requires a lot of planning and foresight as to what role the software will play in the organization.
  • The software has a relatively large learning curve that takes dedicated users months to get comfortable with, the UI is a bit intimidating for new users.
  • SAP could organize their help better, it can be difficult to find dependable solutions to issues via their website and support channels.
Read full review
  • Requires higher processing power, otherwise it won't fly. How ever computing costs are lower. Incase you are migrating to cloud please do not select the highest config available in that series . Upgrading it later against a reserved instance can cost you dearly with a series change
  • Lack of clarity on licensing is one major challenge
  • Unless S/4 with additional features are enabled mere migration HANA DB is not a rewarding journey. Power is in S/4
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
The institution has decided to move in a different direction, and will be using MSBI for reporting. I have been very happy with the Business Objects suite of tools, and will continue to use them heavily until we make the transition.
Read full review
At this moment we are not focusing on SAP, however would love to in the future. This is primarily because of our limited ability to generate more revenue to fund for SAP partnerships and products. Our initial tryst with SAP Partneredge open ecosystem didn't go as planned and we have shelved that for now. Hope we can revive in the future
Read full review
Usability
SAP Business Objects is a great tool for operational reporting. It provides a lot of capabilities for scheduling the reports for end users as well as for Adhoc data analysis by business users. One can easily format a report in SAP BO. The tool is not very difficult to learn for both End users and Developers.
Read full review
SAP HANA Cloud requires significant expertise on technical side to admin and manage it.It surely is lot of improvement over previous versions of SAPThe modern, role-based SAP Fiori interface has enhanced the user experience for applications like S/4HANA, though the complexity of the underlying database remains. For the average business user, the usability of SAP solutions running on the HANA database has seen a major transformation, largely thanks to the Fiori user interface.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
When we implemented 3.1, we had a tough time managing the system: It took almost a year to stabilize.

With 4.0, we want to roll out to more users, and are holding back because of fears about the performance issue
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Performance
Overall, the tool (Web Intelligence 4.2) is fast and solid. One issue is a dependability on JAVA for a full feature report creation/edit capabilities (as opposed to limited HTML option). Second, planned end of JAVA support by major browsers (Chrome is already not supporting JAVA applet).
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
We are getting the BI support from our SAP support company. Although they are good at some basic staff, they are unable to answer our questions for some complex structures. Sometimes we got the feedback that our request was not possible to implement, however later we found there were some methods available.
Read full review
One specific example of how the support for SAP HANA Cloud impacted us is in our efforts to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues. Whenever we encountered an issue or had a question, the support team was quick to respond and provided us with clear and actionable guidance. This helped us avoid downtime and keep our analytics operations running smoothly.
Read full review
In-Person Training
This is more a function of the training I received from the systems experts in my organization, not training from Business Objects/SAP. The training was rushed, without an agenda, and didn’t meet my needs as a user.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Online Training
I haven't used it or got feedback from the end user.

Content looks to be pretty detailed. Focused on SQL but not BW.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Hire specialists and experienced staff. Mix some beginners so that everyone is not a leader but a learner too. Plan well; architect well; break down implementation in small steps and move towards larger steps. Create a centralized and authorized SAP Business Objects implementation team.
Read full review
Professional GIS people are some of the most risk-averse there are, and it's difficult to get them to move to HANA in one step. Start with small projects building to 80% use of HANA spatial over time.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
This has the biggest drawback of handling the large data volume which I feel is needed as this is time-consuming and making decisions at the right time is getting harder and we have decided to move to this platform considering the time taken to process the data.
Read full review
It enables preview and better cloud service than other cloud platforms. Easy document transfer and faster document transfer are the key points for the selection of the HANA cloud server. The preview of data before its execution is also one of the factors in the selection of the HANA server.
Read full review
Scalability
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform supports SOA Service Oriented Architecture. You can start/restart/enable/disable all the servers. You can seamless do load balancing and clustering. It supports all leading application and web server. Supports LDAP SSO integration. People who can work on excel with training they can work on SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence, dashboard, Lumira, Information design tool product suite. Tool is very user friendly and easy to learn and implement
Read full review
Limitation of training deliverable by organization
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • SAP BO BI Platform has a good positive impact on the overall business of any organization. It helps in important decision making, planning, and analyzing the growth of the particular organization
  • Another positive impact is that users get hold of data very easily and in a user-friendly manner. users can even interact with reports to get the meaningful data filtered out of that.
  • The negative impact can be on licensing costs and buying this software box. This in turn will add to the cost of expenses of a particular organization
Read full review
  • perception that it is "expensive" - this is a messaging issue, not a real issue
  • perception that it only runs ERP - SAP is a victim of it's own success in this regard
  • perception that it isn't an industrial strength DBMS when, in fact, it is
Read full review
ScreenShots