An Alternative to Business Objects

Are you searching for a better BI tool than SAP's Business Objects?

Consider InetSoft's Style Intelligence, which offers an agile web-based solution that is easy to deploy and easier to use.

Here are a few reasons to consider InetSoft over SAP:

  • 100% web-based solution
  • Monitor, explore, and analyze broad spectrum data, or drill down into details
  • Easy to use, modify, and create dashboards and/or reports
  • Leverage enterprise level end-user data mashup
  • Self-service BI
  • Data Cache for faster responsiveness
#1 Ranking: Read how InetSoft was rated #1 for user adoption in G2's user survey-based index Read More

Key Features of InetSoft's BI Solution

Style Intelligence is a full BI suite that facilitates data exploration and discovery through real-time visualizations and reports.

It features a highly user-friendly GUI with support for drag-and-drop end user data mashup or dashboard creation.

Other major features include:

  • Mobile BI - access dashboards and reports on-the-go with any Web enabled device
  • Unlimited multidimensional charting - using the aforementioned drag-and-drop interface, create charts capable of tracking large amounts of data
  • Brushing - explore data in a unique way by highlighting corresponding data in different charts
  • Extracting data from remote sources
  • Transforming data to suit operational needs
  • Loading data into the end data warehouse
  • Gauges, thermometers, charts, maps, etc
  • Dual purpose input/output elements
  • Monitoring and analysis oriented views
  • OLAP data source mashup and visualization
view gallery
View live interactive examples in InetSoft's dashboard and visualization gallery.

What Are the Drawbacks to Business Objects?

Here are some common drawbacks to using Business Objects:

  1. Complexity and Learning Curve: Business Objects can be complex and challenging to learn, especially for users who are not familiar with SAP's ecosystem or BI concepts in general. Setting up and configuring the platform, designing reports, and creating queries often require specialized skills and training, which can be time-consuming and costly for organizations.

  2. Cost of Ownership: The initial cost of purchasing and implementing Business Objects, as well as ongoing maintenance and support fees, can be significant. Additionally, as organizations scale their usage or require additional features and modules, the cost of ownership can increase further, potentially becoming prohibitive for smaller businesses or organizations with limited budgets.

  3. Integration Challenges: Integrating Business Objects with other systems, databases, and applications outside of the SAP ecosystem can be complex and require additional development effort. While Business Objects provides connectors and APIs for integration, compatibility issues may arise, particularly when working with non-SAP systems or legacy applications.

  4. Performance and Scalability: Depending on the size and complexity of the data being analyzed, Business Objects may experience performance issues, especially when dealing with large volumes of data or complex queries. Scaling the platform to accommodate growing data volumes and user concurrency can also be challenging and may require additional hardware resources or architectural changes.

  5. Dependency on SAP Infrastructure: Business Objects is tightly integrated with the SAP ecosystem, which means organizations already using SAP software may benefit from seamless integration but could face limitations if they wish to integrate with non-SAP systems or migrate to alternative BI platforms in the future.

  6. Limited Self-Service Capabilities: While Business Objects provides powerful reporting and analytics capabilities, its self-service features may not be as robust as those offered by other BI platforms. Users may require assistance from IT or data analysts to create and customize reports, limiting agility and autonomy in data exploration and analysis.

  7. Lack of Innovation and Community Support: Some users and industry analysts have criticized Business Objects for its perceived lack of innovation compared to other BI platforms in the market. Updates and new features may be slower to roll out, and community support and resources may be less extensive compared to more popular BI platforms with larger user communities.

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About InetSoft

Since 1996 InetSoft has been delivering easy, agile, and robust business intelligence software that makes it possible for organizations and solution providers of all sizes to deploy or embed full-featured business intelligence solutions. Application highlights include visually-compelling and interactive dashboards that ensure greater end-user adoption plus pixel-perfect report generation, scheduling, and bursting. InetSoft's patent pending Data Block™ technology enables productive reuse of queries and a unique capability for end-user defined data mashup. This capability combined with efficient information access enabled by InetSoft's visual analysis technologies allows maximum self-service that benefits the average business user, the IT administrator, and the developer. InetSoft solutions have been deployed at over 5,000 organizations worldwide, including 25% of Fortune 500 companies, spanning all types of industries.

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