BusinessObjects vs SAS Visual Analytics

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Our analysts compared BusinessObjects vs SAS Visual Analytics based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Business Intelligence Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

BusinessObjects Software Tool

Product Basics

BusinessObjects is a suite of business intelligence (BI) tools that helps organizations collect, analyze, and visualize data to make better decisions. It's most suited for large enterprises with complex data needs, as it offers a wide range of features and capabilities. Key benefits include improved data visibility, enhanced decision-making, and increased productivity. Popular features include data modeling, reporting, ad hoc querying, and dashboards. User experiences highlight its ease of use, robust functionality, and scalability, though some note its potential for complexity and higher learning curve. Compared to similar products, BusinessObjects often stands out for its comprehensiveness and integration capabilities. Pricing is typically based on a per-user or per-named-user basis, with annual subscription fees.

Pros
  • Easy to use
  • Robust features
  • Scalable
  • Comprehensive
  • Integrates well
Cons
  • Can be complex
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Costly
  • May require training
  • Can be resource-intensive
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SAS Visual Analytics offers fast answers to complex questions drawn from datasets of all sizes. It provides guided exploration, interactive dashboards, smart visualizations and self-service analytics to users of all technical skill levels, promoting data literacy and visibility. Its versatile, scalable design helps users make better business decisions based on data transparency. Built on a cohesive in-memory architecture, it promotes intelligent action driven by insight.
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$5,000 Annual
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$8,000 Monthly
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Real-Time Analysis: Connects to a range of data sources, including other SAP applications, to deliver real-time data and up-to-the-minute updates, so users are never behind the times. 
  • High-Volume Delivery: Distributes content over a large organization to ensure all users have real-time access to data, visualizations and collaboration. 
  • Extensive SAP Ecosystem: Integrates and connects seamlessly with other SAP tools through built-in APIs. This extends usability and draws data directly from a range of SAP systems. 
  • Self Service: Users of all technical levels can manipulate data, explore trends, create visualizations and share them with others without waiting for a data scientist to deliver insights. 
  • Enterprise-Grade: As one of the largest software providers in the world, it offers a robust solution that can handle the largest, most complex data sets for any size enterprise. 
  • Intuitive Visualizations: Create a variety of intuitive visualizations from data, making patterns and trends more apparent and transferring information more efficiently than numbers or text reports. 
  • Better Business Decisions: Historical patterns and data tracking helps identify trends and make accurate predictions for the future. Make data-driven business decisions and implement proven best practices. 
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  • Easily Create Models and Explore Data: Build models that are stable, accurate and easy to create, based on proven techniques. Interact with and prepare data for self-service analysis or visualization. Unify diverse datasets and present in an easy-to-interpret format.
  • Discover Data Relationships and Patterns: Make data relationships easy to see and understand through machine learning that visualizes narratives from the data. Identify patterns in data through algorithms and pre-defined related measures.
  • Visualize Data in Intuitive Graphics: Discover and display trends in the form of intuitive graphics, reports and dashboards, including geographical data displayed on interactive maps, making them easier to explain, share and understand.
  • Glean Data-Based Insights: Gain insights and understand the business more thoroughly by identifying patterns, trends or important points in data. Improve transparency at every level — answer specific business questions, identify pain points in workflows, highlight areas for improvement and forecast future results much more accurately.
  • Perform Guided and Augmented Analysis: Leverage a variety of augmented or automated features that facilitate the data discovery and analysis processes. Get suggestions on the best-fit graphic for a given set of data via augmented analytics. Identify potentially related groups of data based on pre-set factors through automated explanation, uncovering insights potentially missed by the naked eye.
  • Make Better Business Decisions: Make data-driven business decisions based on historical information. Glean insights from data trends and patterns and apply them to forecasting, budgeting and other business planning.
  • Share and Collaborate: Collaborate on dashboards and share them easily with internal teams, clients, management and other key groups. Add comments to reports, create alerts for report objects to notify key members when a trigger factor is met, distribute PDF reports securely and restrict access to maintain the report’s integrity.
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  • Native Mobile Apps: Take visualization features like charts, reports and more on the go with native iOS and Android apps. 
  • Pre-Built Data Connectors: Draw data from over 25 pre-set sources such as SAP HANA, Apache, Hadoop, Hive, Cloudera, Impala, Amazon, IBM and many more. 
  • Integrations: Provides powerful integration capabilities with other applications such as CRM, ERP, web applications and more. Includes SAP tools and others like the Microsoft Suite. 
  • Data Discovery: Collects, cleans and analyzes data from a variety of sources to help users identify trends and patterns. 
  • Data Transformation: Converts data between formats and structures — organizes and structures unstructured data into usable information. 
  • Visualizations: Generates graphical data visualizations such as bar charts, pie graphs, scattergrams, line plots, maps and more. 
  • Secure Collaboration: Users can securely share visualizations with team members, clients and others through email, web embedding and other platforms. 
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  • Ad Hoc Reporting and Analysis: Assemble reports from data creatively in real time as opposed to relying on a predesigned template. Run queries and perform analysis on data on demand without knowing code.
  • Predictive Analysis: Make predictions about future conditions based on historical data through data mining, machine learning and predictive modeling.
  • Mobile Apps: Leverage the power of native apps on iOS, Android and Microsoft devices, with an optimized mobile interface. Interact with visualizations on the go, view previous reports, leave comments, capture screenshots and set mobile notifications.
  • Interactive Discovery: Identify outliers, clusters, relationships, trends, etc. by exploring data in a natural query-based way rather than through coding.
  • Location Analytics: Lasso data points on a map through OpenStreetmap or Esri ArcGIS to select them for analysis and then enrich demographic data through point clustering, map pins, custom polygons and more.
  • Trend Indicators: Identify which types of data to observe through built-in trend indicators that attempt to predict future movement of data points based on historical trends.
  • Visualizations: Get desired insights from data and easily discover patterns through a range of visualization options, such as bar graphs, pie charts, donut graphics, line graphs, scattergrams, heat maps, bubble maps, dot maps, needle graphics, numeric series, schedule charts, vectors, key value infographics and more.
  • Scheduled Reporting: Programmable to send reports at scheduled intervals or based on triggered events to ensure they are delivered regularly.
  • Customizable Dashboard: Access only relevant tools, visualizations and data through the customizable dashboard interface. Engage with data as well as collaborate with others on data visualizations, irrespective of technical skill levels.
  • Embedded BI: Embed the system into web applications or other software solutions for a seamless interface and direct data draw. Also, embed individual reports and dashboards using SAS SDK.
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Product Ranking

#14

among all
Business Intelligence Tools

#28

among all
Business Intelligence Tools

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Analyst Rating Summary

we're gathering data
82
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79
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we're gathering data
80
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

BusinessObjects
SAS Visual Analytics
+ Add Product + Add Product
Advanced Analytics Augmented Analytics Data Management Data Pre-processing Data Transformation Data Visualization Embedded Analytics Capabilities Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 79 64 80 100 100 92 86 88 79 83 100 0 25 50 75 100
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86%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

we're gathering data
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1869 reviews
Great User Sentiment 137 reviews
81%
of users recommend this product

BusinessObjects has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 81% when considering 1869 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

83%
of users recommend this product

SAS Visual Analytics has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 83% when considering 137 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

3.8 (237)
3.8 (11)
n/a
4.3 (33)
4.2 (158)
4.3 (38)
4.2 (722)
4.3 (10)
3.9 (752)
3.9 (45)

Awards

we're gathering data

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated SAS Visual Analytics and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Data Pre-processing.

Data Pre-processing Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Ease of Use: It is a straightforward and easy to use platform, as noted by over 65% of reviewers who mention ease of use.
Flexible Reporting: Around 84% of the reviewers who specify reporting state that it offers a flexible reporting feature to fit individual needs.
Integration: It enables integration with SAP products and third-party software, as observed by 89% of the users referring to integration.
Customization: It provides highly customizable tools and options, as noted by 88% of reviewers who specify customization.
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Data Analysis: Around 81% of users who reviewed its data analysis capabilities said that the tool offers out-of-the-box advanced analytics to identify patterns and relationships in business data.
Functionality: Citing its powerful in-memory technology, approximately 62% of users who reviewed functionality said that the solution provides a single, compact interface for data exploration and modeling for faster analytic computations.
Data Visualization: Around 60% of users who reviewed data visualization said that they can perform exploratory data analysis with a multitude of graphics options, such as bubble charts, line charts, dual axis charts.
Ease of Use: Approximately 54% of users who mentioned ease of using the software said that it is easy to generate reports with some basic SQL knowledge.
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Learning Curve: It involves a steep learning curve for beginners, as stated by 80% of the users mentioning the learning curve.
Implementation: Over 80% of reviewers who discussed implementation report that the process is cumbersome.
Pop-ups: Error messages and pop-ups are technical and hard to decipher, as observed by 100% of reviewers who refer to pop-ups.
Performance: Around 86% of the users who specify performance report that it becomes slow and crashes at times when multiple prompts are opening.
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Cost: Around 80% of users who discussed the platform’s cost said that they find the pricing to be cost-prohibitive.
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User reviews for BusinessObjects paint a picture of a powerful BI tool with both strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, users praise its comprehensive features, enabling them to tackle complex data challenges. "It's like a Swiss Army knife for data analysis," one user says, "from basic reports to advanced modeling, it's got it all." This feature depth is often contrasted with simpler competitors, with users appreciating the ability to handle diverse needs without needing multiple tools. However, the learning curve can be steep, especially for non-technical users. "It's not exactly drag-and-drop for beginners," another user admits. This complexity can lead to frustration and require investment in training, which some users find less intuitive compared to competitors. Despite the learning hurdle, many users highlight BusinessObjects' scalability and integration capabilities as its main differentiators. "It seamlessly connects with our existing systems," one user notes, "saving us time and effort." This smooth integration is often lacking in competitors, making BusinessObjects a preferred choice for organizations with complex data ecosystems. Overall, user reviews suggest BusinessObjects is a powerful and versatile BI tool best suited for organizations with complex data needs and the resources to support its learning curve. Its comprehensive features and integration capabilities set it apart, making it a strong contender for those seeking a robust BI solution despite the initial investment required.

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SAS Analytics is a versatile business intelligence and analytics tool that empowers users to explore and understand data through interactive data visualizations. Many users who reviewed data analysis said that, coupled with the power of predictive analytics, the platform offers a plethora of graphics options — charts, graphs and dashboards — with deep-dive capabilities, such as filtering, to zero in on pertinent business data. Many users who reviewed functionality and data preparation said that, possibly because of its capable ETL engine and in-memory architecture, data processing speed is very high and reports load faster. A majority of users who reviewed data connectivity said that the tool is efficient in pulling data from multiple sources for data modeling and analysis. On the flip side, quite a few users who reviewed functionality said that the platform’s integration with Python and R is still in the development stage and this limits its functional scope. Some users who discussed user-friendliness said that the processes are not the most intuitive — errors and warnings in logs are misleading, and new users may find adoption difficult. Though the industry scope of user tutorials is limited, a majority of users said that the steep learning curve of the platform is sufficiently addressed by training. For many users, its cost-prohibitive licensing plans caused them to not consider it their first choice when it came to purchasing a BI solution. Overall, SAS Visual Analytics is a versatile tool with fast data processing capabilities and strong visualizations to generate reports for insightful data analysis.

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