Microsoft Access vs. SAP Business Warehouse

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Access
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Access is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools.
$139.99
per PC
SAP BW
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
SAP Business Warehouse, or SAP BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse) is SAP's legacy data warehouse solution, now superseded by SAP BW/4HANA, and the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud which was launched in 2019. SAP BW versions up to 7.4 have reached end of maintenance. SAP BW 7.5 support is extended to align with SAP Business Suite with NetWeaver components. For existing customers maintenance is scheduled to continue through 2027, with extended support available through 2030.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Editions & Modules
Microsoft Access
$139.99
per PC
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft AccessSAP BW
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Access

No answer on this topic

SAP BW
Chose SAP Business Warehouse
We evaluated against Microsoft and database systems. SAP stands out due to simplicity to get the data coming from SAP ERP.
Features
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Relational Databases
Comparison of Relational Databases features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Access
7.7
3 Ratings
3% below category average
SAP Business Warehouse
-
Ratings
ACID compliance7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Database monitoring8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Database locking8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Encryption7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Disaster recovery7.73 Ratings00 Ratings
Flexible deployment8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple datatypes8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Access
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
9.5
7 Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.37 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings9.77 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.37 Ratings
Location-Based Data Governance00 Ratings9.67 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Access
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
9.3
6 Ratings
1% above category average
Data model creation00 Ratings9.36 Ratings
Data Exploration
Comparison of Data Exploration features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Access
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
7.5
7 Ratings
1% above category average
Visualization00 Ratings7.57 Ratings
Data Warehouse
Comparison of Data Warehouse features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Access
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
8.0
7 Ratings
5% below category average
High-Volume Data Processing00 Ratings8.57 Ratings
Data Warehouse Management00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Administrative Automation00 Ratings7.37 Ratings
Self-Optimization00 Ratings7.27 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Small Businesses
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP IQ
SAP IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
Oracle Exadata
Oracle Exadata
Score 9.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Likelihood to Recommend
5.0
(99 ratings)
7.2
(15 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft AccessSAP Business Warehouse
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
As a Material Purchasing/Planning/inventory tracking application, Microsoft Access serves its purpose well. It's presentation is clean, data entry is simple and the ability to customize search fields is welcome. It does, however, come with some caveats; namely, when setting search filters and the need arises to back up a step or two, with Microsoft Access you have to reset, or "clear all", adding extra steps/time to a query.
Read full review
SAP
SAP BW is best for: 1. Large enterprises 2. Enterprises with 3+ legacy systems with entrenched users (politically difficult to merge) 3. Enterprises with employees who can understand both the technical capabilities of SAP BW and the needs of the business users - ability to speak both languages, otherwise the program could be unwieldy and potentially underutilized (it's not particularly inexpensive) SAP BW is less appropriate for: 1. Small enterprises 2. Enterprises who have well established, same location, CRM and UFS - the integration of data analysis will be easier and less expensive with other solutions 3. HANA
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Very easy to create entity-relationship diagrams for various tables and designing mock layouts.
  • Really easy to navigate as it hold[s] the classic Microsoft UI. Another good thing is that it comes with the complete MS Office Suite.
  • It is really fast when joining multiple tables no matter what type of join.
  • Works on pretty much same SQL scripts so no need to learn a new language!
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SAP
  • It tracks bin locations for parts which can be really helpful.
  • SAP Business Warehouse tells you who has a part checked out so you can find it.
  • It shows current parts shortages so buyers are flagged to get parts on order based on current demand.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Access has not really changed at all for several years. It might be nice to see some upgrades and changes.
  • The help info is often not helpful. Need more tutorials for Microsoft Access to show how to do specific things.
  • Be careful naming objects such as tables, forms, etc. Names that are too long can get cut off in dialog boxes to choose a table, form, report, etc. So, I wish they would have resizable dialog boxes to allow you to see objects with long names.
  • I wish it could show me objects that are not in use in the database for current queries, tables, reports, forms, and macros. That way unused objects can be deleted without worrying about losing a report or query because you deleted the underlying object.
Read full review
SAP
  • Age of software is showing as it struggles with very large data modules, which were not as prevalent in its early years
  • Querying performance at times can be very slow
  • Support and development for BEx has been discontinued or hard to find.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
I and the rest of my team will renew our Microsoft Access in the future because we use and maintain many different applications and databases created using Microsoft Access so we will need to maintain them in the future. Additionally, it is a standard at our place of work so it is at $0 cost to us to use. Another reason for renewing Microsoft Access is that we just don' t have the resources needed to extend into a network of users so we need to remain a single-desktop application at this time.
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
Microsoft Access is easy to use. It is compatible with spreadsheets. It is a very good data management tool. There is scope to save a large amount of data in one place. For using this database, one does not need much training, can be shared among multiple users. This database has to sort and filtering features which seem to be very useful.
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SAP
The overall usability is robust. The tool offers lot of native feature to achieve all the data warehousing functions. Starting from data modelling to reporting and authorisation, the tool provided native features for almost all the areas of analytics. Integration of hybrid modelling with hana studio opened the usage of sql functions with the sap analytics
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
I don't think the program has ever failed me. It is one of those programs where there is always a solution if you know where to look.
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
While I have never contacted Microsoft directly for product support, for some reason there's a real prejudice against MS Access among most IT support professionals. They are usually discouraging when it comes to using MS Access. Most of this is due to their lack of understanding of MS Access and how it can improve one's productivity. If Microsoft invested more resources towards enhancing and promoting the use of MS Access then maybe things would be different.
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SAP
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
there is no key idea, since it is easy to implement Microsoft Access
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SAP
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Excel is a fantastic - robust application that can do so much so easily. Its easy to train and understand. However - excel does not provide a reporting function and that is typically where we will suggest a move to [Microsoft] Access. [Microsoft] Access requires a little more knowledge of data manipulation.
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SAP
SAP Business Warehouse scores higher in data warehouse functionalities for integration to SAP ERP and other SAP solutions such as SAP CRM, SAP APO, and SAP SRM. Standard SAP data source extractors which are available in SAP ERP can be used immediately for full or delta replication into SAP Business Warehouse. System governance in SAP Business Warehouse is top-notch with change management support for migration between system landscape from the development system to production system.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Not having to recreate queries or reports every time you want to use them.
  • Once an item is created and saved as part of the database, you save manpower by not having to recreate them.
  • ROI from a usability standpoint is great. Solid product with great functionality that requires low maintenance usually.
Read full review
SAP
  • Positive - This tool report output is in Excel so it's a good tool if your users are familiar with Excel.
  • Positive: this tool has rich BI content so developing extractors for standard processes from SAP ECC can be done in minutes.
  • Negative: It lacks lot of features which are available in other newer tools today. For ex. - rich charts, rich filtering, exporting capabilities, user interface.
  • Negative: Its not a plug and play tool like Qlikview, Lumira, or Tableau. Even a single report development in this tool takes a lot of time compared to others.
Read full review
ScreenShots