Overall Satisfaction with SAP Business Objects
SAP Business Objects is used by data stewards in following departments: Marketing, Finance, Business Development, Corporate etc. It is used across the whole organization. It provides data for functional and operational decision systems.
- Various tools to implement end to end BI, for example: ETL, Reporting, Dashboarding
- Good connectivity with CRM, ECC and other SAP systems etc
- Data Security, Visually intuitive, Ease of use
- Webi, Rich Client, SAP Dashboard, Crystal Reports reporting tool to cover needs of a variety of users
- SAP should provide free software and licenses for students
- SAP Extractors are designed by third party, so no support for those
- Reporting with no semantec layer
I have used Data Stage; plug and play extractors help to fetch data from SAP CRM/ECC. It reduces the ETL job design efforts.
I have used Tableau, the SAP dashboard provides more options in designing legends on charts, in-built hide/show features in charts.
I have used Tableau, the SAP dashboard provides more options in designing legends on charts, in-built hide/show features in charts.
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Feature Ratings
Using SAP Business Objects
2000 - Financial, Marketing, Business Development, Internal Analysts.
12 - 2 Administrator for a 1000+ BO users, and double it if a business is all over world, 24/7 support.
Individual Application with 20+ users, 10+ reports need application support developer.
Individual Application with 20+ users, 10+ reports need application support developer.
- Replace SSRS/SSIS with Business Objects so that there is single BI tool and lower cost of BI implementation.
- Replace manual Excel reporting with BI reporting.
- Connectivity with SAP CRM, ECC
- DS free with BOE licenses
- Need of ETL and Reporting in business functions
- SSIS doesn't have connectivity with SAP CRM/ECC so DS helps to ETL data out of SAP CRM/ECC
- Custom SQL allowed in reports helps SSRS developers to develop reports easily and include trigger and inputs in query
Evaluating SAP Business Objects and Competitors
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
I am a SAP Business Objects certified professional, so I understand business objects tool in and out. My own experience with tool helps me go over a customer's requirements and suggest to them how this tool will provide a solution to their needs.
More specific questions than open ended questions. I am not sure if you will be able to understand my evaluation of this product. 80% of the questions should be in a check box, or drop down. There should be options to select the specific SAP Business Objects module from the enterprise suite.
SAP Business Objects Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - Evaluation, architect, implementation, Phase 2, Phase 3, continual support, maintenance.
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Creating awareness about what is driving organizational change is important. Involving everyone rather than invasive approach works better. Demo and show rather than letting staff figure things on their own.
- Silos in the product documentation from vendor
- SAP support not guiding in the implementation because of their product support policy
SAP Business Objects Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Good followup Kept well informed | Slow Resolution Problems left unsolved Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Need to explain problems multiple times Support doesn't seem to care Slow Initial Response |
No - To keep cost of operations low. Plus, Premium support, regular support is all same when it goes into the queue.
Yes - No, getting a local fix is too hard and almost impossible. Waiting for a new patch makes things difficult to keep providing a business with what they want.
Years ago SAP support provided exceptional support for Business Objects on Unix OS. Bug fixes were faster and engineers were knowledgeable. SAP helped to retrieve lost DB password, which is not supported anymore, SAP helped to recover server from backup. SAP helped to create Query builder queries to fetch the encoded data but those days are gone. SAP support no longer go out of their way to help customers.
Using SAP Business Objects
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | Requires technical support Lots to learn |
- Report development
- ETL job development
- Administration
- Content Security management
Yes - Fiori is newly introduced, SAP Business Objects has mobile server components available but report needs to be configured for mobile devices.