SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. Tableau Public

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
The 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
Tableau Public
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Public is a free edition of the Desktop product. With this edition, data can only be published to the Tableau public website and does not allow work to be saved or exported locally.
$0
per month
Pricing
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Considered Both Products
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
I have worked on different BI tools in the market and could not find any other tool that was better and more powerful than SAP BusinessObjects.
Tableau Public

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.7
49 Ratings
6% below category average
Tableau Public
9.8
12 Ratings
15% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.444 Ratings9.710 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.145 Ratings10.012 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.745 Ratings9.712 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.2
46 Ratings
1% above category average
Tableau Public
9.7
12 Ratings
19% above category average
Drill-down analysis9.045 Ratings9.812 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.345 Ratings9.712 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.531 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.245 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.7
46 Ratings
4% above category average
Tableau Public
9.5
11 Ratings
13% above category average
Publish to Web8.338 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.944 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Report Versioning9.140 Ratings9.89 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.145 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.224 Ratings8.17 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.3
41 Ratings
3% above category average
Tableau Public
9.7
11 Ratings
17% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.339 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.737 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.936 Ratings9.79 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9.4
46 Ratings
9% above category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.046 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.144 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.943 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.927 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.8
32 Ratings
10% above category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.331 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.128 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.5
22 Ratings
5% below category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
REST API7.319 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.217 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.116 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API7.520 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.319 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.318 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Score 7.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Mathematica
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Score 8.2 out of 10
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Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 7.8 out of 10
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User Ratings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(71 ratings)
8.5
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(24 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(14 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(16 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(8 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Public
Likelihood to Recommend
SAP
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.
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Tableau
Tableau public is the best platform to build dashboards for your personal profile and share with recruiters. It's always good to keep ourselves updated on the latest features, create sample dashboards and save them to a personal profile. Tableau public is free and doesn't need any subscription. anyone can create an account and start building reports.
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Pros
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.
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Tableau
  • Data visualization: lots of different options, including bar, scatter, pie, waterfall charts to explore relationships between variables, and to present findings/trends to different teams
  • Integrates readily with limited, though different data sources: TXT, CSV, TDE, Access
  • Exports reports for review of different dashboards: client-ready/team-ready, with a clean and tidy presentation in PDF format (or hardcopy)
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Cons
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.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau Public (both Desktop and Server) like their "for a fee" counterparts offer very easy to learn and use tools to transform data into pictures and gain insights into your data. Most organizations report a reduction in development time of 10x vs. other similar tools, due to the intuitive user interface. That said, with Tableau Public, published workbooks are "disconnected" from the underlying data sources and require periodic updates when the data changes. Users are limited to 1 Gb of storage space per user ID and password as well.
  • I would like to see better options for public sharing of visualizations and data from within the "for a fee" products as more and more organizations are moving in the direction of data sharing with partners and their communities.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Tableau
It's free, right? I'll keep using the free version. So the real question to ask is this? Will I pay $999 for the Personal version or $1,999 for the Professional? Yikes! That is a big stretch. I'm not sure about that. The product comparison chart is at: http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/comparison
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Usability
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.
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Tableau
Tableau public is a great training tool to understand the basics of Tableau before buying it. A great tool to extend Excel's visualization and to publish data for others. Not useful for anything you need secure. No ability to access databases. Static information only.
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Reliability and Availability
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
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Performance
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).
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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Tableau
I have not yet required to contact support as the documentation and help i found online has always worked so far
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In-Person Training
SAP
SAP authorized training is best, Please go ahead with it. Even lot of online training options/videos available for self learning
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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.
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Tableau
I found it sufficient, and fast. I could easily "kick the tires" with Tableau on my data so I got up and running fast.
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Implementation Rating
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.
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Tableau
Start at the end and work backward. Identify the business case / issue and questions the end users have, then identify the data needed, and where to get it.
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Alternatives Considered
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
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Tableau
Google Charts/Drive is sufficient for simpler data sets, but it does not integrate with other web platforms and the visualization does not look as professional. I'm not aware of any other competitors that offer the same package as Microsoft.
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Scalability
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
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
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Tableau
  • Tableau Public visualizations have helped drive traffic to our content and sites
  • The lack of cost means it's easy to demonstrate our experience to attract paying clients
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ScreenShots