Microsoft BI (MSBI) vs. SAP Business One

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.
$14
per month per user
SAP Business One
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
SAP Business One is an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for small and medium-sized businesses, The product encompasses functionality around sales, customer relationships, inventory, operations, financials and human resources.
$99
per month
Pricing
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Editions & Modules
Power BI Pro
$14
per month per user
Power BI Premium
$24
per month per user
Limited
$99.00
per month
Starter
$110.00
per month
Pro
$132.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Features
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.5
50 Ratings
15% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports9.543 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.450 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates9.548 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.6
50 Ratings
18% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis9.545 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.450 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.939 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.550 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.6
49 Ratings
15% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Publish to Web9.545 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.545 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning9.541 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.544 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.924 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.6
49 Ratings
18% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.548 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.545 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.942 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.53 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.5
50 Ratings
11% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.547 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.544 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.547 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.53 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.529 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
39 Ratings
13% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.936 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.036 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.4
22 Ratings
19% above category average
SAP Business One
-
Ratings
REST API9.919 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API9.919 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames9.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API9.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)9.519 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)6.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
9.9
12 Ratings
29% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.510 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
9.8
40 Ratings
28% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.738 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.937 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
9.7
44 Ratings
15% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.636 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.943 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.9
45 Ratings
19% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings8.640 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings9.145 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.941 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
5.9
46 Ratings
26% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings9.746 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.945 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.428 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings8.831 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.638 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings9.436 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings9.641 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
9.3
45 Ratings
16% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings9.645 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings9.731 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.941 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
7.8
43 Ratings
0% below category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.541 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.843 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings8.524 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings9.542 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.933 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
7.3
39 Ratings
2% below category average
Billing Management00 Ratings9.534 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management00 Ratings9.830 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management00 Ratings9.323 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
Period Close00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
7.0
19 Ratings
8% below category average
Budgeting and Forecasting00 Ratings7.017 Ratings
Project Costing00 Ratings7.016 Ratings
Cost Capture00 Ratings7.016 Ratings
Capital Project Management00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition00 Ratings6.116 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.9
17 Ratings
24% above category average
Project Planning and Scheduling00 Ratings9.616 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers00 Ratings9.413 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality00 Ratings8.312 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools00 Ratings9.110 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.4
16 Ratings
13% above category average
Award Lifecycle Management00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.5
19 Ratings
19% above category average
Bids Analyzed and Compared00 Ratings9.612 Ratings
Contract Authoring00 Ratings10.013 Ratings
Contract Repository00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated00 Ratings9.515 Ratings
Supplier Management00 Ratings9.514 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.5
11 Ratings
25% above category average
Risk Repository00 Ratings9.29 Ratings
Control Management00 Ratings8.910 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments00 Ratings8.99 Ratings
Issue Detection00 Ratings8.910 Ratings
Remediation and Certification00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
7.9
25 Ratings
14% above category average
Transportation Planning and Optimization00 Ratings9.417 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management00 Ratings9.015 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management00 Ratings9.315 Ratings
Fulfillment Management00 Ratings8.718 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management00 Ratings9.116 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
8.8
21 Ratings
17% above category average
Production Process Design00 Ratings8.519 Ratings
Production Management00 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Configuration Management00 Ratings8.515 Ratings
Work Execution00 Ratings8.917 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs00 Ratings9.117 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
7.8
27 Ratings
9% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings8.325 Ratings
Inventory Planning00 Ratings8.127 Ratings
Performance Monitoring00 Ratings7.921 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
SAP Business One
9.5
19 Ratings
27% above category average
Proposal Management00 Ratings7.515 Ratings
Product Master Data Management00 Ratings9.217 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Small Businesses
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 8.7 out of 10
Zoho One
Zoho One
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Score 9.5 out of 10
24SevenOffice
24SevenOffice
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(73 ratings)
8.5
(50 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(25 ratings)
4.6
(9 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(15 ratings)
8.7
(14 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(2 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(15 ratings)
9.0
(11 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.9
(3 ratings)
7.7
(2 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(2 ratings)
4.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(7 ratings)
2.8
(24 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP Business One
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
Read full review
SAP
SAP Business One would be more useful if it contained tools to acommodate the growing need of online sales. A more complete shipping module which handles tracking numbers with the common couriers would be great. A built in warehouse management system would be great designed to be used with barcode scanners
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
  • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
  • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
  • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
Read full review
SAP
  • SAP Business One is more suitable for small and medium scale enterprises
  • SAP Business One is : analytics, mobile technologies, cloud technologies
  • SAP Business One has exceptional performance in handling business functions such as purchasing and operations and customer relationship management
  • An important key features of SAP Business One is Reporting and Analytics.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
  • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
  • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
Read full review
SAP
  • Following a bench mark process - this seems contradicting to flexibility however we have wished we could follow more of an industry benchmark. Our challenge as a small company has been knowing how to properly use the system. We have discovered that we have set up the system wrong based and are using it improperly which has cause a lot work to correct.
  • Better live reporting options - current we are on prem SQL. Yes SAP is moving to HANA however smaller companies like ourselves are not ready for that. We need to be able to maintain our existing SQL DB. We also have a demand for live BI Reporting. It has been difficult to do this with our current set up.
  • Error handling - have found it very difficult to troubleshoot. Errors are not always clear and answers are hard to find.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
Read full review
SAP
As I said before, it is a first level tool, well developed, and with very strong development support, although the learning curve, its implementation, the cost-benefit ratio, the price and the user experience is not the most suitable for small and medium-sized companies. It is a company with extensive experience, market positioning, technical support and expanded use
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
Read full review
SAP
I would like to give 8 out of 10 rating for SAP Business One because SAP Business One is a good choice for the mostly used business management solutions for the small and medium-sized companies. SAP Business One can help in optimizing the existing business process and enables streamline business processes for the daily activities for all users across the entire organization. The importance realization of SAP Business One implementation is based on the selection of the good reputation partner and its approach for the entire implementation. SAP Business One is a user-friendly and easy to use Enterprise system that the organization can benefit its features and functionalities by utilizing it.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
Read full review
SAP
The SAP Business One software is up and running every time
you need it as it was planned. In more than 6 years that we have been
using the product, it has never been unavailable and if it ever was, it was because of a planned maintenance window scheduled in the company.
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
Read full review
SAP
SAP Business One performance depends mostly on the speed of your internal servers, should you have the solution on premise as we do. Sometimes the system tends to be a little slower for some users when others are executing really big reports of performing some batch loads, but generally, the performance is acceptable to all the users.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
Read full review
SAP
I rate my experience with SAP Business One's support team as excellent (10). They are easy to contact and effortless to work with on any issue or concern. I like the support SAP provides for any of their products. SAP has a great backing and I would recommend them to any of my colleagues.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
Read full review
SAP
The training I get was a consultant level training, so it's basically a 6 weeks training covering every aspect and every module of the system. It covered most common use cases and exercise training so you can get along with the software, as well as examples so there culd be a better understanding.
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
Read full review
SAP
Over the past two years SAP has added a great deal of new SAP Business One on-line training for version 9.0 and 9.1. Most of the training is very strong, but some is difficult to understand and follow. Additionally, SAP still has a few holes in their on-line training around Production, Bill-of-Materials, MRP and Service.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
Read full review
SAP
These implementations are not easy. Even a standard implementation can be difficult. With a never-been-done-before implementation, the implementation team and the user team need to be thorough with planning, make a decision on key points, and stick to them before any design happens. Our biggest challenge was not from StellarOne, rather it was from the mid-implementation decisions from our internal team. StellarOne did a great job warning us, implementing our decision, and then helping us adjust our SAP to handle the new direction we took.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
Read full review
SAP
SAP provides the most robust solution, with modules available for all department managers and even options for customization according to the company's special needs. We especially used the Crystal reports options to provide reports for each module. Overall, even if it's not the least expensive option, it has the best value for money.
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
For most small businesses, the only way you outgrow SAP Business One is if the nature of your business changes radically. Going from 1 to 50 users is quite easy with SAP B1. Going beyond 50 may require moving to the Hana SAP B1 platform to maintain or improve performance, but the path is there.
Add-ons to SAP B1 can also be added as specific needs are encountered that are not closely met by the standard product. These may be required early in the product life because of the nature of your business, or as you expand the use of SAP B1.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
  • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
Read full review
SAP
  • Employee efficiency has definitely increased with SAP Business One. This is attributed in a lot of ways to information visibility. Our employees are able to gather the data they need, quickly, and effectively.
  • Identifying inconsistencies in pricing has also been accomplished through use of reporting off individual tables. Previously, we weren't able to access our data in such a way as to enable us to write custom reports in-house.
  • We have also benefited greatly from having a single source of all business information. We utilize SAP Business One exclusively in-house. All documentation is attached to specific orders and Business Partners, as well as serialized equipment that has been sold.
Read full review
ScreenShots