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Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Power BI

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Power BI is a visualization and data discovery tool from Microsoft. It allows users to convert data into visuals and graphics, visually explore and analyze data, collaborate on interactive dashboards and reports, and scale across their organization with built-in governance and security.

    $168

    per year per user

    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AThe 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
    Pricing
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Editions & Modules
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month (billed annually) per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPower BI Desktop is the data exploration and report authoring experience for Power BI, and is available as a free download.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    It has more than 200 plus visuals in-store and is very easy to access. It has a great user community to help each other with an ample amount of responses. Almost all kinds of data sources are available to use and develop the reports Easy to use and learn with a lot of training …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    [Microsoft] Power BI was really the natural choice at Microsoft technology based organizations I have worked for. The cost and integration into existing Microsoft technologies was the primary driver.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft Power BI is part of the MS product family, and since we are a Microsoft shop (Office365, Azure, SQL DB) it fits into our environment with centralized management/administration. This alone justified additional costs (licensing). Tableau and SAP Business Objects are …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft Power BI was a cheaper alternative to Tableau. It is part of the Office 365 universe, so easier connectivity to all Microsoft apps.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    MS Power BI has that nice feeling as it is a product of Microsoft family, the adaptation period of your organization will be easier. You can use your knowledge on Excel, and enjoy better data visualization, graphs, charts, data calculation capabilities. You can find more free …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Webi reports in SAP BusinessObjects are harder to develop and not easy to maintain as Microsoft Power BI. Though we can easily assign report models to different datasets. I would say Microsoft Power BI can be deployed to business key users with a predefined and fully tested …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft's Power BI is what Excel graphing and pivoting should have been like. Power BI has much better ways to look at your data visually than you can with Excel's own tools. You can select from many built-in graph types or you can use the growing number of add-ons to get …
    Incentivized
    SAP
    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) …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    SAP is a great tool with alot of ways to intergarte in apps and is tightly coupled with other SAP tools which makes it easier in exporting reading the data from different softwares which makes the analysis and predictive models efficient.
    Other softwares like PowerBI are widly …
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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. …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    SAP BusinessObjects is the only system of its kind that I've tried.
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    On a different company level, we have been using the MS PowerBI platform, a package with a great usability - quickly deployable and easy to use from the beginning. Used the Azure cloud option (needless to say that in a paid version). The main difference would be a scale of …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    110 Answers
    81%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    103 Answers
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    112 Answers
    81%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69 Answers
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    73 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.1
    198 Ratings
    1% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.8
    56 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports8.1169 Ratings8.550 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.6197 Ratings6.752 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.7180 Ratings8.251 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    196 Ratings
    2% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.1
    53 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Drill-down analysis8.4193 Ratings6.452 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.7193 Ratings6.551 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.4143 Ratings8.335 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.2191 Ratings7.352 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    189 Ratings
    4% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.8
    53 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Publish to Web8.1179 Ratings8.344 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.7174 Ratings8.251 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.7145 Ratings7.646 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.3148 Ratings8.052 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers7.9111 Ratings6.931 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.7
    189 Ratings
    4% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    6.0
    48 Ratings
    28% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.3183 Ratings5.846 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.1168 Ratings6.143 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics7.2138 Ratings6.042 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.339 Ratings6.16 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.3
    180 Ratings
    2% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.4
    53 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)8.6169 Ratings7.953 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model8.1148 Ratings7.351 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.1160 Ratings7.450 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.149 Ratings7.37 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.5141 Ratings7.234 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    162 Ratings
    2% above category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    6.3
    38 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access7.6152 Ratings5.637 Ratings
    Mobile Application7.5133 Ratings5.332 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.9155 Ratings5.534 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.6
    116 Ratings
    2% below category average
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.9
    28 Ratings
    2% above category average
    REST API7.7104 Ratings8.124 Ratings
    Javascript API7.485 Ratings7.723 Ratings
    iFrames8.055 Ratings8.221 Ratings
    Java API6.769 Ratings7.426 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)7.391 Ratings7.624 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.444 Ratings8.522 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (199 ratings)
    7.1
    (78 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    8.3
    (24 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (115 ratings)
    6.6
    (21 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (52 ratings)
    8.6
    (16 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (82 ratings)
    8.2
    (45 ratings)
    Data Sources
    9.0
    (81 ratings)
    8.3
    (45 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Power BISAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Has significantly improved collation of data and visualisation especially with business across Europe. Has given me the ability to see the Site availability at the click of a button to see which Site is in the "money" and seize opportunities based on Market data
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    As mentioned earlier reporting was a big headache for us and the tools we used didn't support large data sets and visualization Performing analytics with such data sets was cumbersome and later post using this SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence we were able to correlate different data sets and prepare the dashboard pretty easier which were helpful and easier to understand.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Options for data source connections are immense. Not just which sources, but your options for *how* the data is brought in.
    • Constant updates (this is both good and bad at times).
    • User friendliness. I can get the data connections set up and draft some quick visuals, then release to the target audience and let them expand on it how they want to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • It would be easier for users could Microsoft Power BI and Excel used the same programming languages.
    • Would like to see the online version of Microsoft Power BI be as powerful as the desktop version.
    • Publishing a Microsoft Power BI file online and then having to save the file is somewhat redundant.
    • Would like to export each page or chart as an image.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Power BI is an excellent and scalable tool. It has a learning curve, but once you get past that, the sky is the limit and you can build from the most simple to the most complex dashboards. I have built everything from simple reports with only a few data points to complex reports with many pages and advanced filtering.
    Read full review
    SAP
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    Automating reporting has reduced manual data processing by 50-70%, freeing up analysts for higher-value tasks. A finance team that previously spent 20+ hours per week on Excel-based reports now does it in minutes with Microsoft Power BI's automated Real-time dashboards have shortened decision cycles by 30-40%, enabling leadership to react quickly to sales trends, operational bottlenecks, and customer behavior.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    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
    Microsoft
    It is a fantastic tool, you can do almost everything related with data and reports, it is a perfect substitutive of Power Point and Excel with a high evolution and flexibility, and also it is very friendly and easy to share. I think all companies should have Power BI (or other BI tool) in their software package and if they are in the MS Suite, for sure Power BI should be the one due to all the benefits of the MS ecosystem.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    SAP authorized training is best, Please go ahead with it. Even lot of online training options/videos available for self learning
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    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
    Microsoft
    It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Power BI is free. If I didn't want to create a custom platform (i.e. my organization insisted on an existing platform that I *had* to use), I'd use Microsoft Power BI. For any start-up or SMB, I'd just use Claude & Grok to build it quickly, also for free. Would not pay for Tableau or Sigma anymore. Not worth it at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • Power BI usage reduced the effort of analytical reports creation by about 80%
    • Empowered all the level of employee to be more vigilant of the data and business insights, gained the profit of 8% overall.
    • AI-powered predictive analytics improved forecasting accuracy by 17%, that topped the overall sales.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

    Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Turns insights into impact for business usersScreenshot of Power BI integrates easily with Microsoft 365Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - AI-Powered CapabilitiesScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Copilot can be used to create reportsScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data HubScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Scales as organizational needs grow