Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Lumira Discovery

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 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.
$10
per month per user
SAP Lumira Discovery
Score 4.9 out of 10
N/A
SAP Lumira Discovery is SAP’s data visualization and discovery application. It facilitates data discovery, visualization, and analysis by assisting users with creation of dashboards, infographics, presentations, data facets, tag clouds, and more.
$185
per user
Pricing
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SAP Lumira, standard edition
$185
per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We use in the overlapping areas as data preparation and advanced analytics, monitoring and allerting also other tools as IBM ThingWorx (for the IoT tasks), Splunk (production and banking), SAP Lumira and SAP HANA, SAP Designer (production) and also specialized process mining …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Much easier learning curve and integration with Microsoft Office gives it a leg up. People not knowing they have it, believe it or not, is limiting it's usage. Microsoft really needs to market it!
SAP Lumira Discovery
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
Much better. Quicker and easier to update. Better connectivity and able to share and collaborate. The ability to connect data puts it a step above the others.
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
  • Splunk for data analysis and viewing, but this is more an industrial type of tool.
  • Othwerwise Excel and some extensions
  • Spend Cube in sourcing - rather specialized application
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
Lumira is the worst. If you are a total SAP shop you might prefer to use WebI, BeX, or even Crystal Reports/Dashboards before making the leap into Lumira. If you have the option and are already a MS 365 user, download PowerBI, it is cheaper, easier and more powerful.
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
None of the above mentioned tools have good SAP products connectivity. Most of the medium and Large organizations usually run large-scale SAP deployments.
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
SAP lumria is user-friendly and need no basic training for visualization training.
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery

- Power BI has more features (like ETL) and more integration. Power BI Desktop is free.

- Tableau has better visual and better interactivity. Tableau is expensive.

- SAP Lumira is affordable as long as you don't need the Web Portal.

Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
Easy to use, one time license cost, close integration with BI/BO, custom user story for case based data presentation.
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
I think the only real reason to select SAP BusinessObjects Lumira over the others listed above at the moment would be due to the integration with the rest of the SAP stack, whether that is the current level of integration or the future level that is expected. On all other …
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
PowerBI - very intuitive - more so than SAP Lumira with a very small learning curve. Able to plot graphs and charts by typing in natural language. IBM Watson - not as intuitive, but quite powerful. Able to plot and suggest or propose findings by parsing and analyzing data (very …
Chose SAP Lumira Discovery
Qlik is faster with large data but having said that, SAP is still impressive
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.3
192 Ratings
2% above category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
8.0
97 Ratings
2% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.3163 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.8191 Ratings8.097 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.0174 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
190 Ratings
1% below category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
7.3
103 Ratings
9% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.2187 Ratings9.9100 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.7187 Ratings7.0103 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.3139 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.5185 Ratings5.198 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.1
183 Ratings
2% below category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
6.1
95 Ratings
30% below category average
Publish to Web8.3173 Ratings7.082 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.2168 Ratings5.194 Ratings
Report Versioning7.7140 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.2143 Ratings6.355 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.9106 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
183 Ratings
1% below category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
4.4
104 Ratings
57% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.2177 Ratings5.1102 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.1162 Ratings6.095 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.4132 Ratings2.072 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.433 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
174 Ratings
1% above category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.8164 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.5142 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.4154 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.443 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.7136 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
156 Ratings
2% above category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access7.8146 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.7127 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.0149 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
112 Ratings
1% above category average
SAP Lumira Discovery
-
Ratings
REST API8.2100 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.681 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.055 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API6.966 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.587 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.444 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(194 ratings)
5.1
(105 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(110 ratings)
8.0
(15 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(52 ratings)
7.0
(11 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BISAP Lumira Discovery
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
Read full review
SAP
Infographics derived from specific data sources appears to be well suited for development using Lumira. The development of executive level dashboards was less appropriate from my perspective. The software does not provide sufficient demonstration or samples for the users to learn from in my opinion.
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • SAP has built in features you would expect from a data visualization package, like easy import from other SAP systems.
  • SAP has most of the typical charts that you would expect in order to visualize your data.
  • SAP allows you to have multiple charts on one visualization for your data.
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • Even though the process of creating visualizations of data is now greatly improved, it could still be a lot better as users become accustomed to this kind of tool and bring forward edge cases the developers did not anticipate.
  • It would be awesome to have a cross platform tool that works on more than just Windows.
  • Some options for specific graphs feel limiting.
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
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
SAP
SAP Lumira is very good self service analytical tool with powerful capabilities. However need to look into other SAP products in BI space, like SAP SAC. SAP Lumira is more used for custom and complex analytical need in business intelligence area. Also SAP Lumira is going out of maintenance in coming future replaced by SAP SAC.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Lumira is a desktop application runs in its own JVM. It installs its own java runtime libraries to avoid any core java version conflicts. The availability of the application is completely relies on individual machine hardware configuration. On a decent desktop, it performs well and always launches in either 32 or 64 bit environment based on the hosts system's OS
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
The performance is linear with amount of data that is being explored. We have done some benchmarks acquiring 10million data cells without having any performance problems. We need to make proper adjustments to jvm run time properties to start with higher heap size and other parameters that optimizes the run time performance
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.
Read full review
SAP
It does not have many bugs or issues since not a lot of new features are being added. The customer support for SAP Lumira Discovery is good and anyone considering this as a self-service tool would be happy. It integrates well in the SAP BI suite of products and the overall experience is positive.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
We did not take in-person training
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Most of the user guides are pretty comprehensive and very easy to understand. The product itself is designed to be self-serve tool, did not need much of the end-user training. Most of the training we had is to how to read the data, how to explore the data, how to acquire the data etc.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
SAP
Installing the desktop software on end-user machines is always challenging. The machine specifications are the biggest factor when running Lumira and be able to handle large datasets during data exploration. This often demands beefy machines at least for power-users. Although Lumira software licensing is not a big problem but managing partner's extensions and keeping track of their individual licenses may be an issue. If there is a way to bundle the more popular extensions such as vSQL or vOLAP should be bundled in core product and offer them as part of Lumira license instead of a separate license which causer operational burden.
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.
Read full review
SAP
Even though SAP Analytics Cloud is considered to be better in aspects such as data connectivity or analytics, we decided to choose Lumira as it was easier to understand, learn and use. As our business is not really that big and does not require the inclusion of large amounts of data, Lumira was overall the safest and most comfortable option. Also, some members in our team had previous knowledge so it was easier to adapt
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Enterprise wide implementation is a challenge with data security and trustedness. No easy installation can be done across the enterprise. no upgrade paths also available from SAP. They have so much of experience with desktop implementation, there it could be a controlled environment with a capital budget. These may be resolved in the upcoming releases
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • We could obtain original data from vast and detailed corporate and personal data sources.
  • We could share visual analysis results with stakeholders via the cloud, and it could also be viewed on a tablet.
  • It is very flexible and accurate to use. It can be used for forecasting sales, resource planning, and scheduling.
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

SAP Lumira Discovery Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of