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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs. Tableau Server

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

    Score6.4 out of 10
    N/AThe 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

    Tableau Server

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/ATableau Server allows Tableau Desktop users to publish dashboards to a central server to be shared across their organizations. The product is designed to facilitate collaboration across the organization. It can be deployed on a server in the data center, or it can be deployed on a public cloud.

    $12

    Per User Per Month

    Pricing
    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Viewer
    $12.00
    Per User Per Month
    Explorer
    $35.00
    Per User Per Month
    Creator
    $70.00
    Per User Per Month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
    Considered Both Products
    SAP
    Chose SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    Earlier, I used SAP BW's BEx tools for reporting, but it was challenging to format the report data and export to different formats. SAP BEx tools can access data from limited sources where as SAP BO can access data from most of the datasources which is why I prefer using BO …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    Chose Tableau Server
    We used and still are using IBM Cognos for business intelligence purposes. It is good for use as a data infrastructure and analytic framework, rather than a BI toolkit, but Tableau is replacing Cognos fast. We used D3.js for a few proofs of concept visualization and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Server
    Compared to our previous version of software and tool that had been used since the beginning of the company, Tableau is reliable, fast and accurate. Some important features for advanced analytics and data visualization are not available with the previous system. Therefore it …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Server
    We find Tableau Server much more flexible and powerful for the developer. The resulting dashboard and interactive charts far surpass those of Business Objects. IBM Cognos is much too restrictive in its ability to present data visualizations in a way that is easily integrated …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Server
    • Tableau is a stable and time tested product which can handle hundreds and thousands of users and a huge amount of content, plus tableau has also introduced a web authoring tool which you can [use to] edit dashboards using your browser.
    • However, the recent introduction of NLP …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Server
    Because our big data project team wants to show highly customized visualization for their complex data and analyzed results, only Tableau Desktop can support this target. After we developed many, many dashboards and other views, we wanted to share it with different users. We …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Server
    Tableau Server has many competitors, two primary ones would be SAP Business Objects and Microsoft PowerView through Tabular Analysis Services. I have worked with all three products. First and foremost, in terms of data visualization Tableau is the best by far. However there are …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    83%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    75%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    75%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    71%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Features
    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    8.2
    51 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Tableau Server
    9.5
    94 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports8.646 Ratings9.129 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards7.747 Ratings9.793 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.347 Ratings9.780 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.8
    48 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Tableau Server
    9.1
    94 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Drill-down analysis7.247 Ratings8.994 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.347 Ratings8.892 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.333 Ratings9.058 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.647 Ratings9.888 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.9
    48 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Tableau Server
    8.4
    90 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Publish to Web9.040 Ratings9.884 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.546 Ratings9.783 Ratings
    Report Versioning6.742 Ratings9.169 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.447 Ratings8.376 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers7.726 Ratings5.19 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.2
    43 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Tableau Server
    8.7
    89 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.941 Ratings8.985 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization6.939 Ratings8.984 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics7.938 Ratings8.563 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.32 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    9.2
    48 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Server
    8.3
    94 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.048 Ratings8.392 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.646 Ratings8.389 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.045 Ratings8.391 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control9.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)9.029 Ratings8.361 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    5.8
    34 Ratings
    30% below category average
    Tableau Server
    8.4
    78 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.733 Ratings8.276 Ratings
    Mobile Application3.828 Ratings8.160 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile3.830 Ratings9.067 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and Tableau Server
    Feature
    SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
    7.1
    24 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Tableau Server
    7.2
    45 Ratings
    8% below category average
    REST API6.721 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Javascript API7.319 Ratings9.036 Ratings
    iFrames7.318 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Java API7.222 Ratings5.57 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)7.321 Ratings6.19 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)6.720 Ratings4.67 Ratings
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    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SAP BusinessObjects Business IntelligenceTableau Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.7
    (73 ratings)
    8.1
    (110 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.3
    (24 ratings)
    10.0
    (20 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (16 ratings)
    5.2
    (16 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (9 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    8.1
    (8 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (16 ratings)
    3.0
    (18 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (9 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.1
    (13 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.2
    (45 ratings)
    5.1
    (79 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (45 ratings)
    6.6
    (82 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 IntelligenceTableau Server
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Whole funnel and specific channel performance from upper to lower funnel metrics. The ability to view full channel performance for some time, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly, has truly been monumental in how my team optimizes specific channels and campaigns. Daily performance tracking is a bit overwhelming, with load times and having to refresh specific live views over time. It can be challenging to do so at times, as extensive dashboards take much longer to load.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • It's good at doing what it is designed for: accessing visualizations without having to download and open a workbook in Tableau Desktop. The latter would be a very inefficient method for sharing our metrics, so I am glad that we have Tableau Server to serve this function.
    • Publishing to Tableau Server is quick and easy. Just a few clicks from Tableau Desktop and a few seconds of publishing through an average speed network, and the new visualizations are live!
    • Seeing details on who has viewed the visualization and when. This is something particularly useful to me for trying to drive adoption of some new pages, so I really appreciate the granularity provided in Tableau Server
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Tableau Server has had some issue handling some of our larger data sets. Our extract refreshes fail intermittently with no obvious error that we can fix
    • Tableau Server has been hard to work with before they launched their new Rest API, which is also a little tricky to work with
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    It simply is used all the time by more and more people. Migrating to something else would involve lots of work and lots of training. The renewal fee being fair, it simply isn't worth migrating to a different tool for now.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Tableau Server takes training and experience in order to unlock the application's full potential. This is best handled by a qualified data scientist or data analytics manager. Tableau user interface layout, nomenclature, and command structure take time and training to become proficient with. Integration and connectivity require proper IT developer support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Our instance of Tableau Server was hosted on premises (I believe all instances are) so if there were any outages it was normally due to scheduled maintenance on our end. If the Tableau server ever went down, a quick restart solved most issues
    Read full review
    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).
    Read full review
    Tableau
    While there are definitely cases where a user can do things that will make a particular worksheet or dashboard run slowly, overall the performance is extremely fast. The user experience of exploratory analysis particularly shines, there's nothing out there with the polish of Tableau.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    We have consistently had highly satisfactory results every time we've reached out for help. Our contractor, used for Tableau server maintenance and dashboard development is very technically skilled. When he hits a roadblock on how to do something with Tableau, the support staff have provided timely and useful guidance. He frequently compares it to Cognos and says that while Cognos has capabilities Tableau doesn't, the bottom line value for us is a no-brainer
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    In our case, they hired a private third party consultant to train our dept. It was extremely boring and felt like it dragged on. Everything I learned was self taught so I was not really paying attention. But I do think that you can easily spend a week on the tool and go over every nook and cranny. We only had the consultant in for a day or two.
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    The Tableau website is full of videos that you can follow at your own pace. As a very small company with a Tableau install, access to these free resources was incredibly useful to allowing me to implement Tableau to its potential in a reasonable and proportionate manner.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Implementation was over the phone with the vendor, and did not go particularly well. Again, think this was our fault as our integration and IT oversight was poor, and we made errors. Would they have happened had a vendor been onsite? Not sure, probably not, but we probably wouldn't have paid for that either
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Today, if my shop is largely Microsoft-centric, I would be hard pressed to choose a product other than Power BI. Tableau was the visualization leader for years, but Microsoft has caught up with them in many areas, and surpassed them in some. Its ability to source, transform, and model data is superior to Tableau. Tableau still has the lead in some visualizations, but Power BI's rise is evidenced by its ever-increasing position in the leadership section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Tableau does take dedicated FTE to create and analyze the data. It's too complex (and powerful) a product not to have someone dedicated to developing with it.
    • There are some significant setup for the server product.
    • Once sever setup is complete, it's largely "fire and forget" until an update is necessary. The server update process is cumbersome.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Tableau Server Screenshots

    Screenshot of Tableau Server interface and administration view 1.Screenshot of Tableau Server interface and administration view 2.Screenshot of Tableau Server permissions view.Screenshot of Tableau Services Manager (TSM) view 1.Screenshot of Tableau Services Manager (TSM) view 2.