SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. ThoughtSpot

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Score 7.1 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 8.5 out of 10
N/A
ThoughtSpot is an Agentic Analytics Platform for enterprises where users ask data questions using natural language and get answers with AI. Code-first for data teams and code-free for business users, ThoughtSpot can handle large, complex cloud data at scale.
$1,500
per year (5 users)
Pricing
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Thoughtspot Analytics - Pro
$50
per month (billed annually) per user (25-1000 users)
Thoughtspot Analytics - Enterprise
Custom
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, …
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
56 Ratings
6% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.3
89 Ratings
11% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.550 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Customizable dashboards6.752 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.951 Ratings7.725 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.0
53 Ratings
14% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.5
91 Ratings
7% below category average
Drill-down analysis6.352 Ratings8.590 Ratings
Formatting capabilities6.651 Ratings7.290 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.035 Ratings5.849 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.352 Ratings8.788 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.8
53 Ratings
5% below category average
ThoughtSpot
8.3
84 Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web8.444 Ratings8.255 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.051 Ratings8.678 Ratings
Report Versioning7.546 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.152 Ratings8.464 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.031 Ratings8.135 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6.1
48 Ratings
27% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.4
86 Ratings
8% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)5.846 Ratings7.685 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization6.243 Ratings7.579 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.242 Ratings7.665 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.36 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.6
53 Ratings
11% below category average
ThoughtSpot
8.1
86 Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)7.953 Ratings8.382 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model7.551 Ratings8.074 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.650 Ratings7.878 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.57 Ratings7.916 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)7.434 Ratings8.672 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6.3
38 Ratings
20% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.4
53 Ratings
4% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access5.837 Ratings7.251 Ratings
Mobile Application5.132 Ratings7.034 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile5.334 Ratings6.946 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.7
28 Ratings
0% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.2
51 Ratings
7% below category average
REST API7.824 Ratings7.042 Ratings
Javascript API7.523 Ratings6.535 Ratings
iFrames8.021 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Java API7.326 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.524 Ratings7.335 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.122 Ratings7.115 Ratings
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User Ratings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceThoughtSpot
Likelihood to Recommend
6.9
(74 ratings)
8.6
(91 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(24 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
6.5
(17 ratings)
8.3
(85 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(10 ratings)
8.0
(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)
8.0
(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
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.
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ThoughtSpot
It is well suited when the same data is consumed by many different people with different analytics and visualization requirements because, if you have the data available in ThoughtSpot, every user can prepare different views. Also, it is a good reporting tool, you can get rid of slides if you have a good dashboard prepared, gaining flexibility and agility.
Read full review
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
  • It would be great if ThoughtSpot can add the feature to filter by clicking on visualizations. i.e if I click on a particular data point in the chart if the full dashboard can filter just for that particular data point.
  • Color coding the heatmap with different colors like green to orange to red.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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 rating is because of the ease of use of the interface as it has a no code interface that makes it easy to setup data pipelines without extensive programming. Cloud native integration: It integrates seamlessly with cloud based data warehouses. Automated data loading, Scalability, Cost Effective, Transformations, Data Governance and security.
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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
Read full review
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).
Read full review
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
  • Time to market ROI is massive vs hiring the full-time dedicated team to build and maintain a frontend multi-tenant SaaS data viz product.
  • It will be interesting to see over time how the advanced features play out in terms of usability and end value, such as Natural Search, which we are very excited about, and the machine learning tools.
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ScreenShots

ThoughtSpot Screenshots

Screenshot of the ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the Spotter AI agent that surfaces insights through natural language queriesScreenshot of AI Assist producing SQL in real timeScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the integration with dbt models and metrics