TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

SAP BW

Score8.6 out of 10

178 Reviews and Ratings

Get a Demo

What is SAP BW?

SAP Business Warehouse, or SAP BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse) is SAP's legacy data warehouse solution, now superseded by SAP BW/4HANA, and the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud which was launched in 2019. SAP BW versions up to 7.4 have reached end of maintenance. SAP BW 7.5 support is extended to align with SAP Business Suite with NetWeaver components. For existing customers maintenance is scheduled to continue through 2027, with extended support available through 2030.

Read more details.

Categories & Use Cases

SAP BW Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features SAP BW has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 178 ratings of SAP BW's features
View all SAP BW features

Top Performing Features

  • Multi-User Support (named login)

    Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.

    Category average: 9.4

  • Single Sign-On (SSO)

    Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications

    Category average: 9.4

  • Data Warehouse Management

    The effectiveness of the product’s tools for loading, transforming, sharing, and exploring data, schemas, and dependencies.

    Category average: 9.2

Areas for Improvement

  • Location-Based Data Governance

    Refers to how well the software enables users to comply with data privacy standards regarding the use of precise location data for customers.

    Category average: 6.8

  • Self-Optimization

    The product’s capability to monitor and adjust internal metrics and systems to keep performance as high as possible.

    Category average: 6.6

  • Visualization

    The product’s support and tooling for analysis and visualization of data.

    Category average: 5.1

Who Buys & Uses SAP Business Warehouse

SAP BW Reviews

What users are saying about SAP BW.
View all SAP BW reviews

SAP Business Warehouse has made data analysis simpler

Incentivized
Sandesh PasariView profile
Marketing manager in Marketing at WACKER (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this product to track daily sales activity, market segment level database maintenance and profitability tracking.

Pros

  • Managing sales data
  • Preparing pivot of available SAP data
  • Extracting reports

Cons

  • It has high loading time when big data is extracted
  • Can provide automatic data visualization
  • It is expensive for mid sized companies

Return on Investment

  • It has improved our sales tracking
  • Preparing reports has become easier
  • Reduced time to market

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Zoho Analytics and Tableau Prep

Other Software Used

Salesforce CRM Analytics, Google Analytics, Microsoft SharePoint

BW Review

Incentivized
Andy Dahmus
Developer in Information Technology at Cintas (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is the core of all of our reporting. We have been using BW for around 15 years and our business couldn't run with out the product. We connect BW to all of our SAP systems including CRM, ECC, MDG in order to get a full picture of our company and how we can inovate.

Pros

  • Integrates data
  • Solid Security
  • Mature product where users are comfortable

Cons

  • More native connectivity to other sets of data
  • push more things down to the DB

Return on Investment

  • a single report has with data from multiple sources has saved us over $ 20m

Other Software Used

Eclipse

SAP Business Warehouse, a gamechanger on traditional SAP ecosystem

Incentivized
Juan Carlos Crespo RojasView profile
Senior SAP Consultant in Professional Services at Syntax (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP Business Warehouse is absolutely essential in the SAP ecosystem as it provides seamless integration of data from ERP (enterprise resource planning) modules in a standardized manner. Additionally, it offers the flexibility to customize as per specific business requirements, making it an indispensable tool for any organization.

Pros

  • SAP ERP modules can be integrated with SAP data using standard extractors, reducing time for new deliverables.
  • Transform the raw data into in insights.
  • Mature knowledge base.

Cons

  • Cloud integration is limited or restricted in some business scenarios.
  • Seems close the end of the software lifecycle, maintenance.
  • Sometimes, ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) expertise is required.
  • No IA capabilities.

Return on Investment

  • Rapid deployment solution.
  • There are many experts available in the market, which reduces the cost of deployment and maintenance.
  • Changes are managed by transport, avoiding the risk of unhandled changes or fixes.

Alternatives Considered

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation), SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere

Other Software Used

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation), SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP HANA Cloud

One Stop Solution for All Modeling Needs of company for Operational & MIS Reporting

Incentivized
Parijatam SView profile
Lead Consultant in Information Technology at Invenio Business Solutions (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For Regular Operation & Analytical Purpose We use SAP BW. It has capability to provide Formatted Reports for business uses using Bex Analysis which is Front end Designing tool. Business Modelling takes time but once done properly it provides very robust integration in terms master data & hierarchy access for reporting flexibility. Accessing attributes & grand attributes also comes handy with proper handling and with minimal effort at reporting levels. With the Onset of Composite Provider implementing Joins has become very easy. We can always create Calculated & restricted Measures & Dimension at Composite provider level with out consuming any permanent memory along with a great performance when HANA is backend

Pros

  • Integrations with SAP Source Systems
  • Complex Hierarchies can be handled easily in BW with help of BW
  • Master data attributes/ text once configured properly can be looked up in easiest way with least effort in any report.
  • Efficient Delta Loading mechanism and easy reconciliation of data
  • Connections to other Third Part Systems & File Systems
  • Taking data out from BW is also easy.

Cons

  • Advance Analytics like Regression & Classification Problems Use Cases not possible as of now in BW
  • Dashboarding Capabilities are not that great in BW Front End Tool
  • Self Ad-hoc reporting is not very flexible as its complex tool in design

Return on Investment

  • Single Tool to Cater Reporting Need
  • High Integration enable real time data extraction along with reporting helps in fast decision making.
  • Customers where I have used this tool improved the functioning & it helped to identify bottlenecks for Debtor Days/ High overhead costs.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse and Amazon Redshift

Other Software Used

SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Data Services, Amazon Redshift

Integrated warehouse management system

Incentivized
Niloofar Keshvari NiaView profile
IT Operations and Support Specialist in Information Technology at AZEREX LLC. (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Maintaining SAP BW is much easier than similar products
  • Powerful and extensive functionality

Cons

  • The system doesn't integrate well with other systems and is difficult to use
  • It would be beneficial to have reports that could be modified and saved more easily
  • You may find it difficult to build your type of report, many of the sections can be streamlined and easier to use

Most Important Features

  • By using this platform we can go into great depth with our analysis data
  • Great for warehouse inventory
  • Report generation, semi-annual inventory updates, and inventory distribution is one of most important feature for us

Return on Investment

  • We can manage our PO costs, work order statuses, and work requests through it.
  • These accurate reports increase the financial benefit and show the additional costs so that you can better avoid losses.

Alternatives Considered

Snowflake and IBM Netezza Performance Server

Other Software Used

Panintelligence, SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager, Azure Cosmos DB

SAP BW Alternatives

Products similar to SAP BW that may also meet your needs.
View all SAP BW alternatives
Mycroft Assistant
CompareLearn more