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Quick, Intuitive System
June 02, 2014

Quick, Intuitive System

Carrie Brate | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

14.0.9

Modules Used

  • BI Launch Pad

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Business Objects

SAP Business Objects is the primary database used across the whole organization. It allows employees to pull sales, purchase, and inventory data and perform analysis on this data. In my role, I use Business Objects to pull sales data across product categories, at the category, brand, and/or item level. I then use the data that I have pulled for various projects, including SKU rationalization, customer analysis, brand analysis, etc.
  • The system is fairly intuitive, not much training required
  • The system is much faster than systems I have used in the past, such as Oracle BI dashboards
  • It is easy to "drill down" within the application
  • Naming conventions seem to be an issue; additional character space could be allotted
  • It may be helpful to add per case or per pound metrics
  • It would be helpful if the item description could be split up, ie separate item # from description
  • Business Objects allows me to pull data quickly when I am in a time crunch, for example, I was able to pull together a presentation for a last-minute board meeting to discuss financial objectives for the upcoming fiscal year
  • Business Objects data is used in identifying items that should be discontinued due to low sales volume or low margins
  • Business Objects data is used to analyze customer and brand performance and identify areas of success that can be translated to other customers, or areas that could be improved.
  • Oracle Business Analytics,Oracle Data Warehouse
SAP Business Objects is overall much quicker when it comes to pulling data. Additionally, I have yet to run into any instances where Business Objects is down. When I used the Oracle applications, during high usage periods, it was often extremely difficult to be able to extract data, and there were also frequent outages. This was extremely frustrating and led to decreased productivity. With Business Objects, I am able to get what I need within just a few minutes. The pivot-table-esque format is easy to use.
I may want to explore what else is out there just to see how it compares, but overall I am satisfied with Business Objects, and I would want to renew usage. It requires little training to get acclimated with, which allows new employees to get up to speed very quickly. I feel it is a reliable and quick system, which results in increased productivity.
Not having the item number as a separate field adds work, as the user would have to manually separate it out in Excel. Additionally, not being able to type in specific dates for which to pull data could be a hindrance. Additional customization capability would be beneficial.