In today’s fast-paced, digital world, successful businesses are those who not only have access to the right information at the right time but are able to gain insights from it, finding the signal amongst the noise and then acting on it quickly. In other words, successful companies are those that make use of business intelligence (BI) solutions. And for those companies that already make use of SAP HANA, there’s no better BI solution than SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite.
In this article, we’ll give you a high-level overview of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite, highlight some of its key features, and cover some of its core benefits so that you can determine if it’s the right BI solution for your organization.
SAP BusinessObjects Backstory
BusinessObjects was founded in Paris back in 1990 and quickly became one of the most popular BI software sellers globally. SAP acquired BusinessObjects for $6.78 billion in 2007. While the company operated independently at first, within two years, BusinessObjects became a division of SAP, and the products turned into what we know today as SAP BusinessObjects. The acquisition proved to be a pivotal one for SAP, as it helped the ERP giant expand its portfolio in the BI market.
What is SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite?
SAP BusinessObjects BI is a suite of reporting and analytics tools that allow users to analyze data, perform analysis, and create visual reports. It’s designed for business users to create reports (without necessitating assistance from data analysts). Some of its key features include collaboration across teams, user-specific dashboards, and integration with Microsoft Office.
Collaboration Across Teams
Enable sharing functionality to communicate business insights with colleagues and other teams to support cross-functional decision-making.
User-specific Dashboards
Create dashboards based on your role to gain insights into the information you need to know.
Microsoft Office Integration
SAP Business Objects integrates with the entire Microsoft Office suite. Want to analyze large data sets to reveal insights, trends, and forecasts using Microsoft Excel and then embed them directly into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations? Not a problem!
Applications within SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP BusinessObjects BI is composed of different reporting and analysis applications that all work together to deliver a comprehensive suite. (Even better, it also integrates with SAP HANA.) Here are some of the applications included with SAP BusinessObjects:
Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Reports are data analytics and reporting tools designed for small to medium-sized businesses. You can create reports from different data sources and export them to different formats on any device.
Query as a Web Service
This tool allows you to create and publish web services that are used in Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, among other applications.
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is a self-service data exploration application that allows you to search through massive amounts of data and create visualization dashboards that can be shared throughout the org.
SAP Lumira
SAP Lumira is a self-service data visualization app that allows users to create custom dashboards. These insights can also be shared across the company and within Microsoft Office documents.
Web Intelligence
Web Intelligence is a web browser application that allows you to produce reports, perform analysis, and distribute through SAP BusinessObjects or other Microsoft Office documents.
Benefits of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP BusinessObjects BI can help you assess risk, identify opportunities, and improve efficiency. A few other benefits you can look forward to experiencing include…
Advantages of the Cloud
With the latest version, you can now enhance your on-premise BI use cases while taking advantage of the augmented BI, planning, and predictive innovations of SAP Analytics Cloud. By integrating SAP Analytics Cloud and BusinessObjects, you can combine real-time information and critical insights in a single solution.
Empower Business Users
One of the most significant benefits of SAP BusinessObjects is the power it gives to business users. With intuitive, self-service visualization tools, any user can act as a business analyst to review data, analyze trends, and make smarter decisions.
More Control for Administrators
The latest release of SAP BusinessObjects gives admins more visibility and control of the system, helping increase security and giving admins what they need to set schedules, manage credentials, and more, all within a single platform.
Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
SAP is committed to innovating and building upon the features and functionality of SAP BusinessObjects BI, meaning you’ll be investing in a solution that will grow with your organization.
If you’re ready to get started, our US-based SAP consulting team can help you plan, implement, and optimize your SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite. Contact us today to learn more.
