SAP Datasphere vs. SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)

SAP Datasphere is well suited for scalable cloud based data integration scenarios which also opens up the doors for AI driven insights which are much harder to achieve with on-prem data warehouses. Considering the licensing model of SAP Datasphere being based on consumption driven capacity units cost can be a big consideration for organizations with large volumes of data that can be a pre-requisite for data mining and AI use cases. So this can be a bottleneck or not so well adopted scenario for SAP Datasphere.

Incentivized

For a large company trying to bring processes and functions together with one tool, SAP BPC is a great solution. It requires hours of effort to implement and configure, which would not be appropriate for smaller companies. SAP BPC also requires dedicated resources to maintain the system on a day to day basis, as well as an administrator type personnel who can troubleshoot slow performance or issues with the system. You also need users who are willing and exciting to use this system and actually trust that this is a solution.

Incentivized

• SAP Data Warehouse Cloud offers free trial for 90 days with free 128 GB of storage and 64 GB memory.
• Availability of self-service data modeling and analytics on SAP Data Warehouse Cloud enables users to access and analyze data without getting support from the IT team.
• Without zero coding while collecting, connecting, analyzing and modeling data, it saves us time and operational costs of partnering with external IT support experts.

Incentivized

• Allows for full integration of data to be analyzed in real time. Although we still load actuals on a delayed basis (2 business days after month end), when developing the budget, we not longer have to do a full loading process from a different application into BPC prior to being able to report and analyze the current budget status to prior budget versions or actuals.
• It is easy to learn basic report building. The hardest part is learning the available dimensions and the different possible combinations and their results, but that will also vary from company to company depending on the complexity of the industry.

Incentivized

• SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is quite complex, therefore, some extra orientation or training might be essential, more so on cloud.
• Secondly, SAP Data installation fee, and the monthly subscription amounts is slightly demanding, and the developer should refocus on changing them.
• Nonetheless, SAP Data rectified other challenges like flexibility and customization, making us happy clients.

Incentivized

• When a change is needed in the EPM reports it is not very flexible and needs IT intervention
• Performance sometimes is an issue when consolidating more then 20 entities specially at quarter end
• Script logic complex to handle and always needs BPC consultant when changes are requiered even if minimal - has very high costs

Incentivized

Datasphere can come with its own challenges which can feel like a mountain to get over. However, once one has an understanding of how the product works it becomes easier to use. Once the time is spent to get it setup and working correctly very little is needed to keep it running smoothly. Its a great tool it just takes time to learn.

Incentivized

It is one of the best tools and a boon to Logistics teams across the globe. One tends to actually process warehousing data so smoothly and the way demonstration is made while in programs it makes it user friendly. The Inventory touch points that one identify is simply awesome and is best part.

Incentivized

Unlike other SAP traditional products, SAP BPC was meant to be simple and familiar to financial users

Incentivized

I would greatly acknowledge the services of Sap Data [warehouse Cloud] because we were struggling before its arrival where we used to get manual data connections and this used to consume a lot of time but after its use, we now are able to connect data easily saving a lot of time and finances.

We need a big support team with various skillset like BPC, ABAP, BW, HANA, FICO etc

Incentivized

SAP BPC training content and trainers are very good. The training is structured and provides a very good understanding of the product features and functionalities. I attended 6 separate training sessions of week-long or more. I had very good experience in all the sessions. The training is organized very well.

Incentivized

SAP Training contents are very good, informative and exhaustive.

Incentivized

The implementation was carried out in two phases spread over a period of 4 years with 2 upgrades in between. We also had multiple upgrades to HANA.

Incentivized

Each of these listed software has its own unique strength and capacity that scales well. SAP Datasphere on its end up against them with more suitability for large establishments with complex data ecosystems with scalability support. Also, it avails a pay-as-you-go pricing for users, and it is widely up for data quality, data governance, and data discovery.

Incentivized

Sage BPC is very much ahead of Dimensions in multiple areas. The speed and ease of reporting with Sage is very good when compared (although the bank reconciliation task is one thing that i feel is much more effort on Sage and takes more time than previous). We selected SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) as we have multiple foreign entities and a team in India producing reports so needed one package that could reliably provide information in one currency and show it clearly.

Incentivized

• Enhanced our report generation process due to presence of holistic data.
• Centralized data from all our platforms. This has helped us visualize and analyze all data much more efficiently.
• It is more on the expensive side from both cost and training perspective.

Incentivized

• When originally implemented (as the predecessor product Outlooksoft) BPC took ASU from trying to budget and forecast for a 2B enterprise out of spreadsheets and into a far more consolidated tool. It has saved us considerable time over the years and paid for itself several times over.
• BPC also allows us to present our budget in multiple different views to support management, board and departmental reporting.

Incentivized