SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. ThoughtSpot

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
ThoughtSpot
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
ThoughtSpot is an AI-Powered Analytics company, that aims to create a more fact-driven world with an easy to use analytics platform. ThoughtSpot enables users to leverage natural language search powered by large language models to ask and answer data questions. Users within an organization can limitlessly engage with live data in any popular cloud data platform to create and interact with granular, hyper…
$95
per month
Pricing
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot Analytics Team
$95
per month flat subscription
ThoughtSpot Analytics Pro
starts at $30,000
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Analytics Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Pro
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Considered Both Products
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
ThoughtSpot is superior for query speed and simplicity but is inferior in merged-dimension query setup and execution. BOBJ is superior to Tableau in that the universes simplify the queries for the end-user, however, it's inferior in visualizations. decisionpoint is a dashboard …
ThoughtSpot
Chose ThoughtSpot
In ad-hoc reporting...ThoughtSpot is superior in speed-to-results. The other products are capable, however, they require SQL coding and setup that ThoughtSpot only requires on initial load of data. Both PowerBI and ThoughtSpot use a text-based "natural language" query engine, …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
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
ThoughtSpot
6.7
79 Ratings
20% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.444 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.145 Ratings6.579 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.745 Ratings7.725 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
ThoughtSpot
6.8
80 Ratings
18% below category average
Drill-down analysis9.045 Ratings7.580 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.345 Ratings5.679 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.531 Ratings6.345 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.245 Ratings7.778 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
ThoughtSpot
7.8
74 Ratings
7% below category average
Publish to Web8.338 Ratings7.648 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.944 Ratings8.169 Ratings
Report Versioning9.140 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.145 Ratings8.557 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.224 Ratings6.830 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
ThoughtSpot
6.6
76 Ratings
20% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.339 Ratings7.175 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.737 Ratings7.071 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.936 Ratings6.058 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.27 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
ThoughtSpot
7.4
75 Ratings
15% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.046 Ratings7.773 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.144 Ratings6.966 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.943 Ratings7.170 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.927 Ratings7.762 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings7.78 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
ThoughtSpot
7.6
46 Ratings
5% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.331 Ratings7.644 Ratings
Mobile Application9.026 Ratings7.427 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.128 Ratings6.939 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
ThoughtSpot
6.9
44 Ratings
14% below category average
REST API7.319 Ratings6.535 Ratings
Javascript API7.217 Ratings6.429 Ratings
iFrames8.116 Ratings7.227 Ratings
Java API7.520 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.319 Ratings7.328 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.318 Ratings7.115 Ratings
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SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(71 ratings)
7.9
(80 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(24 ratings)
9.7
(6 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(14 ratings)
8.0
(75 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
8.7
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(10 ratings)
7.7
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(16 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(4 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(2 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(8 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(2 ratings)
7.7
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
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.
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
Well suited for my clients for a Macro view of business insights, credit risk, ESG insights, etc. However, I think ThoughtSpot needs to make exploring underlying data easier, adding a feature where you can click on charts and filters will help users and especially business users to easily understand the granularities as well.
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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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ThoughtSpot
  • Beautiful visualizations. The visuals are distinct, clean, and easy to discern from one another.
  • Intelligent querying functionality. When looking to manipulate the data, the search function makes it easy to manipulate the features in the data, along with aggregating them in the way you'd like.
  • Embedding! It has been a smooth process thus far for our product & technical teams to work with ThoughtSpot and bring it into our product.
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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
ThoughtSpot
  • Ability to build a single dashboard tile containing the main value, a sparkline, and a percent change over time
  • Easy way to build a user experience that allows for selecting different metrics to trend from a drop-down on a multi-axis graph
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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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ThoughtSpot
I give it just waiting because passport is brilliant and it has helped our organisation In advancing to the next stage in the age of AI. It has allowed or non-tech people to better service and clients in a cost-effective way. George port has allowed us to create new products for us and for our clients increasing our revenue streams and reducing clients churn
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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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ThoughtSpot
The tool is easy to use if you know what you are doing and looking for. I know as they work towards improvements and simple language it will become even easier, but as of now they are doing a great job but there is room for improvement.
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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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ThoughtSpot
it's available unless there is a server or system update etc. sometimes the timing of this is bad (for example during a month end close)
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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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ThoughtSpot
It does what it is supposed to. Would be nice to have a bit more insights
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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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ThoughtSpot
I give it this meeting because the team is not only help able to help us in the current solutions but also amazing and taking feedback and feeding it back to their development team which includes more products and features into ThoughtSpot
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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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ThoughtSpot
inhouse in-person training. Took a bit to long to get the basics.
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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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ThoughtSpot
poor instructions
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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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ThoughtSpot
Understand use case and model and design accordingly
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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
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
We also explored Tableau Ask Data. Tableau is our standard for BI in our organization. We want to use the smallest amount of tools in our company to have the best adaption. ThoughSpot will fill a few gaps that we have with our current set up and will also enhance out offering for our employees in the transition of being more data driven within in near future
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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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ThoughtSpot
Because it is very reliable, inside the situation, we need strong internet connection to access a lot of data but easily never had any downtime except during the upgrades
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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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ThoughtSpot
  • Positive ROI immediately seen for first POC.
  • Saved an immense amount of time for a sole analyst on a team by enabling the end-users to ask their own questions instead of always turning to her, allowing her to focus on other priorities.
  • Immediate answer to question on second POC that led to personnel changes.
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ScreenShots

ThoughtSpot Screenshots

Screenshot of ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of A Liveboard for drill downScreenshot of Live query, to connect to cloud data platformsScreenshot of Search to analyze and visualize dataScreenshot of A look at queries runScreenshot of Consuming insights on iOS app