Features

SAP Lumira

Lumira is SAP’s data visualization software that allows users to create interactive maps, charts, and infographics. Import data from Excel and many other sources, perform visual BI analysis using intuitive dashboards, and securely share insights and data stories with others.

Features:

  • Access of data sources (relational, Big Data, SAP HANA, XLSX, CSV, etc.
  • Combination and transformation of data
  • Create and edit storyboards

SAP Crystal Reports

Design and deliver business reports based on data from virtually any source with SAP Crystal Reports. Integrate with SAP Lumira or other solutions to add data visualizations, dashboards and more. Information is available online or offline, from applications, portals and mobile devices alike. Flexible, customizable reports are another advantage.

Features:

  • Intuitive design tools, report templates and wizards
  • On-report sorting and filtering
  • Global formula search, duplicate formula, find-in-field explorer and more
  • Dynamic charts, graphics and videos with Adobe Flash

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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

BusinessObjects offers easy self-service access to information with flexible architecture. Gain real-time business intelligence from any data and increase user autonomy by making information consumption simple, personalized and dynamic. BusinessObjects boasts a flexible and scalable information infrastructure.

Features:

  • Ad-hoc reporting and analysis on web, desktop, or mobile
  • Drill, slice-and-dice, and format information
  • Combine data from different sources
  • Set up data alerts and share insights
  • Multidimensional analytics on one common BI platform

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SAP Predictive Analytics

This solution offers real-time analytics for predictive network and link analysis. Create graphs and achieve advanced personalization with the data. Data scientists can build models using R algorithms and predictive algorithms native in SAP’s in-memory platform. SAP Predictive Analytics also allows predictive data management with automated data preparation.

Advanced analytics features:

  • Automated analytics with predictive models for data mining functions
  • Advanced visualizations for quicker insights
  • Predictive scoring in real time and embedded results
  • Modeling environment for open-source R-based algorithms and custom scripts

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Compatibility & Integration

SAP offers Big Data on Hadoop, which allows users to manage and contextualize their data variety and diversity. Users can work with a variety of data types held in a variety of stores through a single point of access.

Mobile Access

The SAP BusinessObjects Mobile app allows users to analyze key metrics, discover data trends, and extend SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and Design Studio reports, as well as SAP Crystal Reports. The mobile app allows for online and offline work, and enables quick and easy collaboration.

Support

Contact:
  •  Email
  •  Phone
  •  Chat
Forums:
  •  Developer forum
  •  Community forum

Pricing

Basic info

 
Free trial
 
Starts at $185

Reviews

4.0
21 reviews
Sort by
 
Client Interview
Oct 12 2015

2iSolutions Client Implementation for SAP Analytics

4.0

Features: 
4.0
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
3.5
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Confidential spend
 
Information Technology and Services
 
11-50 employees
 
Boston Metro Area
CEO at 2iSolutions
Praveen Kumar
1
 
Verified
The Review

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

2isolutions is an SAP partner company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Our main focus, at this time, is SAP BI solutions, but we also do SAP all-in-one and ERP [enterprise resource planning] solutions as well. For the last 10 years, we have done implementations for mid-sized companies to very big companies.

I am very much convinced that SAP HANA is a problem solver for the big industries. Of course, at this time, there's a cost problem for some firms. I feel SAP is great for banking.

As for me, I started my career after getting a master's degree in electrical engineering, and started SAP after that. For the last 17 years, I'm doing only one thing, and that's SAP. Within SAP, I've been working on the BI [business intelligence] application for the past decade, but I also did many other modules within SAP. In BI, I'm a certified HANA developer, BusinessObjects developer, and certified data warehouse person; I'm also certified for these SRM data certifications that SAP does. 

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that incited the need for this platform?

One example client is a bank that needs to do a lot of reporting for the government because of the financial scandal that happened seven or eight years ago. There are many regulatory reporting requirements on the banks that we need to do. Before these SAP BI solutions came into picture, this client of ours was doing it using some of their Excel tools and some other proprietary tool that they made up, which was very time consuming.

The SAP BI solutions consist of more than one product, and one of them is called SAP DW [data warehousing] and the second is coming from the BusinessObjects side of SAP Solutions, which we call the front-end solutions. Many SAP clients are still on the old product, which is SAP data warehouse. We are trying to move all our clients to the new product, called BusinessObjects. There's a lot of user benefit there to do that. I think HANA is the most popular tool, at this time, in the SAP world. 

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

This project is almost done now. We are using an SAP tool called Bank Analyzer and SAP Business Intelligence together. We've been in the situation that we can complete all of this reporting, every month, within a period of hours instead of days that we used to do before. That is the kind of achievement we have done and the kind of progress that we have made, which will make the life of our user group much easier, compared to the previous time. They used to go through a very tough time every month to put all of these reporting requirements together.

Additionally, we have done an implementation for a utility company and for a government agency. There was a lot of fraud happening, and we wanted to bring back all the data into the BI system, so that we can immediately see where fraud is taking place. We used the BI solution there to stop the fraud that was occurring.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We use only SAP. They have some limitations, but we do not use anything else. We are SAP and Cloud data partners, that's our specialty. That is what we do.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

The SAP solution is very expensive for most companies – even larger firms. It often reaches into six figures or even millions of dollars.

RESULTS

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

Our clients are satisfied with their decision to utilize this platform. We have seen more efficiencies, less fraud, and better reporting and forecasting.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you? 

One of the specific tools I like about HANA is their SLT [SAP Landscape Transformation]. It has Smart Data Access. Smart Data Access SLT and in-memory processing is quite fast. I mentioned before that we do not need any more replication of the data, so the immensity of the data is no longer there.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

I am having some restrictions at this time that will be better in the future, and that is integration with other tools. I already know that they are working on that. They sent me that data on that system that we collect for example. At this time, it is a little tough to integrate some tools with HANA.

The other thing is that it is a little bit expensive, at this time, because it is in memory. We need to make it a little bit more cost effective. Other than that, I think it is pretty good. It is very different now because it has been more than five years since HANA's been on the market.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I think their support is very good. I have no complaints at all. Additionally, because the technology has become actual now, we have a lot of information in the forum as well.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four. Because HANA is coming up, and there are some things we need to improve.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Three and a half. SAP is a little bit complex.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Four.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Four.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five. For other SAP partners I would recommend it. At the same time, my experience is limited to SAP technology. For the last 17 years, I have only done SAP. From what I know in the industry, it is pretty good. The big companies are all going for it. I do not have any doubt about it. 

4.0
Overall Score
  • 4.0 Features
  • 4.0 Ease of Use
  • 3.5 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Expensive but versatile tool

4.5

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
4.0
Willing to refer: 
4.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Manufacturing
 
5001+ employees
 
Ft. Smith, AR
Director
1
The Review

Experience:

We recently implemented SAP back in 2012 to help streamline the logistics, warehousing & financial processes. This universal system allowed the Customer Service, Logistics & Operations teams to look at the same system and work off the same page. Inventory management is at the nucleus of our success and being able to manage this business and have visibility to it on all levels is key to our success. We have customized SAP in so many ways it's tough to specify what we use. We use the BW portion to create internal reports to track our inventory usage vs. our forecast (S&OP) along with multiple facets within SAP available through transaction codes that were built for a specific purpose within SAP ERP. Our biggest concern right now is not being able to download SAP updates due to how specialized and customize we've made SAP to suit our needs. This directly affects the performance including sporadic lag and even crashes to the system requiring outages. Many other companies in our businesses rely on SAP and have nothing but positive thing say about the business which leads us to believe it's more of an "us" problem.

Pros:

The large amount of resources and versatility to customize it to our needs is a huge plus. There is a reason SAP holds a great amount of the market share and they certainly step up to the plate in that aspect. We have roughly 2,800 PC's utilizing SAP at the moment with plans to roll out more in the near future. We have no doubts SAP will be able to handle this increase with their Business Objects now instead of their BI tools aimed at smaller companies.

Cons:

It's pretty expensive and requires numerous servers to keep it going. As mentioned earlier in the survey, upgrading is difficult when customizing as much as we do. Surely we're not alone?

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Streamline and centralize everything

4.5

Features: 
2.5
Ease of use: 
4.5
Support: 
2.0
Willing to refer: 
4.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Manufacturing
 
1001-5000 employees
 
New York, NY
Manager
1
The Review

Experience:

My company consists of several departments and warehouses across the country and SAP Business Objects allows for there to be a shared platform. It is difficult because we keep acquiring new companies and have to transition slowly and seamlessly to SAP from other programs (i.e. AX, OMX, sales force) With SAP, we can do order tracking, looking up orders, timeline of orders, stock, etc. I am in quality assurance and it allows me to monitor the quality of work of the departments.

Pros:

Everything is streamlined and centralized with SAP

Cons:

There are occasional blocks that require administrative intervention

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Spend visibility

3.0

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
1.5
Support: 
1.0
Willing to refer: 
3.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Retail
 
5001+ employees
 
Pittsburgh, PA
Associate
1
The Review

Experience:

Ariba boasts best in class Spend Visibility a full P2P suite, and great custom reporting capabilities which we use to create a monthly dashboard in excel The features we use are P2P, Contract Module, Custom Reporting, and Spend Visibility. There is some user frustration with the system, but overall we've been able to implement a p2p system that we never had before.

Pros:

I like that we have full visibility of purchases from requisition to invoice.

Cons:

The software could be more user friendly.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Intuitive way to get insights

4.0

Features: 
3.5
Ease of use: 
3.0
Support: 
4.0
Willing to refer: 
4.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Consumer products
 
501-1000 employees
 
New York, NY
Director
1
The Review

Experience:

SAP is very intuitive and easy to use once you go through training. We use BI objects, and SAP dashboard. Working with SAP has been great. We are able to get information on how customers use our data and what they need.

Pros:

We gain insights into customer behavior; we are also able to identify and eliminate gaps in our organization in order to streamline our business process more efficiently.

Cons:

For newcomers, the learning curve can be steep.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Helpful dashboards

4.5

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
4.5
Willing to refer: 
4.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Information technology
 
5001+ employees
 
Los Angeles, CA
Senior Manager
1
The Review

Experience:

We already use other SAP platforms and we are familiar with the structure. So far we have been pretty happy with it. We mostly do report building to submit to highest management. All our sales departments all over the US can access and add info in their own time. Then they have the ability to pull information as needed, whenever.

Pros:

Dashboards are the most helpful feature.

Cons:

Some sales departments struggle with the platform. They like data.com better, but we push for SAP.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

ERP and data federation

4.5

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
4.5
Willing to refer: 
4.5
See More
the reviewer
 
Information technology
 
5001+ employees
 
Boston, MA
Manager
1
The Review

Experience:

SAP Business Objects is a very efficient way of data tracking and storage. It also has a relatively easy interface once you are familiar with it. We use SAP Business Objects for enterprise resource planning and data federation. We like the very timely tracking of stored data and SAP makes it easy to visualize data.

Pros:

We have seen 4 times better performance in BI/BW in terms of API’s. The Information design tool and web intelligence are great features.

Cons:

Could be a bit easier for new users to learn.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Not that intuitive

3.5

Features: 
2.5
Ease of use: 
2.0
Support: 
2.5
Willing to refer: 
3.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Manufacturing
 
11-100 employees
 
San Francisco, CA
Associate
1
The Review

Experience:

SAP Business Objects helps with inventory management, forecasting, and trends. Inventory, and forecasting are the top two features for me. SAP performs ok. It is not as intuitive and easy to use as I'd like though.

Pros:

SAP streamlines data for our organization, and it imports and exports info easily. Everyone accesses the same info, which is good for us.

Cons:

It is difficult to set up initially.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Rapid Problem Solving

4.5

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
3.5
See More
the reviewer
 
Manufacturing
 
1001-5000 employees
 
Tampa, FL
Vice President
1
The Review

Experience:

We are an international company. SAP seems to understand our business objectives and operations better than most software companies especially in the areas of Marketing differences, language and foreign regulations. Our most used features are marketing platforms, cross country budgeting and presentation preparation for international models. SAP Business Objects works very well and our cooperation and harmony with divisions in other countries now works better than ever.

Pros:

It is multi cultural, has cross borders understanding and contributes to rapid problem solving.

Cons:

SAP costs are a bit pricey but you get what you pay for.

 
Survey Response
Feb 22 2016

Reports and querying

3.5

Features: 
4.0
Ease of use: 
3.0
Support: 
3.5
Willing to refer: 
3.5
See More
the reviewer
 
Retail
 
5001+ employees
 
Grand Rapids, MI
Senior Manager
1
The Review

Experience:

The reasons for using SAP Business Objects are simply for the fact that it provides useful business intelligence that helps us make educated decisions in our business. We needed help and consulting on how to utilize our reports, queries and data and the most efficient way to do that. We use the planning, reporting and query features the most, as those are areas that we have struggled with in the past. These solutions have been better than expected and we have the ability to collect and analyze data, and we can produce reports that are much more useful to us than in the past.

Pros:

It is easy to use and has been proven to aid many types of business with its data mining tools.

Cons:

What we dislike is that it is pretty expensive and requires quite a few servers. If upgrading was easier and the training time was shorter, that would better meet our needs.