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 Wdesk is best suited for companies with demanding SEC filings and documents, with multiple revisions due to auditor/counsel review, and where financial reporting is extremely manual. Wdesk really helps take out the potential errors out of extremely manual processes, and helps automate regular financial reporting by allowing companies to link financial information and build customized flows of their information into financial statements and other documents (such as presentations or other internal reporting).
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 The biggest strength of the program for our team is that multiple users can work in the document at the same time. Multiple users can be in the program updating financial statements, footnotes, MD&A - all without stepping on each other's toes. Rolling forward the documents from one period to the next is pretty simple. Links to source documents are maintained and new ones can be added without much hassle. Edits and changes can be made right up until the last minute before filing. There is no waiting period or pencils-down period unless we enforce one ourselves - the Financial Reporting team is in control of the timing of our filings. 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 The automation could be better. A lot of mass updates are done manually. Sometimes the system has connection issues and certain functions are down. The customer service could be more proactive to provide regular training and sharing updates on the software. Customer service could be better to help process the mass updates in a timely fashion. 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 Usability From a server and client side perspective. the Business Intelligence Platform provides a foundation for all aspects of content development, distribution, analysis, collaboration and self service. Ease of use from targeted content delivery through controlled accessibility. Content exporting in the format of the users choice. Scheduling for internal or external delivery. Public and private folders for secure content access when requied. Web based for viewing on the users device of choice without the need to download additional applications.
Read full review Overall it's a good-to-go product because of its features. It's easy to set up, meets requirements, has quality support, etc. So far, it has been working quite well for me, and I wish to continue using it for as long as it meets my requirements.
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 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 Support Rating SAP has released various versions of SAP BO BI. starting from 3.1 and going to 4.0,4.1,4.2 and latest being 4.3. SAP provides support to these new versions. As new versions keep on coming, support for the very old software goes out of scope from SAP. it is when the different organization plans to get their BO content migrated from a lower version to a newer version. The newer version had definitely added functionality and features which ease the work of users.
Read full review Workiva's technical support is impeccable and undoubtedly one of the best. The times we needed them, they were super quick and willing to help. It works 24 hours a day, and there will always be someone to help with doubts or technical problems regarding the tool.
Read full review In-Person Training SAP authorized training is best, Please go ahead with it. Even lot of online training options/videos available for self learning
Read full review 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 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 Alternatives Considered 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 more, and that's why at the end we went with it
Read full review We moved from a third party filer to doing it in house. Have seen demos of products like Active Disclosure, which has come a long way from the beta version I saw and but we are not too far gone with Wdesk for us to evaluate other products. When we first signed up with Webfilings, (former name of Workiva), there were no viable products in the market. I had seen an Oracle product and a beta version of Active Disclosure. It was not hard to see the ease and intuitive-screens, to guide one through the filing process. The excel-like spreadsheets were an added bonus.
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 Return on Investment By generating and distributing reports in a timely manner, we were able to save millions of dollars for the company which otherwise would not have been visible. Almost realtime dashboard, saved the company a huge amount by showing the outages and kept the company from buying a tool to do just that. It showed the customers who were not paying the bills and were missing in the system due to some loophole. This was visible by doing reporting on the theft usage of electricity. Read full review We spend less than we used to with a traditional printer. We have been able to do turn-on-a-dime equity offerings with last minute changes and still file on time. Inviting external legal into the platform has helped with communication but we actually suspect they spend MORE time (and billing) on our documents than they used to just simply because it's so easy to get at them anytime they want. Read full review ScreenShots