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SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) vs. Microsoft SQL Server

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AThe SAP BPC software is designed to help users plan and achieve a faster, more accurate close. The SAP BPC software aims to help users spend more time growing their business and less time closing books. The vendor’s value proposition is that their software delivers planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation capabilities in a single application. This, in turn, enables them to easily adjust plans and forecasts, speed up budget and closing cycles, and ensure compliance with…N/A

    Microsoft SQL Server

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft SQL Server is a relational database.

    $1,418

    Per License

    Pricing
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Subscription
    $1,418.00
    Per License
    Enterprise
    $13,748.00
    Per License
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Considered Both Products
    SAP
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    53 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    53 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    45 Answers
    Features
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
    Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
    7.8
    41 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Long-term financial planning7.535 Ratings00 Ratings
    Financial budgeting8.137 Ratings00 Ratings
    Forecasting7.840 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scenario modeling7.336 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management reporting8.140 Ratings00 Ratings
    Consolidation and Close
    Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
    7.3
    40 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Financial data consolidation8.436 Ratings00 Ratings
    Journal entries and reports7.330 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-currency management6.928 Ratings00 Ratings
    Intercompany Eliminations6.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Minority Ownership7.020 Ratings00 Ratings
    Local and consolidated reporting6.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Detailed Audit Trails8.227 Ratings00 Ratings
    Financial Reporting and Compliance
    Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
    7.3
    40 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Financial Statement Reporting8.035 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Reporting7.240 Ratings00 Ratings
    Excel-based Reporting7.539 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated board and financial reporting6.430 Ratings00 Ratings
    Analytics and Reporting
    Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
    5.6
    36 Ratings
    30% below category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Personalized dashboards5.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Color-coded scorecards6.922 Ratings00 Ratings
    KPIs3.031 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost and profitability analysis7.628 Ratings00 Ratings
    Key Performance Indicator setting4.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benchmarking with external data7.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration
    Comparison of Integration features of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
    6.4
    39 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Flat file integration6.935 Ratings00 Ratings
    Excel data integration6.837 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct links to 3rd-party data sources5.425 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon RDS
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Planning Analytics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    SingleStore
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
    Score7.2 out of 10
    SAP IQ
    Score5.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (41 ratings)
    7.9
    (107 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.6
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.9
    (26 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.7
    (39 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Microsoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SAP
    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) overall is a good package and has helped improve our reporting a lot whilst also making it more efficient due to the reliability of data input / output. There are limitations like graphs being so limited in functionality and reports failing when too much data being processed however i would recommend to others.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft SQL is ubiquitous, while MySQL runs under the hood all over the place. Microsoft SQL is the platform taught in colleges and certification courses and is the one most likely to be used by businesses because it is backed by Microsoft. Its interface is friendly (well, as pleasant as SQL can be) and has been used by so many for so long that resources are freely available if you encounter any issues.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    SAP
    • SAP BPC is real time data. You can send information into the system and see it reflected in your reports immediately. Other systems may require a manual push into a reporting system.
    • SAP BPC is a shared reporting tool, so multiple users can be working in a model/environment at the same time, real time. This is especially helpful if your workbooks incorporated multiple processes requiring multiple users to get into the same model.
    • SAP BPC is a powerful tool designed to help all facets of the company, from cash flow to capital expenditures to headcount management to financial planning to consolidation.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Easy to configure and use with Visual Studio and Dot Net
    • Easy integration with MSBI to perform data analysis
    • Data Security
    • Easy to understand and use
    • Very easy to export database and tables in the form of SQL query or a script
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    SAP
    • SAP should focus on delivering one single product for planning, consolidation and budgeting needs rather than providing a large list of options to choose from.
    • The product is not very user-friendly compared to other cloud competitors. There is a heavy dependency on IT teams.
    • SAP BPC should come up a pure cloud option.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition has a high cost but is the only edition which supports SQL Always On Availability Groups. It would be nice to include this feature in the Standard version.
    • Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server is a quite complex matter, it would be good to simplify licensing in the future. For example, per core vs per user CAL licensing, as well as complex licensing scenarios in the Cloud and on Edge locations.
    • It would be good to include native tools for converting Oracle, DB2, Postgresql and MySQL/MariaDB databases (schema and data) for import into Microsoft SQL Server.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We understand that the Microsoft SQL Server will continue to advance, offering the same robust and reliable platform while adding new features that enable us, as a software center, to create a superior product. That provides excellent performance while reducing the hardware requirements and the total cost of ownership of our solution.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    SAP
    Unlike other SAP traditional products, SAP BPC was meant to be simple and familiar to financial users
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Its does not have outages.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    SAP
    We need a big support team with various skillset like BPC, ABAP, BW, HANA, FICO etc
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    SAP
    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
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    Microsoft
    It was good
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    SAP
    SAP Training contents are very good, informative and exhaustive.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    very hands on and detailed training
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    SAP
    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
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    Microsoft
    Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    SAP
    With Hyperion we struggled as it didn’t have integrated planning and consolidation, whereas BPC does have it. BPC is easier for reporting as it is Excel-based. Also BPC has prepackaged business process flows that helped a lot. Hyperion on the other hand has a faster response time for user queries or report generation.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    [Microsoft] SQL Server has a much better community and professional support and is overall just a more reliable system with Microsoft behind it. I've used MySQL in the past and SQL Server has just become more comfortable for me and is my go to RDBMS.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    SAP
    • 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
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    Microsoft
    • Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
    • Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
    • Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Screenshots

    Screenshot of SAP BPC Home ScreenScreenshot of SAP BPC Web ClientScreenshot of SAP BPC DashboardScreenshot of SAP BPC Web Report