SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. Zendesk Explore

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
Score 7.0 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
Zendesk Explore
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk offers Explore, a business intelligence and customer analytics tool which integrates with the Zendesk suite featuring ticket analytics, custom fields, dashboards, and other features. Zendesk is migrating customers of the BIME analytics product, which is approaching end of support, to Zendesk Explore in 2019.N/A
Pricing
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceZendesk Explore
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceZendesk Explore
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceZendesk Explore
Features
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceZendesk Explore
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.1
52 Ratings
14% below category average
Zendesk Explore
9.0
10 Ratings
10% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.546 Ratings7.76 Ratings
Customizable dashboards6.348 Ratings9.310 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates6.648 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6.5
49 Ratings
21% below category average
Zendesk Explore
7.2
10 Ratings
11% below category average
Drill-down analysis5.348 Ratings9.910 Ratings
Formatting capabilities6.648 Ratings6.110 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.033 Ratings5.05 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.348 Ratings7.810 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7.6
49 Ratings
8% below category average
Zendesk Explore
7.9
10 Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to Web9.040 Ratings7.16 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.047 Ratings6.58 Ratings
Report Versioning6.542 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.348 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.027 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6.8
44 Ratings
16% below category average
Zendesk Explore
7.3
7 Ratings
9% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.042 Ratings6.86 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization6.539 Ratings7.26 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.538 Ratings5.75 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.02 Ratings9.43 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8.4
49 Ratings
1% below category average
Zendesk Explore
7.7
10 Ratings
10% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)7.949 Ratings8.49 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.647 Ratings8.410 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.346 Ratings6.38 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.63 Ratings8.74 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.330 Ratings6.68 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
5.8
34 Ratings
29% below category average
Zendesk Explore
7.9
7 Ratings
1% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access6.533 Ratings6.35 Ratings
Mobile Application4.028 Ratings8.42 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile4.030 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6.6
25 Ratings
16% below category average
Zendesk Explore
5.2
5 Ratings
39% below category average
REST API6.521 Ratings3.95 Ratings
Javascript API6.320 Ratings5.34 Ratings
iFrames7.018 Ratings5.84 Ratings
Java API6.323 Ratings5.24 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.021 Ratings6.74 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)6.520 Ratings4.03 Ratings
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User Ratings
SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(74 ratings)
9.9
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(24 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.6
(17 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(16 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 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 IntelligenceZendesk Explore
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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Zendesk
Zendesk Explore is well suited for tracking ticket flow, agent performance, and customer satisfaction providing valuable insights into response and resolution time, workload and support quality. Particularly useful for monitoring ticket handling for different teams. Helps ensure accountability by tracking how long tickets remain assigned before being reassigned to another group. Drill down capability helps identify support bottlenecks. However, it is less appropriate for real time monitoring as it lacks real time data updates making it unsuitable for instant decision making.
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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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Zendesk
  • Zendesk Explore is easy to use.
  • Zendesk Explore allows users to create custom metrics.
  • Zendesk Explore allows users to create custom attributes.
  • Zendesk Explore is easy to learn.
  • Compared to other analytics function of other Ticket Management System, Zendesk Explore is probably the best as of now.
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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.
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Zendesk
  • Some aspects of Zendesk, in general, are not super intuitive. The same goes for Zendesk Explore. And, while you can google answers and hope you find something helpful, there isn't a great way to learn to get the full potential out of the product unless you want to pay for someone from your team to take a class (which costs several hundred dollars).
  • To piggyback off the last point, if you would prefer to get help from a Zendesk expert, you'll find that there is almost no customer support available to you. For a company that aims to help other companies help their customers, this has always struck me as odd. Again, Google is your friend and beyond that, you're mostly out of luck.
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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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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
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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Zendesk
I rate Zendesk Explore 8 out of 10 for it's overall usability because it offers powerful reporting and analytics with an easy to navigate interface and intuitive dashboards. It helps improve customer satisfaction by providing valuable insights into ticket handling, agent performance and customer satisfaction. Though the complex query builder can be challenging for non technical users.
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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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Zendesk
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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Zendesk
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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Zendesk
Support for all of Zendesk has exceeding my expectations. This company will always get a 10 out of 10 in my book. Any question you have they make sure you have the answer plus a step-by-step guide on how to do each step so you are set up for success!
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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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Zendesk
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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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
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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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
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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Zendesk
I selected Zendesk Explore only to provide an easy and quick access for my managers and supervisors regading metrics and volume trends. Is not the most flexible nor complete data visualization tool, but works well for day-to-day follow ups. You need to use another tool if you want to see long-term patterns (e.g. month over month volume trends) and you need another platform if you want your interaction metrics to interact with other important factors of the business
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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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Zendesk
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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Zendesk
  • Money saved due to proper staffing.
  • Happier Staff- proper staffing ensures no one is overworked.
  • Ability to quickly pinpoint where issues are and why.
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